Anthony Lazaro

Great chorus, weak soloists: thank heaven Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt, like his oratorio Messiah, is more a work for chorus with orchestra and vocal soloists than, like most of his other oratorios, a work for vocal soloists with orchestra and chorus. From a choral point of view, this 2006 recording by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe is indeed superlative. The international chorus sings with surprising unanimity, amazing cohesion, and impressive diction.

Esoteric Antenna is pleased to announce the release of “Strings Of Light”, the beautiful new album by GENESIS founding member ANTHONY PHILLIPS. For his first new album in seven years Anthony has composed and recorded the twenty-three pieces of music on this album, which span two CDs, utilising the many beautiful and rare guitars in his collection, all of which have made “Strings Of Light” one of the finest instrumental guitar albums of Anthony’s long and acclaimed career as a musician and composer.

Johan Helmich Roman (born 26 October 1694 in Stockholm, died 20 November 1758 on the Haraldsmåla estate in Småland) is one of Sweden’s most important composers of all time. He has been called ‘the father of Swedish music’, and with good reason. As chief conductor of the Royal Court Orchestra, composer, musician and teacher, Roman laid the ground for an increasingly rich music scene in 18th century Sweden. He was also the first Swedish composer to attain international status, and had a prolific musical output covering most of the genres of his time, instrumental and vocal, with the exception of opera and oratorios.

The first pleasant surprise here is the brightness and clarity of the radio broadcast sound; indeed, it is a bit too bright and harsh but better that than muddiness. There is evidently an audience who applaud at the end but otherwise there is no extraneous noise throughout. Secondly, there is the spring and bounce of the English Chamber Orchestra, alertly directed by Baroque specialist Sir Anthony Lewis. Thirdly we hear a first rate cast of splendid voices headed by Janet Baker, an array of voices unequalled in any of the other nine extant recordings.

Johan Helmich Roman was only 17 when he was accepted into the musicians of the Swedish royal chapel, but it was to be in England that he received much of his subsequent musical education. He returned to Sweden when he was 27 and was immediately appointed Deputy Master at the royal chapel, and six years became the Chief Master. During his early years of composition we can date very little, but from the 1720's his works are well documented, several cantatas being written for the royal court, with a particularly fine Feste Musicale coming from 1725.

Édouard Lassen never stopped composing. His copious oeuvre contains examples of almost every genre in favour in the second half of the 19th century, from piano pieces to operas, choral works, symphonic and concertante pieces. His international reputation was secured especially by his theatrical works. He also produced a regular and uninterrupted flow of over 260 songs from 1857 until his death in 1904. The small-scale song form was ideally suited to his temperament imbued with universalism, assuming a dual cultural heritage.

Charles Lloyd has long been a free spirit, master musician, and visionary. For more than 6 decades the legendary saxophonist and composer has loomed large over the music world, and at 84 years old he remains at the height of his powers and as prolific as ever. As a sound seeker, Lloyd’s restless creativity has perhaps found no greater manifestation than on his latest masterwork Trio of Trios, an expansive project that encompasses three albums, each a deft change of musical context that presents him in a different trio setting.

Anthony Goldstone assembles a piano program centered on Benjamin Britten. Beyond putting Britten's music in the middle of the recital, he also intelligently relates the rest of the works to Britten in some way. Goldstone begins with works of two of Britten's teachers, Frank Bridge and John Ireland, then follows a few short Britten pieces with a set of preludes by his friend and contemporary Lennox Berkeley, and works from the 1970s by Ronald Stevenson and Colin Matthews, who were inspired by Britten. It's a program that ranges from the freely passionate, rhapsodic Dramatic Fantasia of Bridge to the atonality and minimalism of Matthews. Each work or set of pieces takes full advantage of all the capabilities of the piano, whether it be lyrical melodies or percussive animation, crashing bass chords or delicate sparks at the top of the keyboard.

…The crystal-clear tone, thoughtful intonation and bright sparkle of this beautiful voice [Emma Kirkby] is unmistakable. The music is not so well known as it ought to be and Anthony Rooley, who accompanies here so tellingly, is adept at promoting lesser-known works.

"Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi" ("Madrigals Warlike and Amorous") is how Claudio Monteverdi titled his eighth and largest book of madrigals–which was actually two volumes in one. The "warlike madrigals" (concerned largely with the "war of love") feature the "agitated style" Monteverdi pioneered: quick, almost nervous writing, lots of rapidly repeated notes, and more syllables than a Gilbert & Sullivan patter song. These works culminate in the famous short quasi-opera Il Combattimento de Tancredi e Clorinda. The "amorous madrigals" are no less ardent, but they are less, well, warlike–that is, more leisurely paced, with plenty of chromaticism, dissonant suspensions, and giddily virtuosic runs to depict the pain and excitement of love.