Robert Matthew

Handel's Old Testament oratorios can be difficult to tell apart–tenor Israelite hero, bass enemy or éminence grise, soprano ingenue, and alto priest or youth. What distinguishes Joshua? Real characters: tenor Joshua, confident to the point of conceit; grizzled old general Caleb, wistfully facing retirement; alto Othniel, an excited young warrior/lover fighting battles to win Caleb's giddy daughter, Achsah. Joshua's highlights are the showpiece arias. James Bowman sails through Othniel's impetuous "Let danger surround me"; Emma Kirkby (one of the best ornamenters in the business) charms and fascinates in Achsah's "Oh, had I Jubal's lyre" and "Hark! 'tis the linnet"; George Ainsley is a Joshua both vigorous and graceful, the chorus and the brass are stunning in "Glory to God" as they bring the walls of Jericho tumbling down.

Throughout his composing career, from his Hamburg days onwards, Brahms was devoted to writing choral music, both religious and secular, superbly crafted. In their recording, Robert Jones and the Choir of St Bride’s, Fleet Street, give fresh, clear performances. They are beautifully scaled to give the illusion of church performance, helped by warm, atmospheric recording.

I believe that great art is often the product of great difficulty and tribulation, in many cases for the artist themselves. I also think art borne out of a time of societal turmoil can be even more profound, and can shed light today on what it was like to live and endure through tragedies of the past.

I believe that great art is often the product of great difficulty and tribulation, in many cases for the artist themselves. I also think art borne out of a time of societal turmoil can be even more profound, and can shed light today on what it was like to live and endure through tragedies of the past.

From the notes:"It is often said, not without justification, that Toscanini's performances stand out from those of his contemporaries for what might be called their (for the time) 'modern' approach, which is to say that the excesses of Romantic subjective interpretation were, generally speaking, not for him. What distinguished his readings principally is his extraordinary command of structure, realised through the appositeness of his chosen tempi, very rarely varied, and only then to make a definite musical point, almost as a punctuation in the overall schematic plan, allied to orchestral playing of considerable concentration and commitment. Toscanini never needed to indulge in jejune 'point-making' as an interpretative habit - nor did he countenance it in other conductors." written by Robert Matthew-Walker

All Carver's surviving works are contained in a large manuscript choirbook assembled over several decades and now housed in the National Library of Scotland. According to various inscriptions Carver describes himself as "dominus", "canonicus de Scona" and three times "alias Arnat". New information has recently come to light regarding the date of birth and later period of activity of the composer's life'. It now appears that Carver was born in 1484/5 and was still living in 1568. In musical terms Carver's life spans the shift in Britain from the late medieval decorative style to the progressive and internationally current structural imitation of the High Renaissance that seems to have taken place in Scotland in the 1520s and 30s. Of course there were many intervening stages along the way, in Carver's case some even appearing alongside one another in the same work.