Wigmore Soloists – Ferguson, Bliss & Holloway: Chamber Music (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:13:47 minutes | 2,29 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
Following their critically acclaimed albums of Schubert (BIS-2597), Mozart and Birchall (BIS-2647), works for clarinet trio (BIS-2535) and, more recently, Beethoven and Berwald (BIS-2707), the Wigmore Soloists now turn their attention to twentieth-century English chamber works which, while eschewing some of the continent’s modernist tendencies, are both deeply personal and supremely written, highlighting the specific colours of each of the instruments. Howard Ferguson’s Octet, a direct and engaging work, was the first of his works to attract attention. Ferguson’s skill is brilliantly demonstrated in this tonally ambiguous work, which takes its instrumentation from Schubert’s famous Octet. The main characteristic of Sir Arthur Bliss’s Clarinet Quintet, like those of Mozart and Brahms with the same instrumental line-up, is its intense, overtly emotional lyricism, but the sunny, extrovert aspects of Bliss’s character ultimately prevail in the brilliantly energetic finale. Robin Holloway’s Serenade in C for octet is the most recent work on this disc, and also features the instrumentation of Schubert’s Octet, which the composer acknowledges as a model. Few contemporary composers display as keen a sense of humour as Holloway who wished here to give “an affectionate twist to tonal common practice and light-music clichés all the way from Biedermeier Vienna to Southend Pier”.
Read more![Michael Collins, Philharmonia Orchestra, Wigmore Soloists, Robin O'Neill - Mozart & Birchall: Clarinet Concertos (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/04/22/g4bo76ty801sc_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Michael Collins, Philharmonia Orchestra, Wigmore Soloists, Robin O’Neill – Mozart & Birchall: Clarinet Concertos (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:21:16 minutes | 1,42 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © BIS
The two concertos performed here by Michael Collins and the Philharmonia Orchestra were both intended for a specific player – Mozart composed his for Anton Stadler and Richard Birchall for Michael Collins himself. Both works – as well as Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet – were also written for a particular instrument: the basset clarinet, a slightly larger and deeper clarinet than the one in A which soon after Mozart had written his concerto became the standard. At the very core of the clarinet repertoire, the two works by Mozart have until recently been played on the A clarinet, with necessary adjustments being made to the solo part. Nowadays, however, they are more and more often performed on the instrument they were intended for.
(more…)
Wigmore Soloists – Mozart, Schumann & Others: Clarinet Trios (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:08:23 minutes | 2,19 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
As core members of the ensemble Wigmore Soloists, Michael Collins, Isabelle van Keulen and Michael McHale present four works for clarinet trio composed over a period of some 130 years. Mozart’s Kegelstatt Trio was long believed to have been composed during a game of bowling. The writing is reminiscent of a conversation between three friends in which contrasts are not excluded: we hear affection, divergences and even disagreements. This atmosphere of friendly, playful, and sometimes very intimate exchange also pervades Schumann’s Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tales). While its spirited conviviality might give the impression that this work was the product of idyllic times, it was actually composed during Schumann’s last full year of sanity before his final mental collapse in 1854.
Read more
Wigmore Soloists – Schubert: Octet in F Major, Op. Posth. 166, D. 803 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:01:33 minutes | 2,01 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
Formed in 2020, Wigmore Soloists is a chamber ensemble made up of a roster of outstanding musicians, led by Isabelle van Keulen and Michael Collins. An associate ensemble of the iconic London concert venue Wigmore Hall, it is the first one to be given the honour of using the name. The core line-up of string quintet, wind quintet and piano makes it possible to perform a wide and varied repertoire, and for its first recording the ensemble has chosen one of the larger works in the chamber music literature, in terms of duration as well as the forces involved.
Read more