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ID: SIGCD052
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: The Great Composers
Signum Records are delighted to present the second recording on SignumClassics of the CBSO, under the direction of Mark Elder.
In his youth Shostakovich devoted much time and energy to composing for the theatre and the cinema, writing for an astonishing variety of movies, political plays, satires, the music-hall and the ballet.
The music for Nikolai Akimov’s outrageous and scandalous production of Hamlet was composed in the winter of 1931 - 1932. Akimov had decided that tragedy was irrelevant to the modern Soviet audience, and therefore presented the play as a satirical farce in which the play was turned up-side-down, by reversing all the usual assumptions about the plot and how it should be acted. The alterations to Shakespeare’s work are reflected in the titles of several of Shostakovich’s numbers. He was asked to provide music for scenes that Shakespeare only refers to but which Akimov insisted on representing on stage, for example the feast where "funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables". The overall character of Shostakovich’s music is often abrasive and satirical, and flippant just where we would expect the music to be more serious. There are also some funny moments, with particular sharp parodies of various well-known musico-theatrical clichés.
In 1954 Kozintsev had also attempted to direct a staged version of Hamlet. For this occasion he decided to reuse music that Shostakovich had already written for him to use in a staged production of King Lear in 1941. All that Kozintsev asked Shostakovich to add for the 1954 Hamlet were a Gigue and a Finale, both of which are included on this recording as an appendix to the music for Akimov’s 1932 production.
The music that Shostakovich wrote for Kozintsev’s 1941 King Lear production inhabits a strange and transitional world, halfway between the bright and brilliant sarcasm of the music for Akimov’s Hamlet of ten years earlier and the more soberly functional manner of his post-war theatrical music. Gone is most of the cheekiness, the fondness for the experimental and the grotesque. There is much in this often oppressively dark music that is characteristic of what was by now Shostakovich’s public symphonic manner.
Perhaps the most powerful and unusual part of the score is the bizarre cycle of Fool’s songs, with which the Fool mocks the mistakes of his master, the King, in the course of the first three Acts. The music of these songs is as strange and quirky as the words they set. Taken as a whole, these ten songs make up a miniature cycle of sourly absurd, almost expressionistic outbursts for voice and orchestra. They seem to form a whole in themselves, standing apart from. |
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ID: SIGCD053
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Chamber Music
Subcollection: Chamber Ensemble
Signum Classics are proud to announce The Brunel Ensemble's first disc on Signum Classics - Red Leaves.
No ensemble other ensemble is as committed to the performance of such works from all decades of the twentieth century. Formed in 1992, the group gives thrilling performances under Christopher Austin’s inspired direction.
John McCabe’s Red Leaves was commissioned by the European Community Chamber Orchestra and the 1991 Istanbul Festival. Composer Malcom Williamson studied with Elisabeth Lutyens (as did Robert Saxton) and he was Master of the Queen’s Music until his death in 2003. One of Lutyens’ first major success was a setting of Rimbaud, O Saisons, O Chateau encored at the first performance in 1947 - but noteable for having previously been turned down by the BBC as unsingable!
The McCabe and Williamson pieces are linked by the common theme of nature, the latter being inspired by Australian landscape and history. It was commissioned for the 150th Anniversary of the State of Victoria. For his anniversary greeting of 1986 on the occasion of his colleague’s half century, Robert Saxton presented his Birthday Piece for Richard Rodney Bennett. In which he chose in time-honoured manner to extract from Bennett’s name the musical notes available as a thematic cipher, and to fashion them after his own manner into a bracing invention for strings. Red Leaves is a disc of modern works by British composers. |
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ID: SIGCD054
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Choral Collection
Subcollection: Choir
The roots of the Russian Orthodox Church are traceable back into the Third Century A.D. Whilst Western forms of Christianity continued to evolve, the Orthodox tradition has been preserved largely intact since the 11th Century, despite persecution of the Church under an intolerant Communist regime in Russia.
The music of the Russian Orthodox Church features vocal chants, the oldest of which is known as znamenny (from the Slavonic znamia meaning “sign”). The melody of this chant is extremely simple, and whilst other composers added their characteristic harmonic effects, Rachmaninoff consciously preserved the modal purity of the original in his setting of the Vespers.
The all-night vigil is celebrated on the eve of the main feasts of the Orthodox Church. Originally it lasted all night and consisted of three separate services to celebrate the beauty of the setting sun, and to reflect on the spiritual light of Christ as the new light of the coming day and the eternal light of heaven.
Rachmaninoff’s setting of the vigil was written in 1915, in the middle of the First World War. He has used authentic znamenny chant in seven movements, with two movements employing Greek chants.
“Even in my dreams I could not have imagined that I would write such a work” Rachmaninoff told the singers at the first performance in March 1915.
The work is dedicated to the scholar Stephan Vasilevitch Smolensky who introduced Rachmaninoff to the repertoire of the church, however the composer’s inspiration was as much politically motivated as spiritually - the composition was a powerful affirmation of nationalism during the war.
Tenebrae characteristically create an atmosphere of spiritual and musical reflection at their performances, using candlelight and movement within ecclesiastical venues. |
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ID: SIGCD056
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Vocal Collection
Subcollection: Choir
Signum Records present a special CD release from the King’s Singers, celebrating over 35 years of popular repertoire that has left audiences delighted across the globe.
Formed in 1968 by six Choral Scholars from King’s College, Cambridge, the King’s Singers quickly became a prominent musical force in the UK. The rest of the world soon followed so that today the group’s engagements are spread throughout the four corners of the globe.
The ensemble are renowned for their commitment to blend balance and intonation in their performances, but above all it is their simple enjoyment of what they do that has captured the imagination of the public, and kept the King’s Singers at the top of their game for over three and a half decades.
This album presents six pieces performed by the six vocalists over the years. The titles were selected to span the life of the group so far: After the explosive rock decade of the 1960s in which the group was founded, you can almost hear the hair lengthen in Neil Young’s 1970 song After the Goldrush. This was originally sung by the group with Nana Mouskouri on her BBC TV show, and has remained popular ever since; Irving Berlin’s much-loved jazz classic Blue Skies is here sung in a cool and reflective arrangement by Richard Rodney Bennett; the Beatle’s Blackbird is one of the most requested encores happily sung to ecstatic audiences, and Daryl Runswick’s arrangement perfectly maintains the feel of the original song.
The remaining three tracks are all newly recorded pieces from the 21st century. Down to the River to Pray, a spiritual, appeared in the Coen brothers movie “O Brother Where art Thou?”; Billy Joel’s Lullaby Goodnight My Angel is an example of the songwriter at his lyric best. Finally, The Wishing Tree was commissioned by the King’s Singers and the BBC for the 2002 Proms, celebrating the present Queen’s Golden Jubilee. Joby Talbot, formerly of The Divine Comedy, was asked to compose a work in which to reflect Queen Elizabeth II’s life, as well as incorporating a 16th century madrigal-element, in reference to the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth. |
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ID: SIGCD061
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Vocal Collection
Subcollection: Choir
Signum Classics are proud to release the fourth disc from The King's Singers on Signum Classics - 1605: Treason and Dischord. On 5 November 1605 Guy Fawkes was caught preparing to detonate 36 barrels of gunpowder under the House of Lords unveiling an act of attempted treason that shocked the whole of Europe. What led a group of young Catholic men to risk their lives for their faith? 400 years later the King’s Singers and Concordia illuminate the dangers of hearing Mass in secret, of conspiracy and downfall, and of protestant relief and celebration, through a project of music and prose. The music, structured around Byrd’s perfect 4-part Mass, contains motets by Catholic composers, balanced with protestant anthems celebrating the downfall of the plot, and a commission from the British composer, Francis Pott. Master Tresham: His Ducke reflects on the ‘9/11’ of its day - 5/11/1605. The script, drawing on historic texts and written by Deborah Mackay for the quatercentenary concert series related to this CD, uses the dramatized persona of William Byrd, the most famous composer of his age, to recreate the atmosphere of change and hope in the Jacobean court. |
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ID: SIGCD501
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Subcollection: Choir
Sacred music by contemporary composers
Includes Tavener World Premiere Recording
Signum Records is delighted to announce the release of Tenebrae's second disc, Mother and Child
Tenebrae has, in its short existence, made a considerable impact with fresh and vital re-interpretations of classic works in the choral repertoire. On this new recording, innovatory and lesser-known repertoire is drawn from contemporary sources, reflecting an exploratory approach which places the group artistically at the cutting edge.
This is a distinctive and distinguished collection of works by a number of living composers, many of whom have established themselves at the creative forefront of the choral scene in recent times.
Five of the tracks are world premier recordings:
Francis Pott: The souls of the righteous Sir John Tavener: Mother and Child Alexander L’Estrange: Lute-book lullaby Jeremy Filsell: O be joyful in the Lord Francis Pott: My song is love unknown
The centre-piece of the disc is a new commission - Mother and Child - by from the world acclaimed composer Sir John Taverner.
The universal aspect of motherhood is an idea to which Tavener has returned again and again in his music. Behind this concept lies that of infinite theophanic light, an idea common to all religious traditions. Tavener’s music here interpolates a poem by Brian Keeble with Greek and Sanskrit quotations, the latter in a climactic outburst. The music, having grown in crescendo, is joined by massive organ chords and develops to become an overwhelming pulsating texture at the climax, with awesome strokes sounded on a large Hindu temple gong. The clamour dissipates at the final invocation, ‘Hail Maria’, which is prayerful and contemplative. |
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ID: SIGCD502
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Chamber Music
Subcollection: Popular Classical Music Melodies
The King's Singers
Countertenors: David Hurley and Robin Tyson
Tenor: Paul Phoenix
Baritones: Philip Lawson and Gabriel Crouch
Bass: Stephen Connolly
Guest Artists
Drum (track 2): Gary Lovenest
String quartet (track 25): Sally Jackson - violin, Claire Ashby - violin, Joel Hunter - viola, Chris Worsey - cello. |
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ID: SIGCD504
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Brass Collection
Signum Records are delighted to present this world-class ensemble, led by trumpeter Graham Ashton. This group of talented New Yorkers have performed the works of James Pugh and Daniel Schnyder in concerts across the globe.
The relationship between these two composers and the Brass Ensemble has developed far beyond mutual friendship and respect. Since the year 2000, when James Pugh first wrote "And Flights of Angels" for the group, the ensemble have seldom performed a concert without a selection of his and Daniel’s music. Both James and Daniel now write many pieces exclusively for these players, and have created a close and successful partnership, both on stage and off.
The world of brass music is relatively under-explored, and James Pugh (Professor of Trombone at Purchase College, State University of New York) and Daniel Schnyder (Composer-in-Residence with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra) have specialised in a repertoire that is both fun, challenging and extremely versatile.
A champion of brass ensemble music, Graham Ashton reformed the Graham Ashton Brass Ensemble (GABE) upon relocating to New York in 1999. The ensemble quickly made its mark by drawing together an eclectic mix of Manhattan's most distinguished brass players from the Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and American Symphony. GABE made their New York début in 2000 at the 25th Anniversary conference of the International Trumpet Guild. |
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