Sarah Urwin Jones
Sarah Urwin Jones is an Edinburgh-based classical music and visual arts writer and critic, with bylines in The Herald and The Times. She is a regular critic for BBC Music Magazine. In 2016, she won the Scottish Book Trust's New Writers Award in Narrative Non-Fiction and was nominated for the Arts Foundation Fellowship in Creative Non-Fiction the following year. She studied History and French and Medieval Art History at the Universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews and the Sorbonne in Paris.
Recent articles by Sarah Urwin Jones
Mozart: Overtures
Mozart: Exsultate, jubilate etc
Bob Chilcott: Christmas Oratorio
Mozart: Symphonies Nos 31 & 35 etc
Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos etc (Yuja Wang)
Yuja Wang (piano); Los Angeles Philharmonic/Gustavo Dudamel (DG)
Spanish Light (Fullana/Ventura)
Francisco Fullana (violin), Alba Ventura (piano) (Orchid Classics)
An Old Hall Ladymass (Trio Mediaeval)
Trio Mediaeval; Catalina Vicens (organ) (2L)
Schubert: Symphonies Nos 8 & 9 (Dresden/Janowski)
Dresden Philharmonic/Marek Janowski (Pentatone)
A Mahler: Complete Songs
Elise Caluwaerts (soprano), Marianna Shirinyan (piano) (Fuga Libera)
Ailís Ní Ríain: The Last Time I Died
Paul Roe (bass clarinet), Laoise O’Brien (recorder), Evelyn Glennie, Tim Williams (percussion), Xenia Pestova Bennett (toy piano) et al.; Psappha; New London Chamber Ensemble/Darren Bloom (NMC)
Mozart: Requiem; Paisiello: Messe pour le sacre de Napoléon
Sandrine Piau, Chantal Santon Jeffery (soprano), Éléonore Pancrazi (mezzo), Mathias Vidal (tenor), Thomas Dolié (baritone); Chœur de Chambre de Namur; Le Concert de la Loge/Julien Chauvin (Alpha Classics)
Bright and Early (Hopkinson Smith)
Hopkinson Smith (lute) (Naïve)
Mozart: Mass No. 18 'Great'; Missa brevis 'Spaur'
Katharina Konradi (soprano), Sarah Romberger (mezzo-soprano), Martin Mitterrutzner (tenor), Mikhail Timoshenko (bass); WDR Cologne Radio Choir; Cologne Chamber Orchestra/Christoph Poppen (Naxos)
Did the parents of our best-loved composers help or hinder their gifts?
Just how pushy were the mothers and fathers of some of our greatest composers? and was it a good thing?Sarah Urwin Jones weighs up the evidence
Mozart • Salieri: Requiems
Valentina Nafornița (soprano), Ambroisine Bré (mezzo), Robin Tritschler (tenor), Andreas Wolf (bass-baritone); Le Concert Spirituel/Hervé Niquet (Chateau de Versailles)
CPE Bach: Flute Sonatas (Light and Darkness)
Manuel Granatiero (flute), Marco Ceccato (cello), Yu Yashima (harpsichord); Accademia Ottoboni (Arcana)
Rossini: Messa di Gloria
Eleonora Buratto (soprano), Teresa Iervolino (mezzo-soprano) et al; Chorus and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia/Antonio Pappano (Warner Classics)
Invisible Stream
Raphaël Imbert (saxophone), Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello), Sonny Troupé (drums), Pierre-François Blanchard (piano) (Harmonia Mundi)
Beethoven • Brett Dean: Testament etc
Bavarian State Orchestra/Vladimir Jurowski (Bayerisches Staatsoper)
Phrases (Héloïse Werner)
Héloïse Werner (soprano), Daniel Shao (flute), Amy Harman (bassoon), Lawrence Power (violin, viola) et al (Delphian)
Lamenting Lullaby – English Oboe Quartets
Daniel Bates (oboe), Laura Lutzke (violin), Adam Newman (viola), Hannah Sloane (cello) (Stone Records)
Schubert: The Fair Maid of the Mill
Nicky Spence (tenor), Christopher Glynn (piano) (Signum Classics)
Musa Italiana
Filarmonica della Scala/Riccardo Chailly (Decca)
The Mandolin Seasons
Jacob Reuven (mandolin); Sinfonietta Leipzig/Omer Meir Wellber (accordion) (Hyperion)