Danza Gaya: Simon Callaghan & Hiroaki Takenouchi play with wonderful elan & relish, clearly having a great deal of fun

Danza gaya: music for two pianos - Madeleine Dring, Dorothy Howell, Pamela Harrison; Simon Callaghan, Hiroaki Takenouchi; LYRITA

Three 20th-century English women composers, thirteen pieces all virtually unknown; Simon Callaghan & Hiroaki Takenouchi take us on an engagingly enjoyable exploration

None of the composers on pianists Simon Callaghan and Hiroaki Takenouchi's new disc are well enough known. Danza gaya on the Lyrita label features delightful music for two pianos by three women from 20th century English music, Madeleine Dring, Dorothy Howell and Pamela Harrison.

Diagrams & sonatas: discs of solo piano music Arvo Pärt and Ivor Gurney, neither composer well-known for writing in the genre

Ivor Gurney: Piano Sonatas 1 & 3, Adagio from Piano Sonata 2, Five Preludes; George Rowley; Naxos
Arvo Pärt: Diagrams, complete music for piano; Tähe-Lee Liiv; ERP
Reviewed 29 January 2024

Two contrasting discs of piano music by 20th century composers who are not known for their work in the genre, highlighting our partiality when it comes to looking at repertoire

It is fascinating how fixated on a particular genre we can be with some composers. Sometimes this has to do with availability, until some brave editor makes the music available in a viable edition then with the best will in the world, the composer's recorded output might be a bit partial. But also, it seems that we do rather like pigeon-holing. 

Two discs from last year rather emphasised this, and both proved admirable showcases for a pair of talented young pianists. British pianist George Rowley recorded of Ivor Gurney's three Piano Sonatas and Five Preludes for Naxos, and Estonian pianist Tähe-Lee Liiv recorded of Arvo Pärt's complete music for piano, Diagrams, for ERP.

In a much-recorded field, they create something memorable: Songs of the Night from Rowan Pierce, Julien van Mellaerts, & Lucy Colquhoun

Songs of the Night: Schubert,  Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, Hugo Wolf, Richard Strauss, Hans Pfitzner; Rowan Pierce, Julien van Mellaerts, Lucy Colquhoun; Champs Hill Records
Reviewed 14 November 2023

A trio of young artists in an engaging and imaginative disc exploring the highways and byways of the Austro-German lied with night ever-present 

Night is an ever present topic in the classic German and Austrian lied repertoire, from evocation of night itself to night as a backdrop for emotional turmoil. A recent disc from Champs Hill Records, Songs of the Night brings together songs by Schubert, Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, Hugo Wolf, Richard Strauss, and Hans Pfitzner exploring the wide range of the subject, and showcasing two young singers, soprano Rowan Pierce and baritone Julien van Mellaerts with pianist Lucy Colquhoun.

The disc is full of good things because Colquhoun has cast her net quite widely. Deliberately avoiding the familiarity of Schubert's Erlkönig, the disc allows us to compare and contrast Schubert's well-known setting of Goethe's Wandrers Nachtlied with Robert Schumann's far less familiar setting, and includes two of the rather underappreciated songs of Hans Pfitzner. The songs are shared out between van Mellaerts and Pierce with the two coming together at the very end for a pair of duets by Mendelssohn.

Songs of the Night recording session - Lucy Colquhoun, Julien van Mellaerts at the Music Room, Champs Hill (Photo: Patrick Allen)

2022 in Record Reviews: Robert le Diable, The Midsummer Marriage, William Busch, British piano concertos, Gavin Higgins

As ever, our record reviews of 2022 have barely touched the surface of the amazing variety of recorded music that becomes available. My selection moves from the early Baroque right through to contemporary and newly trained composers. There were two major operatic releases that formed beacons for me, but plenty of other delights.

British contemporary composers included Alastair White, whose dazzling opera Rune received its first recording, taking us into a parallel universe. Alex Paxton's illoli-pop again revealed him to be such an amazing and maverick talent, the music full of manic energy and vision. Russell Pascoe's Secular Requiem inhabits a very different, more traditional world in a recording that is a terrific achievement of the choir of Truro Cathedral. And the Composers' Academy disc from the Philharmonia on NMC features music by three young composers, Hollie Harding, Joel Järventausta and Jocelyn Campbell.

Heading abroad, Icelandic experimental composer, Guðmundur Steinn Gunnarsson's Landvættirnar fjórar is unnervingly different and I have in the past compared Steinn Gunnarsson's sound world to The Clangers! Idiosyncratic in a very different way, Latvian composer Juris Ābols's opera Xeniae is full of manic yet seductive craziness. Finally, Sam Cave's lovely disc for classical guitar, Refracted Resonance, features works by Tristan Murail, George Holloway, Christopher Fox, Horaţiu Rădulescu, and Cave himself.