Classical Music - Reviews by Gill Sans

Classical Music - Reviews by Gill Sans

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
Gill Sans SUBS ● 22nd Jun 2019		Classical Item Richard Souther - Vision: The Music Of Hildegard Von Bingen (1994)	Review New-Age and Ambient reinterpretatiion of Hildegard's work. Sitar, bells and deep synthesised bass. Very pretty solo singing by Emily van Evera with vocalese background by Sister Germaine Fritz, but not what Early Music listeners would expect. Vision (full length) [YouTube Video] 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Gill Sans SUBS ● 20th May 2019		Classical Item Christopher Bono - Bardo (2018)	Review You will like this if you listen to a lot of new music, orchestra with near-silence, synths, guitar, bells and drones. At times it reminds me of Stravinsky with a little less of the fire. Very New-World Mystical. Christopher Bono explains how this album came about [YouTube Video] 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Gill Sans SUBS ● 2nd Mar 2019		Classical Item The Clerkes Of Oxenford - Orlando Gibbons Church Music (1987)	Review David Wulstan has taken scholarly care in tracing and reconstructing the scores and the texts of several pieces heard here. He has also taken an "authentic" approach to the voicings used, using some very fine boy trebles for the very high parts, and countertenors for the "mean" parts as was common practice in the 16th Century, and giving a recognisably "English" choral sound. Several of these compositions for use in the Church live on to this day as hymn tunes. His Hymne or Song No. 1 was first used for the hymn Now Shall the Praises of the Lord be Sung and nowadays is better known as the tune for Eternal Ruler of the Ceaseless Round and more recently for Where is Death's Sting, We Were Not Born to Die. It is also used for the Communion hymn O Thou, Who at Thy Eucharist Did Pray. Song 20 is used for My Lord, my Life, my Love, Song 5 for Father of Heaven, Whose Love Profound, for Strong Son of God, Immortal Love, and Song 22 for Love of the Father, Love of God the Song Song 9 is used for the hymn Victim Divine, Thy Grace we claim. Sung here as Come, Kiss Me With Those Lips Of Thine it is more generally known as Song 34, Angels' Song for the hymn Forth in Thy name, O Lord I go. Song 13 is used for Jesu, Grant me This, I Pray, No.67 for Give Me the Wings of Faith, Song 24 for O Word Immortal of Eternal God. Song 4 has been used for the 20th Century hymn Come, Risen Lord, and Deign to be our Guest. Hymns and Songs 1, 20, 31, 5 & 22 [YouTube Video] 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Gill Sans SUBS ● 26th Feb 2019		Classical Item The Girls And Men Of Sheffield Cathedral Choir - Crux Fidelis: Music For Passiontide And Easter (2002)	Review John Blow preceded and succeeded Henry Purcell at St Paul's Cathedral and the two were mutually influential, as we can hear in his beautiful setting of Salvator Mundi [YouTube Video] The glorious, tranquil Crux Fidelis is attributed to John IV, King of Portugal but no original manuscript exists, and it appears to have been written, or re-written, and first published in France in 1869. [YouTube Video] 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Gill Sans SUBS ● 2nd Feb 2019		Classical Item Magdalen College Choir, Oxford, Dr John Harper - The English Anthem Collection 1540-1998 (2000)	Review O Lord, the Maker of Al Thing was a prayer written by King Henry VIII and set to music by John Joubert in 1953. As a prayer of intercession it is placid and laudatory but Joubert's setting with its archaic text and sombre organ chords turns it into something deeply troubled and full of foreboding. Superficially tiresome, with repeated hearings it becomes a compelling anthem for use in Church. O Lorde, the maker of al thing, we pray Thee nowe in this Evening us to defende through Thy mercy, from al deceite of our en'my. Let neither us deluded be, good Lorde, with dreams or phantasy, oure hearts wakyng in Thee Thou kepe, that we in sinne fal not on slepe. O Father, throughe Thy blessed Sonne, grant us this oure petition, to whom with the Holy Ghost alwaies in heav'n and yearth be laude and praise. (2023) YouTube video now unavailable 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Gill Sans SUBS ● 4th Nov 2018		Classical Item All Saints Church Choir, Elton, Bury - Sing Joyfully To God (1976)	Review Elton is close to the centre of Bury and the original All Saints Church was deconsecrated about 1997 and is now fashionable apartments, but in 1976 it had supported a very good choir. There were no women choristers at the time of this recording, though there had been for a few years previously. I was loaned this record by a friend who had sung there earlier, and on playing it my expectations were greatly exceeded. The choir is here supported by a fine organ (by Jardine), with that sought-after attribute of never going sharp following unaccompanied verses! William Thomas brings a good sense of dynamics to the works, while the intonantion is never in doubt. The record starts with the hymn Glorious Things Of Thee Are Spoken, to the tune "Austria" by Haydn. Psalm 75 is sung to the familiar Chant by George Elvey. The hymn Bright The Vision That Delighted is not sung to the stated tune but to "Redhead" by Richard Redhead, with two verses unaccompanied and two with the descant arrangement by Percy Whitlock. Good King Wenceslas uses the familiar arrangement by Reginald Jaques The recording quality is a little variable, sometimes having the organ in the background, at other times nicely balanced; some quiet tracks reveal a persistent rattling noise, but overall the sound is good. If there had been a follow-up record they would be worthy of commercial release on a CD, which I would gladly buy. 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Gill Sans SUBS ● 7th Aug 2018		Classical Item The Choir Of St Michael's College, Tenbury - Torches: Favourite Christmas Carols (1984)	Review A welcome selection of Christmas carols, ranging from the most familiar to the contemporary, all sung in the best Cathedral tradition. The compositions are predominantly from the 20th Century but their origins range across the centuries. Joubert's glorious carol gives the album its title and is a delight to hear. The first track is taken at a more stately pace than usual, and Joseph And The Angel also is notably lento. The most recent composition, The Lamb, had already established itself in the Christmas repertoire and the young choristers here handle the very modern harmonies with ease. Accompanied by detailed notes on the compositions, and the notes on the history of the Carol are worth a read. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Gill Sans SUBS ● 4th Mar 2018		Classical Item Christopher Glynn, Ailish Tynan, Catherine Wyn-rogers, Roderick Williams - Michael Head: Songs (2012)	Review Poems by several authors have been set to music by Michael Head and here they are performed by different soloists accompanied by Christopher Glynn. The resulting songs range from jolly to tragic 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Gill Sans SUBS ● 23rd Feb 2018		Classical Item Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Bill Connor - The Tall Ships Suite, Ocean Fantasia, Voyager (1992)	Review Cheerful and narrative scores which would serve a film or documentary by describing the scenes as they unfurl. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Gill Sans SUBS ● 7th Nov 2017		Classical Item Theatre Of Voices, The King's Noyse - Thomas Tallis: Lamentations, Motets, String Music (1995)	Review A delightful selection of the lamentational and the cheerful, either sung by Theatre Of Voices or played by The King's Noyse. Some will be familiar, as with the short anthem If Ye Love Me, and in particular with "Why Fum'th In Sight" which has become widely known for the tune used by Vaughan Williams as his Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis. What exactly is a Solfing Song? Played here as an instrumental, "solfing" probably referred to the then fashionable art of Solfège or instruction in singing. The set closes appropriately with the plainsong hymn for Compline, Te Lucis Ante Terminum [YouTube Video] [YouTube Video] By contrast, the Eighth Tune is relatively cheerful and relatively unknown. [YouTube Video] 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Gill Sans SUBS ● 28th Oct 2017		Classical Item John Alldis (Cantor) And Choir With William Davies (Organ) - 20th Century Folk Mass (1957)	Review Syncopated and jazzy, cantor and choir singing call and response accompanied by Hammond organ, this is very much a Mass of its time 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Gill Sans SUBS ● 17th Oct 2017		Classical Item Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - Alan Hovhaness (1987)	Review In a blind hearing I would have guessed "Egyptian light orchestral". Throughout, this has an undefined oriental feel, all the tracks being based strongly on a 5-tone scale but not the familiar Western pentatonic scale. Hovhaness is of Armenian descent and has travelled in India and the Far East, studying the classical music of the countries he visited: the tracks here were from that later period. Of the track Fra Angelico he writes in the notes: The music begins in a free non-rhythm canon for 3 solo violins playing sliding melodies suggesting celestial music. A religious adoration to the universe is sung by cellos. Music of controlled chaos, each player performing an independent melodic line at his own speed, grows into a wild climax of strings, woodwinds, trombone glissandi, horns and trumpets. Colliding, clangorous bell-sounds combine with a canon in brass. The adoration returns, majestically intoned, the last chord held above free-rushing basses. The music rises into mysterious non-rhythm canons of sliding celestial sounds. [YouTube Video] 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Gill Sans SUBS ● 3rd Jul 2017		Classical Item Richard Zimmermann - Excerpts From Treemonisha	Review The piano transcriptions are arranged by Zimmermann. He plays them in a sedate manner, making the dances quite stately. Only "We're Going Around" provides a brief lively Ragtime passage 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Gill Sans SUBS ● 15th Jun 2017		Classical Item Bl!ndman - Dust Makes Damage (1998)	Review Bl!ndman is a Belgian music collective, which was started in 1988 as a saxophone quartet. The group was founded by saxophonist Eric Sleichim, taking the name from the magazine The Blind Man (1917) by Marcel Duchamp. Latterly Sleichim has used different instruments and has collaborated with dance and theatre artists. (From Wikipedia) The style on this album is free-form improvisation, with some tracks using unpitched percussive and breathing effects created on the instruments 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Gill Sans SUBS ● 27th Mar 2016		Classical Item Various Artists - Sullivan: A Phonograph Cylinder Collection (2009)	Review The transcriptions used for this disc were made by D. Combe using a Archeophone and had already been published on a CD for the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society. Andrew Rose applied a range of digital restoration procedures, achieving an impressive degree of reduction of 'surface noise', distortion and tonal coloration, allowing a fidelity of reproduction which could not have been imagined at the time the cylinders were made. The reproduction quality varies from the 'archaeological' to a quality acceptable by the standards of early 78s, possessing at best a recorded frequency range exceeding that of acoustically recorded 78s. This allows an informed assessment of the musical standards and worth of the tracks, which would have been made as a commercial proposition for after-dinner entertainment in the homes of the upper middle classes. We know little about the professional status of the performers, most likely seasoned musicians working outside of their regular evening engagements. The accents of the singers now sound comically affected, not helped by their need to sing FFF throughout. The brass bands were better favoured by the new medium, and the bombastic quasi-military band names were typical of such performances throughout the entire shellac era. The full notes on the performances and their transcription are available on Pristine Classical. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Gill Sans SUBS ● 31st Jan 2016		Classical Item Choir Of St. John's College, Cambridge - Britten: Rejoice In The Lamb; Hymn To St Cecelia (2000)	Review Rejoice In The Lamb must be one of Britten's least accessible works: it conveyed little to me until I had occasion to sing in the Chorus, whereupon it leapt to life, revealing the confused, intelligent, excited but fearful mind of Christopher Smart who wrote the work as a poem while he was confined in St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics between 1757 and 1763. Britten's reading of this troubled mind transcends mere stereotype, as though he had known someone go through a manic episode in the way that Smart had Robinson is directing a traditional Men and Boys Cathedral Choir here, and the clarity of diction is impeccable. The fast pace and the choir composition suit my own understanding of the piece and Rejoice In The Lamb is recorded in full [YouTube Video] 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?

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