John Rose

John Corigliano is a difficult composer to pin down stylistically. The generally tonal orientation of his music and the cinematic quality that made his score for The Red Violin such a success have brought him a beloved status rare among contemporary composers. Yet, it would be wrong to call him neo-Romantic; his music has deep rigor and sometimes, as in the Symphony No. 2 on offer here, a quite grim quality. This 2022 release from the Boston Modern Orchestra does not include his most famous works – The Red Violin in either its film score or violin concertos forms, The Ghosts of Versailles, or the Symphony No. 1 – but it offers an excellent window into the richness of Corigliano's music, in which a great variety of elements collide in unexpected ways. One of those elements is quotation, on display in the opening work, To Music; it is based on Schubert's song An die Musik, which is assembled with great subtlety over five and a half minutes.

Stuart Saunders Smith - A River Rose: Music for Violin - Airi Yoshioka (2014) {New World Records 80754-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 272 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 161 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 24 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2014 New World Records | 80754-2
Classical / Modern Classical / Experimental / Avant-Garde

Stuart Saunders Smith (b. 1948) describes himself as "a confessional composer who focuses on revealing in his music the most personal aspects of his life, in the belief that the revelations of the particular speak to the universal." These six works feature the violin, unaccompanied and in a chamber context, and span four decades of compositional activity.

Red Byrd is certainly among the most unusual ensembles before the public today: at its core are two singers, a tenor and bass, who typically engage the services of other vocalists or choral groups, and/or employ the accompaniment of various instrumentalists or instrumental ensembles. It has performed much early music repertory both in concert, including festival appearances, and on recordings.

Excellent album steeped in the Southern California country-rock sound of the '70s, with all the usual suspects – Danny Kortchmar, Waddy Wachtel, Kenny Edwards, and Russ Kunkel, producer Peter Asher – all Ronstadt veterans, plus Glenn Frey and Don Henley from the Eagles) in place on such songs as "Faithless Love," "Simple Man, Simple Dream," and "Silver Blue".

John Ward - Upon a Bank with Roses: Consort Music
Classical, Renaissance | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 410 MB
Recorded: 7-10 Apr. 1998, Forde Abbey, Somerset, UK | TT: 71:38
Released: 2003 | Label: cpo 999 928 | RS
Rose Consort of Viols (John Bryan, Alison Crum, Sarah Groser,
Roy Marks, Susanna Pell, Peter Wendland)

The Rose Consort of Viols was created to play music like this, and the collective and individual virtuosity of the six performers on this disc are on full display throughout the generous (72-minute) program. Particularly satisfying are the selections with organ, whose unique colours add another, very sonorous dimension to the viols' already warm, ear-pleasing consonance. The sound, from the very complementary acoustics of Forde Abbey, is appropriately full-bodied yet intimate. (David Vernier, classicstoday.com)