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| |  | Alec Roth: Sometime I SingMusic for Voice and Guitar
A lyrical collection of chamber works for tenor and guitar, 'Sometime I Sing' unites Gramophone award-winning tenor Mark Padmore with Mexican guitarist, Morgan Szymanski, in settings of texts by Thomas Wyatt, Vikram Seth, John Donne and Edward Thomas by the composer Alec Roth. Roth is a UK-based composer who works across a wide range of musical genres, including stage works, vocal, choral, orchestral, instrumental, and Javanese gamelan. His former posts include Founder/Director of the Royal Festival Hall Gamelan Programme and Southbank Gamelan Players, Music Director of the Baylis Programme, English National Opera and Associate Composer, Opera North. This is his third disc with Signum, following a choral album with Ex Cathedra (SIGCD270) and a chamber music disc 'Songs in Time of War' (SIGCD124) also with Mark Padmore and Morgan Szymanski. “Padmore’s clean tenor finds an ideal vehicle ... there’s a transparent, haunting beauty about it, and the accompaniments for violin, harp and guitar are a joy” The Times, 8th June 2013 **** |
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| |  | Live Recording From The Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, 2012
This 2012 recording of the most influential and wide spread oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach features the Hungarian conductor Iván Fischer, a visionary in his field, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. The double choir is the essential musical aspect on which Iván Fischer’s interpretation of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion is based. Only by consistently seizing on that duality will all the complementary layers stand out as they should. He describes this essential fundamental aspect as follows: “You can’t do the St. Matthew in an unreligious way. The only approach is from a deep, universally religious feeling.” The internationally renowned tenor Mark Padmore is brilliant as the Evangelist, Peter Harvey gives a moving interpretation of Christ. Together with Ingeborg Danz, Renate Arends, Maria Espada, Barbara Kozelj, Peter Gijsbertsen and Henk Neven and the Netherlands Radio Choir they carry the audience through an affecting performance of this masterwork. PCM Stereo, DD 5.0 Running Time: 174 mins Subtitle Languages: DE (Original Language), GB, FR, ES, JP “it would be hard to imagine a weightier, more symphonic account, beauty of sound almost an end in itself...Padmore's Evangelist is never one to short-change the narrative, and Peter Harvey's Christus emphasises a dignified humanity” BBC Music Magazine, July 2013 *** |
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| |  | Live Recording From The Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, 2012
Mark Padmore (Evangelist), Peter Harvey (Christus), Maria Espada (Soprano), Ingeborg Danz (Mezzo Soprano /Alto), Renate Arends (Soprano), Barbara Kozelj (Mezzo Soprano /Alto), Peter Gijsbertsen (Tenor) & Henk Neven (Bass) Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Chamber Choir, Netherlands National Children's Choir, Iván Fischer This 2012 recording of the most influential and wide spread oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach features the Hungarian conductor Iván Fischer, a visionary in his field, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. The double choir is the essential musical aspect on which Iván Fischer’s interpretation of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion is based. Only by consistently seizing on that duality will all the complementary layers stand out as they should. He describes this essential fundamental aspect as follows: “You can’t do the St. Matthew in an unreligious way. The only approach is from a deep, universally religious feeling.” The internationally renowned tenor Mark Padmore is brilliant as the Evangelist, Peter Harvey gives a moving interpretation of Christ. Together with Ingeborg Danz, Renate Arends, Maria Espada, Barbara Kozelj, Peter Gijsbertsen and Henk Neven and the Netherlands Radio Choir they carry the audience through an affecting performance of this masterwork. PCM Stereo, dts-HD Master Audio 5.0 Running Time: 174 mins Subtitle Languages: DE (Original Language), GB, FR, ES, JP “it would be hard to imagine a weightier, more symphonic account, beauty of sound almost an end in itself...Padmore's Evangelist is never one to short-change the narrative, and Peter Harvey's Christus emphasises a dignified humanity.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2013 *** |
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| |  | Britten‘s War Requiem: 50th anniversary in Coventry
2012 brings the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Britten‘s War Requiem, one of the most powerful pacifist statements in music. The first performance took place in 1962 in the newly consecrated Coventry Cathedral, built alongside the ruins of the old cathedral, left as a sombre reminder of the wartime bombings. On 30 May 2012, 50 years to the day, Britten‘s masterpiece returns to the cathedral, performed as at the premiere by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and vocal soloists from three once warring nations. The anniversary performance is conducted by the CBSO‘s Music Director, Andris Nelsons, featuring the Canadian soprano Erin Wall, English tenor Mark Padmore singing the role written for Peter Pears, and German baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann. Choral forces are provided by the CBSO Chorus and Youth Chorus. Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) was commissioned to compose a work for the inauguration in 1962 of Coventry’s new cathedral, adjoining the old cathedral that had been bombed and nearly completely destroyed by the German Luftwaffe at the beginning of World War II in November 1940. The commission gave Britten complete freedom to choose the type of music to compose. He conceived of setting the traditional Latin Mass for the Dead interwoven with nine poems by the English poet Wilfred Owen, who had been killed in World War I. It has become one of the defining masterpieces of the twentieth century: a devastating meditation on the pity of war that is every bit as relevant today. "The light-filled building was used to full effect. The CBSO Youth Chorus was positioned at the high altar beneath Graham Sutherland's Christ in Glory tapestry, all golden section and green resurrection...Padmore sang with visionary intensity. Müller-Brachmann maintained an unadorned simplicity of expression." Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, on the live performance Sound Format: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Picture Format: 16:9, 1080i FULL HD Format: DVD 9, NTSC, 25 GB (Single Layer) Audio Languages: Sung in Latin and English Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, FR, ES Running Time: 97 mins FSK: 0 “It is an irony that the strengths of the performance are exactly those aspects thought to have been the most damagingly weak at the premiere. The orchestral sound is well judged , combining atmospheric resonance with the right amount of clarity...The CBSO forces, orchestra and chorus alike, make handsome amends for the shambles reported at the premiere.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2013 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Britten‘s War Requiem: 50th anniversary in Coventry
2012 brings the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Britten‘s War Requiem, one of the most powerful pacifist statements in music. The first performance took place in 1962 in the newly consecrated Coventry Cathedral, built alongside the ruins of the old cathedral, left as a sombre reminder of the wartime bombings. On 30 May 2012, 50 years to the day, Britten‘s masterpiece returns to the cathedral, performed as at the premiere by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and vocal soloists from three once warring nations. The anniversary performance is conducted by the CBSO‘s Music Director, Andris Nelsons, featuring the Canadian soprano Erin Wall, English tenor Mark Padmore singing the role written for Peter Pears, and German baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann. Choral forces are provided by the CBSO Chorus and Youth Chorus. Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) was commissioned to compose a work for the inauguration in 1962 of Coventry’s new cathedral, adjoining the old cathedral that had been bombed and nearly completely destroyed by the German Luftwaffe at the beginning of World War II in November 1940. The commission gave Britten complete freedom to choose the type of music to compose. He conceived of setting the traditional Latin Mass for the Dead interwoven with nine poems by the English poet Wilfred Owen, who had been killed in World War I. It has become one of the defining masterpieces of the twentieth century: a devastating meditation on the pity of war that is every bit as relevant today. "The light-filled building was used to full effect. The CBSO Youth Chorus was positioned at the high altar beneath Graham Sutherland's Christ in Glory tapestry, all golden section and green resurrection...Padmore sang with visionary intensity. Müller-Brachmann maintained an unadorned simplicity of expression." Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, on the live performance Sound Format: PCM Stereo, dts-HD Master Audio 5.1 (Blu-ray) Picture Format: 16:9, 1080i FULL HD Audio Languages: Sung in Latin and English Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, FR, ES Running Time: 97 mins FSK: 0 “The three soloists are not, perhaps, quite as eminently as the originals, but they're all excellent...[Nelsons's] un-English reading, more tautly controlled and vigorous than Britten's own, reveals unexpected hues and beauties in the score. This never drags, despite so much inner darkness, and the camera enhances the performance” BBC Music Magazine, January 2013 ***** “[Padmore] is simply outstanding...Erin Wall projects the soprano part extremely well...Orchestra and choirs played their parts admirably but the overall accolade...must go to Andris Nelsons for the wonderful way in which he holds the whole thing together.” MusicWeb International, January 2013 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | ou Les amants de Corinthe
Chabrier’s extraordinary, if incomplete, opera is surely a precursor to Salome and approaches even that most lurid work in the gloriously opulent sensuality of its music. Performed at the Edinburgh Festival by some of the greatest singers of the day and recorded live by Hyperion, this thrilling performance stunned critics and public alike. A genuinely wonderful discovery. “The most opulent discographic discovery of the decade” Fanfare “A highlight of last year's Edinburgh Festival … a memorable experience … gorgeous … an extraordinarily voluptuous and erotic affair. Joan Rodgers sings ravishingly … Ossonce brings this exciting rarity to throbbing life” Sunday Telegraph “For those who heard Chabrier's incomplete magnum opus at last year's Festival this recording will need no recommendation … fabulously rewarding” The Scotsman | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | A ritualisation by Peter Sellars
Recorded live at the Philharmonie Berlin on 11th April 2010 It is no surprise that Sir Simon would one day tackle this most comprehensive of Bach’s compositions in view of his much applauded interpretation of the St. John Passion in 2006. The Berliner Morgenpost wrote at the time: “A performance of this musical calibre renders superfluous all questions about authenticity and historical performance practice. At the Philharmonie Sir Simon Rattle and his orchestra performed the St. John Passion [...] with highly concentrated and flawless beauty devoid of any distorting indulgence.” German daily Die Welt hailed this performance of the St. Matthew Passion as “Simon Rattle’s Easter miracle,” and The Guardian in the UK wrote: “I challenge you not to be an emotional wreck by the end of it: the singers, especially Mark Padmore as the Evangelist, give the performance of their lives; Sellars sensitively connects the Passion story with the performances and the audience, without distorting Bach’s drama; and Rattle and his players are collectively raised to spooky, spiritual levels of inspiration.” Both the double-disc DVD and Blu-ray editions contain booklets with introductory texts, biographies and photos. Bonus footage includes a conversation between Peter Sellars and Simon Halsey, conductor of the Rundfunkchor Berlin. Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese Running time: 195 mins (concert); 51 mins (bonus feature) Picture format: 1080i Full HD 16.9 Audio formats: PCM Stereo DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Please Note: JAPAN - Due to contractual reasons I'm afraid we are not allowed to sell this product to customers in Japan. “The long rehearsal period, the expertise of everyone involved and the authority of the solo singers: all this quickly becomes evident...All the soloists embody their roles to an engrossing degree of identification...this is a defiantly modern performance, one that exults in disturbance and the irony that arises from a deeply intimate staging within the round of the Berlin Philharmonie: appropriate in terms of architectural politics but jarringly opulent and public.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2012 “Some of Sellars's gestures...are searing, and the rapt attention of the audience leaps out of the screen...Padmore is a great Evangelist and this must be his greatest performance of the role...while the symbiosis entwining vocal and instrumental soloists leavens Simon Rattle's compelling musical direction. Ultimately, a St Matthew Passion even greater than the sum of its parts - and they were already pretty awesome to being with!” BBC Music Magazine, September 2012 ***** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | A ritualisation by Peter Sellars
Recorded live at the Philharmonie Berlin on 11th April 2010 It is no surprise that Sir Simon would one day tackle this most comprehensive of Bach’s compositions in view of his much applauded interpretation of the St. John Passion in 2006. The Berliner Morgenpost wrote at the time: “A performance of this musical calibre renders superfluous all questions about authenticity and historical performance practice. At the Philharmonie Sir Simon Rattle and his orchestra performed the St. John Passion [...] with highly concentrated and flawless beauty devoid of any distorting indulgence.” German daily Die Welt hailed this performance of the St. Matthew Passion as “Simon Rattle’s Easter miracle,” and The Guardian in the UK wrote: “I challenge you not to be an emotional wreck by the end of it: the singers, especially Mark Padmore as the Evangelist, give the performance of their lives; Sellars sensitively connects the Passion story with the performances and the audience, without distorting Bach’s drama; and Rattle and his players are collectively raised to spooky, spiritual levels of inspiration.” Both the double-disc DVD and Blu-ray editions contain booklets with introductory texts, biographies and photos. Bonus footage includes a conversation between Peter Sellars and Simon Halsey, conductor of the Rundfunkchor Berlin. Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese Running time: 195 mins (concert); 51 mins (bonus feature) Picture format: NTSC Audio formats: PCM Stereo Dolby Digital 5.1 DTS 5.1 Please Note: JAPAN - Due to contractual reasons I'm afraid we are not allowed to sell this product to customers in Japan. “The long rehearsal period, the expertise of everyone involved and the authority of the solo singers: all this quickly becomes evident...All the soloists embody their roles to an engrossing degree of identification...this is a defiantly modern performance, one that exults in disturbance and the irony that arises from a deeply intimate staging within the round of the Berlin Philharmonie: appropriate in terms of architectural politics but jarringly opulent and public.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2012 “Some of Sellars's gestures...are searing, and the rapt attention of the audience leaps out of the screen...Padmore is a great Evangelist and this must be his greatest performance of the role...while the symbiosis entwining vocal and instrumental soloists leavens Simon Rattle's compelling musical direction. Ultimately, a St Matthew Passion even greater than the sum of its parts - and they were already pretty awesome to being with!” BBC Music Magazine, September 2012 ***** “It sounded like a risky undertaking...but the resulting “ritualization” of Bach’s oratorio, captured on DVD, is most riveting and moving. Mr. Sellars has the choirs and orchestras facing each other in the round, turning the Passion into a soul-searching dialogue between individual and society, man and God. Instrumentalists and singers, too, enter into communion with one another” New York Times, 23rd November 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Britten: Serenade for tenor, horn & strings
Celebrated tenor Mark Padmore joins the Britten Sinfonia in some of the most beautiful English music for voice and orchestra. The centrepiece is Britten's magical evocation of twilight and nightfall, the 'Serenade' (with Stephen Bell, horn). In Gerald Finzi's war-time cycle 'Dies natalis', the ecstatic mood reflects a child's wide-eyed wonder at the world. Britten's poignant 'Nocturne' completes the programme. “so tender and piercing that you really do seem to be listening to these song cycles anew...Padmore’s tenor audibly sports some family resemblances [to Pears], though he’s less precious than Pears, with a conversational ease when singing pianissimo never mastered by Britten’s love and muse. These are intensely sensitive and poetic readings, strengthened further by Stephen Bell’s clean and lyrical horn” The Times, 4th May 2012 ***** “Padmore proves to be a more convincing interpreter of Finzi than he is of Britten...there remains something rather neutral and restrained about his approach at moments when the music would really benefit from a firmer grip. In Dies Natalis, though, he shows that grip – it's a wonderfully muscular performance, beautifully judged and shaded, set off by suitably rapturous string playing.” The Guardian, 3rd May 2012 *** “It was high time Mark Padmore, one of our most thoughtful tenors, set down his interpretation of the “Serenade” – softer-grained than we might have expected from a singer of such probing spirit and dramatic antennae, and softer-edged than the orchestral accompaniment from the Britten Sinfonia, whose horn player, Stephen Bell, proves a robust soloist.” Financial Times, 12th May 2012 *** “the sense of the poems across with extra immediacy, as if Padmore has read the texts many times over before fitting them to the music. There is much beauty - not perhaps in the purely vocal sense...but in the marriage of words and music...Highly recommended.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2012 “[Padmore's] not found wanting in the “Nocturne for tenor, seven obbligato instruments & strings”, in which he ably negotiates Shelley's reverie, Wordsworth's melodrama and Tennyson's “thunders of the upper deep”; the “Serenade for tenor, horn & strings” is equally impressive...“Dies Natalis”, however, offers too stark a contrast to the otherwise elegaic tone.” The Independent, 19th May 2012 “The performance of Nocturne is the highpoint: a wide-eyed, variegated account from singer, obbligato instrumentalists and orchestra alike.” classicalsource.com “Apart from the sheer beauty of his timbre, Padmore and his sympathetic accompanists have the full measure of Britten’s genius, and the readings are unlikely to be bettered for years to come.” Cd Choice “Padmore's singing is very loving indeed, but in places I can't help feeling that it's a case of 'less is more'. The Britten Sinfonia and instrumental soloists are admirably attuned to Padmore's approach...Padmore is more successful in the exquisite Dies Natalis, where a more extrovert approach really pays off.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2012 ***/**** “Deeply intense, questing performance of two of Britten's great orchestral song-cycles, matched by the players with whom Padmore has rehearsed, workshopped and toured these works extensively. The Finzi is much more than just a filler...this is the masterly performance is deserves.” Classical Music, 5th May 2012 **** “Padmore’s new recording is terrific - his voice is expressive, beautiful and terrifying by turns...Bell’s performance is spectacular...Padmore sings with such sweetness that you’ll convince yourself that Finzi was an underrated genius.” The Arts Desk, 16th June 2012 “Peerless tenor extends the Peter Pears legacy into a new century.” New Zealand Herald, August 2012 “He sings with less of the honeyed beauty that he is famous for and more incisive bite, which works for some songs, such as the Dirge, but not so well for others, such as the opening Pastoral. However, this does have the advantage of lending his word-painting that extra edge...Both playing and singing are at their most alluring in the concluding Keats Sonnet, seductive and beautiful with a hint of danger, leading wonderfully into the softly dying horn epilogue.” MusicWeb International, August 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Gramophone Magazine
BBC Music Magazine Awards 2013
Gramophone Awards 2012