Matthew Volkwyn

This second volume of Trombone Travels (Volume 1 is on 8574093) continues with Matthew Gee’s exploration of three great cycles of early 20th-century British song. Elgar’s Sea Pictures evoke lullaby and turbulence alike, Vaughan Williams’s Songs of Travel chart a wanderer’s lonely journey through the landscape, and in Songs of the Sea Stanford’s music embraces both the sombre and the exhilarating, with Gee joined by a trombone chorus to emulate the male voice choir. Throughout the recital Gee lavishes colouristic effects, the use of mutes, and subtle inflections that reinforce the trombone’s unique ability to mimic vocal techniques.

An album as an opera. Pop music is theatrical, it lives on stories, constantly creating new characters of art. In addition, no other style has changed and influenced music reception as enduringly as pop music. Most people can draw biographical references on the map of pop mu-sic. So, it seems high time to open the doors of the opera to a new visitor. With its symphonic elements, dramatic singing lines and ethereal choir vocals, Vespertine seems to be the perfect model for the complex project. OehmsClassics begins the new partnership with the Nationaltheater Mannheim (NTM Edition) with a bang. Rarely has a premiere in Germany experienced such a press echo as this, in May 2018.