Cello Britten

Both Benjamin Britten and his teacher Frank Bridge at one point owned the Giussani viola played by Hélène Clément on this album, which features pieces the two composers wrote for the instrument. The most substantial work here, Britten’s Lachrymae, is a series of pensive variations on a theme by John Dowland and is performed evocatively by Clément. In the Elegy, also by Britten, the Giussani viola’s special eloquence is evident in its deep tonal resonance and vivid responsiveness to Clément’s pizzicatos. Mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly’s stirring performance of Bridge’s Three Songs is another highlight, as is the vein of aching sadness Clément finds in another of Bridge’s works, There Is a Willow Grows Aslant a Brook.

Moondog - Sidewalk Dances - Joanna MacGregor & Britten Sinfonia (2006) {SoundCircus 2564 68437-4}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 229 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 104 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 14 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2006 SoundCircus / Warner Classics & Jazz | 2564 68437-4
Classical / Jazz / Avant-Garde Music / International / Modern Composition / Vocal Music / Minimalism

The cult figure Moondog, who performed on the streets of New York for over 30 years, meshed jazz, classical, Native American rhythms and poetry. With a lifelong fascination for the strict rules of canon-writing, and dubbed the father of minimalism, he composed more than eighty symphonies, three hundred rounds, countless percussion, organ and piano pieces, scores for brass bands and string orchestras, and five books called The Art of the Canon. Joanna MacGregor's stunning new arrangements of fourteen of Moondog's most famous pieces are re-imaginings for larger forces, with a spectacular line-up of some of today's most cutting-edge jazz musicians, along with the brilliant Britten Sinfonia. Radically rewritten, each track retains Moondog's irresistible trademarks - short and snappy, of the street, melodic and joyful, and characterized by a pounding beat.

Long recognized as an outstanding chamber musician, Anthony Marwood has more recently been making waves as a concerto soloist, with two contributions to the Romantic Violin Concerto series and now a disc of Britten with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Ilan Volkov. The youthful Violin Concerto, with its mix of anguished lyricism and changeability of mood nods to both Berg (whose own Violin Concerto had made a profound impression on Britten) and Prokofiev but the result is entirely personal.

Soon after his return from America, at the height of the war in 1943, Britten wrote incidental music for a radio play by Edward Sackville-West on the Homeric subject of Odysseus’s return to Penelope. Drawn from the complete score with barely any amendment of the original, and compressed into a 36-minute cantata, with Chris de Souza tailoring the text and Colin Matthews, Britten’s last amanuensis, most tactfully editing the music, the result is extraordinarily powerful. The most important role is that of the narrator, here masterfully taken by Dame Janet Baker who brings the story vividly to life despite the stylized classical language (e.g. “Odysseus, Lord of sea-girt Ithaca” or “His fair wife, white-armed Penelope”). Rather confusingly Athene also appears as a soprano, with the radiant Alison Hagley sounding totally unlike Dame Janet. She is one of a godly quartet of singers who contribute Greek-style commentaries – vocal passages which regularly add to the atmospheric beauty of the piece.

Benjamin Britten - War Requiem / Sinfonia da Requiem / Ballad of Heroes
Heather Harper, Philip Langridge, Martyn Hill, John Shirley-Quirk; London Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox
2xCD | EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 567 MB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Chandos # CHSA 5007(2) | Country/Year: UK 1991
Genre: Classical | Style: Contemporary, Sacred, Vocal, Oratorio

"…Hickox's set has achieved the status of a classic for Britten recordings." ~sa-cd.net

Benjamin Britten - War Requiem / Sinfonia da Requiem / Ballad of Heroes
Heather Harper, Philip Langridge, Martyn Hill, John Shirley-Quirk; London Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox
2xCD | EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 567 MB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Chandos # CHSA 5007(2) | Country/Year: UK 1991
Genre: Classical | Style: Contemporary, Sacred, Vocal, Oratorio

"…Hickox's set has achieved the status of a classic for Britten recordings." ~sa-cd.net