NMC
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Themes & Variations
Three sets of variations - two previously unrecorded - with contributions from 19 British composers ranging from William Walton to Judith Weir
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jac van Steen
This fascinating disc... offers a snapshot of British musical tastes over the last 50 years —
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Special offer. Birtwistle: The Mask of Orpheus
RecommendedBBC Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Singers, Andrew Davis and Martyn Brabbins
Birtwistle's opera is about the Orpheus myth, but the familiar story has been fragmented. Each of the principal characters is represented by two singers and a (silent) dancer, and much of what... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 1998, Winner - Contemporary
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Alexander Goehr: Since Brass nor Stone
Colin Currie (percussion)
The Nash Ensemble & Pavel Haas Quartet
These performances render the sound worlds of Goehr's sources so consummately that his own twists and turns through them come through persuasively. —
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Tom Coult: Pieces That Disappear
Tom Coult, Anna Dennis (soprano), Daniel Pioro (violin), Elena Schwarz, BBC Philharmonic, Martyn Brabbins, Andrew Gourlay
There is something ominous about the debut album from Tom Coult . Across four works, he takes us to darkly dramatic places with his expressive writing and playful textures. —
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 2025 Shortlist, Contemporary
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Emily Howard: Torus
Vimbayi Kaziboni, Julian Warburton, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Gabriella Teychenné,
BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Mark Wigglesworth, Martyn Brabbins
These recordings sit on the edge of discomfort, relishing in the stark contrasts of timbres available to an orchestra. Oscillating between these extremes, this is music-making at its most dynamic. —
Awards:
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Gramophone Awards, 2024 Shortlist, Shortlisted - Contemporary
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Oliver Knussen: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3
Elaine Barry, Linda Hirst (sopranos) & Michael Collins, Dward Pillinger, Ian Mitchell (clarinets)
The Nash Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Philharmonia Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas & Oliver Knussen
Here is the essence of him: his precocious song-cycle symphony (No 2) and arresting Symphony No 3 (performed by the Philharmonia)...and that locus classicus of ensemble virtuosity, the five-minute... —
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Special offer. Weir: Blond Eckbert
Nerys Jones, Nicholas Folwell, Christopher Ventris (tenor), Anne-Marie Owens (mezzo-soprano), English National Opera, English National Opera Chorus, Sian Edwards
Judith Weir's treatment of Ludwig Tieck's story Blond Eckbert creates a compelling world… with its own ingenious methods of narration, and a strong sense of movement towards an inescapable and... —
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Saunders explores the sculptural properties of sound, focusing on contrasting and complementary timbre rather than traditional harmony...Juliet Fraser is the spiralling soloist in Skin; swaggering... —
Awards:
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The Guardian Classical Albums of the Year, 2022
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Judith Weir - The Welcome Arrival of Rain
Ailish Tynan (soprano)
BBC Singers & BBC Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins
The performances, under the ever-reliable Martyn Brabbins, are excellent, with Ailish Tynan a personable soloist in Natural History. The recordings are clear and bright, like the music itself. —
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Special offer. Ferneyhough: Shadowtime
Nicolas Hodges (piano), Mats Scheidegger, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Nieuw Ensemble, Jurjen Hempel
Bernstein's text makes oblique manoeuvres round the themes of Benjamin's work, and Ferneyhough sets them to complex yet frequently beautiful music, a mixture of tough and tender modernism —
