Wherein Byzantine Chant Meets Sarum Liturgy

CAPPELLA ROMANA uses its 30th album to honor a little-known occasion when the Byzantine Emperor celebrated Christmas at the English court in Eltham, circa 1400 A.D.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Sounds To Silence The Din of Discord

Three JULIANA HALL-composed songs cycles--based on verses by Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson and Marianne Moore--are masterfully rendered on LOVE'S SIGNATURE.
by David McGee
 

 

 

To The Birthday Bard, Ever Young at 450

Commemorating Shakespeare's 450th birthday, the ULSTER ORCHESTRA, under the direction of conductor JoAnn Falletta, offers two timeless Bard-related compositions by JOHN KNOWLES PAINE.
by David McGee
 

 
 

A Composer Reclaims His Faith

Classical editor ROBERT HUGILL considers CALUM BUILDER's 'Messe (You Are Where You Want to Be), a work which deconstructs the Latin mass to explore the composer's own journey, deconstructing and reconstructing his relationship ...
by David McGee
 

 

 

Echoes From A Distant Time

IN ECHO , an ensemble devoted to 16th and 17th century music, offers MUSIC IN A COLD CLIMATE, a selection of songs from a time when the seafaring nations of Northern Europe were connected culturally and commercially by the Hans...
by David McGee
 

 
 

The Lost Instruments of Antiquity

ROBERT HUGILL reviews RICHARD BOOTHBY's Alfonso Ferrabosco: Music for the Lyra Viol and JULIAN PERKINS's Handel's Attick: Music for Solo Clavichord
by David McGee
 

 

 

Bach by Thile (Not Thile Does Bach)

It was inevitable: after flirting with Bach for his entire professional career, CHRIS THILE has released a solo album of the Baroque giant's Sonatas & Partitas. Reviewer CHRSITINE N. LAYTON hails it as a big winner.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Catherine (of Aragon) and Henry (VIII) Dancing? Imagine!

The ROSE CONSORT OF VIOLS, with mezzo-soprano CLARE WILKINSON, are dazzling on a new disc of music drawn from some of the earliest manuscripts surviving from the turn of the 16th Century.
by David McGee
 

 

 

Classical Perspectives: Richly Sophisticated

In life he was eclipsed by the shadow of his great pupil, Henry Purcell, and ensuing centuries have seen the 17th century composer JOHN BLOW nigh on to completely forgotten. Until this glorious moment.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Aesthetically Unified as One Romantic Brotherhood

On RHEINMÄDCHEN, France's all-female vocal chorus ENSEMBLE PYGMALION, conducted by RAPHAEL PICHON, assays, with an invigorating twist, Wagner, Schubert, Schumann, Johannes Brahms and others.
by David McGee
 

 

 

‘As long as you can look fearlessly at the sky, you’ll know you’re pure within’

Introduced on stage in 2005, James Whitbourn's Annelies, the first adaptation of Anne Frank's diary into a large-scale choral work, will at last be released on CD on Jan. 22. Here's our preview of the first important recording ...
by David McGee
 

 
 

Guitar Majesty

A set of delightfully evocative pieces for guitar duos composed by KEMAL BELEVI comprises a fine new album by DUO TANDEM, incisively reviewed by ROBERT HUGILL
by David McGee