Tag Archives: cd

Like Flesh

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So another rather interesting chamber opera from Europe has come my way.  It’s Like Flesh; music by Sivan Eldar and English language libretto by Cordelia Lynn.  It’s 80 minutes long and uses three soloists, a chorus of six and an eight piece instrumental group plus electronics.  It’s sort of a modern ecological take on Ovid’s idea of a woman turning into a tree.  Here the woman is unhappily married to the Forester who buys into the basic idea that Nature exists to serve humans and is a willing accomplice in environmental degradation.  There’s also a female student who is studying the forest and is discovering much that isn’t covered in the classroom.  The transformation takes place against a back drop of destructive wild fires and the wanton felling of woodland to make way for concrete.  Given the subject matter, the libretto is really quite poetic. Continue reading →

Judita

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Frano Parać’s opera Judita is unusual in at least one respect.  The libretto is in Old Croatian and is based on a 1501 epic poem by Marko Marulić, in turn based on the Book of Judith so the story is the familiar one about Judith and Holofernes.  It’s quite short; around 70 minutes, and it follows the biblical story pretty closely.

It premiered in Split in 2000 (both Parać and Marulić are/were from the city) but the recording was made at a live concert performance in Munich in 2023.  It’s a pretty interesting piece.  The music is clearly modern but essentially tonal.  It’s got lots of energy and is sometimes quite grand and dramatic but also with quieter moments.  There are elements of minimalism, especially in the rather declamatory and percussive music given to the Assyrian soldiers. Continue reading →

Sky of My Heart

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New York Polyphony are a quartet of singers; Geoffrey Williams – counter-tenor, Steven Caldicott Wilson and Andrew Fuchs – tenors and Craig Phillips – bass.  On Sky of My Heart they mostly sing unaccompanied but are joined by the LeStrange Viols (Loren Ludwig and John Mark Rozendaal – treble viol, Kivie Cahn-Lipman – tenor viol, Zoe Weiss and Douglas Kelley – bass viol).

The album is a mix of Renaissance and contemporary pieces; most of the latter composed for NYP.  They are very good singers with terrific control and a very clean largely vibrato free sound that works well for most of the music on the disk.  Some of the material is religious; William Byrd’s setting of Ecce quam bonum, Becky McGlade’s setting of Prudentius’ Of the Father’s Love Begotten and Ivan Moody’s settings of three excerpts from the Song of Songs.  All of these are unaccompanied in a churchy sort of style. Continue reading →

Bach’s Goldberg Variations on two guitars

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One tree, two guitars, one sound. This was the creative mission for Hugo Cuvilliez, guitar-maker and wood-whisperer from the Drôme region of south-eastern France: to honour the essence of a partnership with the sonic unity of one and the same instrument.

This was the vision of Thibault Garcia and Antoine Morinière; guitarists at the Paris Conservatory.  The goal, to create a version of Bach’s Goldberg Variations in which each guitarist becomes one hand of the keyboard.  Each on a sonically identical instrument.  It’s fascinating because it’s close to, but not exactly like, the piece played on a harpsichord.  And it is beautifully played.

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Hail! Bright Cecilia

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Château de Versailles Spectacles have produced a really classy period instruments recording of Purcell’s Hail! Bright Cecilia with a bonus of Blow’s Welcome Every Guest.  The band s La Poème Harmonique under the direction of their founder Vincent Dumestre.  It’s a very authentic period sound and the small chorus is precise and sings in excellent English.

The Blow piece is short but but interesting and it gets a sprightly and almost jazzy reading.  Both baritone Tomáš Král and teHugo Hymas are excellent and have perfect English,  “The sacred Nine” is particularly enjoyable.

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Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson remastered

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In 2003, in conjunction of a revival of Peter Sellars’production of Handel’s Theodora at Glyndebourne ,Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson went into the studio and recorded a Handel album with Harry Bicket and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.  That album was released to great acclaim in 2004.  It’s now been remastered and the new version will be available on October 17th.

The album contains all of Irene’s music from Theodora including superb versions of “As with rosy steps the morn” and “Lord, to Thee, each night and day”.  There’s also the cantata Lucrezia where she is accompanied by Harry Bicket on harpsichord & chamber organ, Stephen Stubbs on 10-course lute and Baroque guitar, Phoebe Carrai on cello and Margriet Tindemans on viola da gamba.  There are also two arias from Serse; “Se bramate d’amar, chi vi sdegna” and “Ombra mai fu”. Continue reading →