Movements

This may be more Move than the casual fan wants, but it's not just another rehashed collection. From the remastered sound to the presence of various outtakes (including lost live tracks), the 30th anniversary triple-disc Movements is as definitive a set as we'll ever have on this band, containing everything except for the Message From the Country album…

This may be more Move than the casual fan wants, but it's not just another rehashed collection. From the remastered sound to the presence of various outtakes (including lost live tracks), the 30th anniversary triple-disc Movements is as definitive a set as we'll ever have on this band, containing everything except for the Message From the Country album. Disc one consists of the group's early singles plus The Move album and one outtake ("Disturbance"), all sounding really clear and tough, the loudest psychedelic pop music you'll ever hear out of England. Disc two contains the complete Shazam album, as well as alternate stereo or undubbed mixes of such songs as "Cherry Blossom Clinic," "(Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree," "Fire Brigade," and an Italian-sung version of "Something." The sound is OK, with brilliant delineation on the guitars and basses…

A new set by British saxophonist and composer Andy Sheppard is always a welcome proposal, but his 13th album, and 14th release overall, also happens to be his debut for ECM. The association is a long one, indirectly, since Sheppard recorded a dozen albums with Carla Bley's band on WATT, which is manufactured and distributed by ECM. The music on Movements in Colour is an ambitious, but utterly lyrical blend of Latin, Middle Eastern, and post-bop, and it is realized by musicians such as jazz guitarist John Parricelli (who plays acoustically here) and tabla player Kuljit Bhamra – members of Sheppard's regular quartet – guitarist and electronic musician Eivind Aarset, and double bassist Arild Andersen, who also plays some electronics.

Except for the not-quite-one-minute Greeting Prelude for Pierre Monteux’s eightieth birthday, the Symphony in Three Movements was Stravinsky’s last work for big orchestra and in the big-orchestra style. That was a style in which Stravinsky had not worked for years. At the work’s premiere, the densely packed orchestral sonority came in for a good deal of comment, as did the unbridled physical energy of the first and third movements. In the 1930s and 1940s, it was widely assumed that the old Stravinsky was dead, and the rugged sounds and exciting syncopations of the new Symphony raised hopes that the effete Parisian neoclassicist had, thank heaven, reverted to his sacrale Russian roots. (Of course the brash—and so American—final chord was much remarked upon, disapprovingly.)

Josquin des Prez - Motets & Mass movements - The Brabant Ensemble, Stephen Rice (2021) {Hyperion CDA68321}
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© 2021 Hyperion UK | CDA68321
Classical / Renaissance / Polyphony / Choral

Biographical and musicological certainties may be in short supply in the life and work of Josquin, but there’s no gainsaying the magnificence of the music recorded here: a programme of shorter works, most in unusual guise, to celebrate his 500th anniversary.

Per Nørgård has been hailed as the leading Danish contemporary composer and has often been described as eclectic. With this recording, the reasons for that will likely be evident both to listeners who are familiar with this celebrated composer and those who are new to his stylings. Nørgård has written in many genres – chamber music, concertos, operas, and orchestral music, including eight symphonies – and has drawn inspiration from a myriad of sources, such as the symphonies of Sibelius and Vagn Holmboe, jazz, artist Adolf Wölfli, and serialism, even taking the latter to a new level with his "infinity row," which, in turn, inspired numerous composers that followed.

In his new album 'Movements', George Li highlights both their structure and their dancing spirit: the 18 movements of Schumann’s 'Davidsbündlertänze' & 'Arabeske in C major', Ravel’s 8 'Valses nobles et sentimentales' and three movements from Stravinsky’s score for the ballet 'Petruskha'.