COMPOSERS: Holloway
LABELS: Chandos
WORKS: Sea-Surface Full of Clouds; Romanza
PERFORMER: Penelope Walmsley-Clark (soprano), Margaret Cable (contralto), Martyn Hill (tenor), Charles Brett (counter-tenor), Erich Gruenberg (violin)/Richard Hickox Singers, City of London Sinfonia/Richard Hickox
CATALOGUE NO: CHAN 9228 DDD (1982)
The Arts Council policy, sadly now defunct, of subsidising the recording of new work was undermined at times by the frequency of deletions. This reissue is particularly valuable not only because the performances are exemplary, but because both works (from the 1970s) are remarkable, easily approachable and scarcely performed in the concert hall. Hickox draws ravishing sounds from singers and orchestra in Sea-Surface (even if the words are inaudible), while Gruenberg finely projects the Romanza, an exquisite, small-scale violin concerto. Annette Morreau
Holloway: Sea-Surface Full of Clouds; Romanza
The Arts Council policy, sadly now defunct, of subsidising the recording of new work was undermined at times by the frequency of deletions. This reissue is particularly valuable not only because the performances are exemplary, but because both works (from the 1970s) are remarkable, easily approachable and scarcely performed in the concert hall. Hickox draws ravishing sounds from singers and orchestra in Sea-Surface (even if the words are inaudible), while Gruenberg finely projects the Romanza, an exquisite, small-scale violin concerto. Annette Morreau
Our rating
5
Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:06 pm