Woodcock Johnson IV

This selection of chamber music by leading Portuguese composer Pedro Faria Gomes was written between 2007 and 2018. The works encompass themes of memory, change and waiting, with the concept of time being a central preoccupation. Though he has drawn on music from his country’s folk traditions – in Memória and in the Sonata – it is always with new harmonic insights and subtlety, creating undeniably invigorating additions to contemporary chamber music repertoire.

In musical notation in Germany, the letter ‘h’ is used to represent the note b natural. So, the name ‘Bach’ forms an elegant phrase of two pairs of falling semitones. This proved an inspiration to Johann Sebastian, whose musical ‘signature’ appears again and again throughout his extensive output. Two shining examples are included on this album – the ‘unfinished fugue’ Contrapunctus XIV à 4 from Die Kunst der Fuge (as completed by Lionel Rogg) and the exquisite Ricercar à 6 from Musikalisches Opfer. Bach’s signature – as well as musical invention – has directly influenced scores of other composers down the years, as evidenced by the works included here, from Mendelssohn to Karg-Elert. The organist and, from 2008 until 2021, Assistant Director of Music at St Paul’s Cathedral, Simon Johnson has used his knowledge and insight to construct this programme to demonstrate the extraordinary range and scope of the cathedral’s organ. Expertly recorded by the Chandos technical team, this album provides an outstanding testament to this fine instrument and to the unique acoustic of the world-renowned cathedral in which it sits.

This album is particularly close to my heart because it contains music written especially for me; the composers have paid me the great compliment of writing with my playing in mind, in some cases collaborating closely with me, in others simply prese nting me with a finished work, and in all cases creating a distinctive, English piece which makes a worthwhile addition to the repertoire for solo clarinet with orchestra. These four composers have all also dared to write melodically whilst still managing to find new things to say. Does it take courage to write melodically? Well, yes, when you live in an age where art has to be forever stretching boundaries to be taken seriously. However English Fantasy contains music which I hope will entertain and move a contemporary audience whilst unapologetically rooting itself in the traditions of the past.

The Choir of Westminster Cathedral is the crowning jewel of Catholic church music and has been at the forefront of English sacred music since its foundation in 1901. This new disc draws us into the mystery of the Paschal Vigil, the very apex of the Church’s liturgical year, transporting us on a journey from darkness into light through a sequence of plainsong and polyphony. It is the first album under the choir’s current director, Simon Johnson, picking up where Vexilla Regis (AF002) left off, and immerses the listener in the Cathedral’s own unique treasury of liturgical music, including compositions crafted by its former musicians, as well as repertoire at the heart of the choir’s work, represented here in polyphony by Victoria, Monteverdi and L’Héritier’s glorious Surrexit pastor bonus.