This disc is becoming something of a guilty pleasure for me. I keep putting it on when I should be reviewing something more serious. In truth there is nothing in the nine pieces on it that can be described as anything other than easy listening, though that does not mean they are bad or trivial. There is an abundance of gentle melody, as in the wistful title track, Veracruz by Lara, and an irresistible lilt to the music…
I have known Richard Blackford since we were at school together fifty years ago so I should, in those Parliamentary words, declare an interest. Whatever that interest, I still think he is one of the finest composers in Britain, unusually far better known in the rest of Europe and America than he is here, which is to his credit…
Don’t be put off by the title of this record. While the music is all slow (or slowish), thankfully it is not all religious; in fact none of it is, not even the movement from Korngold’s Serenade from which the title is lifted…
Anna Lapwood is one of those musicians that leaves most feeling exhausted before they read half way down her CV. Still only 25, she’s already been Director of Music at Pembroke for four years, presents on television, is an organ recitalist around the world and leads a music charity in Zambia. She also sings, plays the piano, violin and viola and composes – and of course, conducts. She probably rules several small countries in her spare time…
This recording has already won enough plaudits and prizes to fill a suitcase, which just goes to show that my colleague critics are not all the cloth-eared fools that others take us for. I’m going to go much further than them, though, and say that this is the best recording of Elgar’s Violin Concerto ever…
One of the splendid things about this disc is that, like the first three volumes in the series, it delivers much more than it promises. There is much more here than the two Welcome Songs for King Charles and his brother. There are anthems, instrumental interludes, drinking and theatre songs, several from the decade after Charles’s reign too. The Sixteen is also an excellent understatement. Nine singers are joined by a seventeen strong instrumental ensemble. The singers perform as soloists as well as choir, the players similarly…