The sale sheet for this release list three unique selling points: 1) Debut CD 2) Very young artist 3) Repertoire exclusively by female composers Only the last point captured my interest. And when I researched the release, I discovered they omitted a compelling fourth: the entire project was crowdfunded. Personally, I think this debut release […]
Chamber music
-
-
Eleanor Alberga – Wild Blue Yonder is exceptional
This Navonna release is the follow-up to Alberga’s String Quartet album. And it solidifies her talent in the realm of chamber music. The four compositions in the program span about twenty-two years, and an equally wide range of subjects. The disc opens and closes with works for violin and piano. The performers are Eleanor Alberger, […]
-
Nightingale Quartet starts Vagn Holmboe series
Danish composer Vagn Holmboe completed 20 string quartets, each a deeply personal statement. I applaud the Nightingale String Quartet for undertaking a traversal of these works. Holmboe was a 20th Century composer, but he didn’t necessarily follow its trends. Holmboe wrote in a mostly neo-classical style. In his mature period (which he began writing quartets), […]
-
Neumeyer Consort entertains with Boismortier
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier was sometimes called the French Telemann — and with good reason. Like his namesake, Boismortier had a facility for composition, producing a seemingly unending stream of music with ease. And like Telemann, it wasn’t just hackwork. Boismortier knew what the public wanted — and wrote accordingly. But he did so without […]
-
Dreams of a New Day – Songs of the Black Experience
This is an important album. Its concept and execution make it so. Baritone Will Liverman has assembled a program of art songs by Black composers spanning over a hundred years. Each composer used the foundation of the classical art song. And each created something different that enriches the genre. Liverman commissioned Shawn E. Okpebholo’s “Two […]
-
London Brass excel with Edward Gregson release
Edward Gregson is world-renowned for his brass compositions. This release features some of his best. In 2008 Gregson from the Royal Northern College of Music to compose full-time. I think it significant that most of the works here are post-retirement. The Symphony in two movements, for example, was written in 2012, and revised in 2014 […]
-
El Canto del Cisne Negro – Latin-American music that merits attention
In the liner notes, the artists write they’re presenting “a collection of largely unknown works for violoncello and piano from Latin America…[These composers] traveled to Europe, where they found themselves torn between their admiration for the culture and their nostalgia for… their own cultural roots. We share their experience, and their music resonated deeply with […]
-
New England Trios make a solid program
Joel Pitchon, Marie-Volcuy Pelletier, and Y-Mei Wei had a very specific program in mind for this recording. In the liner notes, they state that they wanted piano trios that “spoke with an American, and even more narrowly, a New England voice.” In the end their focus was even tighter. The four piano trios on this […]
-
Robert Furstenthal Chamber Music Volume 3 maintains quality
This latest installment of Furstenthal’s music features four instrumental sonatas and a string quartet. Like the preceding volumes, the music here is of very fine quality, and timeless. Furstenthal’s promising musical career was derailed when Austria was invaded in 1838. The young composer fled to the United States — and never wrote another note. Not […]