The Complete Songs of Fauré Vol. 4: varied performances highlight vocal diversity

The final instalment of Signum’s four-part Fauré exploration comes, as previously, with the ever-reliable collaborator Malcolm Martineau.  This disc’s two dozen plus songs are shared by a luxury line-up of…

Restrained passions in West Green Opera’s Eugene Onegin

‘Being in love is a complicated matter; although anyone who is prepared to pretend that love is a simple, straightforward business is always in a strong position for making conquests’.…

Grayston Ives’s engaging Requiem

There’s a degree of inevitability that a composer who has made numerous contributions to the repertoire for church and cathedral choirs spanning some fifty years might want to add a…

El Nour: impressive debut CD by Fatma Said

There cannot be many sopranos whose debut CD takes the listener on a cultural tour around the Mediterranean.  And what a fascinating exploration this is by a rising star who…

The Sixteen release their fourth volume of Purcell’s Welcome Songs for King Charles II

Harry Christophers and The Sixteen have now reached volume 4 in their ongoing exploration of Henry Purcell’s Welcome Songs for Charles II.  Like the previous discs in the series, evolving…

Musically, a first-rate Midsummer Night’s Dream from The Grange Festival

Thank goodness for modern technology and sophisticated recording techniques, without which this production of Pears’s and Britten’s cherry-picked edit of Shakespeare’s play might have been scuppered.  A month before curtain-up…

Mixed performances in a recent St Matthew Passion from Accentus

Claims to create ‘a new and fresh perspective’ in the pre-release publicity for this St Matthew Passion are bold.  We are led to expect ‘raging choirs, intimate chorales and emotionally…

Rewarding performances from Philippe Herreweghe in three of J.S. Bach’s choral works

Every freshly minted disc from Philippe Herreweghe’s Collegium Vocale Gent prompts a rapturous fanfare.  We take for granted the quality of each recording venture from this 74-year-old Belgian, but how…

Lucile Richardot – a class act in Berio To Sing

This recent disc of Luciano Berio’s vocal music showcases the talents of the French mezzo-soprano Lucile Richardot and the vocal and instrumental ensemble Le Cris de Paris.  It begins with…

The music of celebrated American organist/choirmaster Gerre Hancock

This recent recording from New York’s Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys is an affectionate tribute to the work of Dr. Gerre Hancock (1934-2012).  The Texas-born musician was a…