8/1/2023 0 Comments Pizzicato drops instrumentalHenry’s queens were no mere observers of the development of music at his court. Henry inherited a modest musical establishment from his father, but bequeathed a large ‘Kynge’s Musicke’ to his heirs. And two musical sources, one sacred (The Eton Choirbook), the other secular (The Henry VIII Ms), proved rich in music as dramatic, colourful and exotic as the king himself.īut there is more to Henry’s music than ‘Pastime with Good Company’ and the splendours of Eton’s polyphony. Inventories made at the time of his death show him as an avid collector of instruments (including recorders, flutes, cornetts, viols and bagpipes). His table manners were refined to the point of being finicky, and the conduct of his sexual liaisons was (according to the French ambassador) almost excessively discreet.Īn irresistible figure to the twentieth century early–music revival, Henry is shown by numerous hyperbolic contemporary accounts to have been an expert singer (with a clear tenor voice and able to sing at sight) a player of lute, flute, recorder, cornett and virginals and a composer of sacred and secular music. Larger than life, certainly (six feet two inches tall, a colossal height for the time) but, as a young man, clean-shaven and with a halo of red hair, his waist was a mere 35 inches and his chest 42 inches. His character, too, is familiar: ‘Bluff King Hal’, gorging himself at the table, flagrantly promiscuous, cynically manipulating the Church to suit his marital aims, the very archetype of chauvinism.īut scholarship reveals a very different Henry. Henry VIII is the most instantly recognisable of English kings: the heavy, square face with its fringe of beard, the massive torso, arms akimbo, feet planted firmly on the ground. Congrats, Julian – another corker" - Clarinet and Saxophone Magazine "This relatively brief EP finds Julian Bliss on tremendous form. Blues harmonies, rhythms, and melodic idioms pervade the work and many “shades of blue” are depicted, from bright blue, to dark, to dirty, to hot blue.” perfectly suited to capture the natural and pastoral soul of the season.”įrank Ticheli’s Blue Shades is a love letter to blues and jazz music, mixed through the composers own compositional voice: “Blue notes (flattened 3rds, 5ths and 7ths). The composer’s favourite month, Eric Whitacre’s October contains “simple, pastoral melodies and subsequent harmonies inspired by the great English Romantics (Vaughn Williams, Elgar). Picture the scariest NYC taxi ride you can imagine, with the cab skidding around turns as trucks bear down from all sides.” ![]() Working from their homes (although only a few miles apart from each other), each performer combines multiple layers of clarinet and percussion to create these exciting and dynamic new arrangements of much- loved standards of the American Band Music world.Ĭomposer John Mackey describes Asphalt Cocktail as “a five-minute opener, designed to shout, from the opening measure, “We’re here.” With biting trombones, blaring trumpets, and percussion dominated by cross- rhythms and back beats. Julian Bliss and Joby Burgess combine forces for these recordings made during the 2020 UK lockdown. ![]() ![]() ![]() The coupling, Liapunov’s violin concerto, while a lesser piece, is also realised with great attention to detail - Classical CD Review The neglect of this winning and dramatic piece by Armenia’s most distinguished composer is inexplicable, but perhaps the reading here of the Concerto-Rhapsody will redress the balance, such is the persuasiveness of the playing. It doesn't get much better than this! - Wiener Zeitung Hideko Udagawa fulfils her part with a voluminously blazing sound which fits the works marvellously. The unaccompanied Sonata-Monologue is riveting - The Guardian The concerto's rather grand manner suits Udagawa's noble style and steely tone wonderfully well. The two composers represented here symbolize two entirely different eras in Russian music – Lyapunov from the end of the Romanov Empire and Khachaturian from the height of the Soviet Union – yet their works are perhaps more an expression of continuities, of perennial concerns for Russian composers, such as the need to integrate folkloric elements with the demands of sophisticated musical structures for concert performance, and adherence to the great Russian traditions of violin-playing that go back to the middle of the 19th century. Hideko Udagawa returns to disc on Signum with a new album of Russian Romantic music from Aram Khachaturian and Sergei Lyapunov.
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