Coinciding with Cecilia McDowall’s 70th year, this recent Hyperion disc crowns an already impressive series of recordings from Dutton Epoch that, with her keen sensitivity to text and grateful melodic…
Author: David Truslove
A new recording of Buxtehude and Schütz from Ensemble Correspondances
More often associated with the French Baroque, Ensemble Correspondances shifts its gaze to 17th-century German music to focus on contrasting Passion settings by Dietrich Buxtehude and Heinrich Schütz. Through its…
Lyric soprano Sandrine Piau takes flight in late-Romantic repertoire
The premise for this new issue from Alpha is supposedly the tension between light and dark, suggested in the French term ‘clair-obscur’, and explored through orchestral songs inclined towards a…
Proud Songsters: a luxury CD from alumni of King’s College, Cambridge
Compiled by nine former choral scholars of King’s College, Cambridge and recorded just before the worldwide pandemic transformed our lives, this anthology is a marvellous century-plus traversal of familiar and…
Formidable performances from singer/director Nathalie Stutzmann in Contralto
We’re used to thinking of castrati as the operatic superstars of the 18th century. Even today one can readily bring to mind the names Farinelli and Senesino from among hundreds…
Poulenc’s brilliantly observed La voix humaine given a stunning Wigmore performance
We’ve all been there: the heart-lurching response to the sound of the telephone, the bitter disappointment when a text message isn’t returned and the rapid descent into floor-pacing emotional disarray.…
I wonder as I wander: an assured debut from James Newby and Joseph Middleton
Recorded only five years since his graduation from Trinity Laban, this is an excellent debut CD from the not-yet-thirty-year-old James Newby, already with a string of prizes including the prestigious Kathleen…
Purcell Royal Odes: music for royalty superbly fashioned by The King’s Consort
Robert King has been addressing the music of Henry Purcell for over thirty years, and his ground-breaking anthology of odes and welcome songs begun in 1988 brought fresh insights to…
Pygmalion: Bach Motets
Issued last September but only recently brushing my radar, Pygmalion’s alpha-plus Bach disc is a revelation. Raphaël Pichon, founder of the specialist Baroque ensemble in 2006, has had a rewarding…