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HAMILTON music for people who like art

The Irish composer Andrew Hamilton (b1977) writes what one might describe as informal process music, whereby very short musical fragments...

Reviewed by Fabrice Fitch in issue: 07/2018

GÓRECKI String Quartet No 3 (Dafô Quartet)

Górecki’s Third String Quartet remains one of his most indecipherable works. It is a meditation on death (the Russian poet...

Reviewed by Ivan Moody in issue: 08/2018

DOHNÁNYI Serenade. String Quartet No 3. Sextet (Nash Ensemble)

The Nash Ensemble dig into Dohnányi’s Serenade (1902) with gusto, relishing the music’s myriad felicities. If they don’t quite match...

Reviewed by Andrew Farach-Colton in issue: 07/2018

DEBUSSY; RAVEL Quartets (Jerusalem Quartet)

‘Don’t forget that my String Quartet was already conceived as four-part counterpoint, whereas Debussy’s Quartet is purely harmonic in design’,...

Reviewed by Tim Ashley in issue: 07/2018

COUPERIN Pièces de violes

Couperin’s E minor Suite for bass viol and continuo is possibly the most beautiful work for the instrument. We have...

Reviewed by Julie Anne Sadie in issue: 07/2018

BRAHMS Violin Sonatas (Kaakinen-Pilch, Hakkila)

This is the third period-instrument recording of Brahms’s violin sonatas I’ve heard, and by far the most illuminating. I admire...

Reviewed by Andrew Farach-Colton in issue: 07/2018

BIBER The Mystery Sonatas (Christina Day Martinson)

It’s 18 months since I reviewed all the available recordings of this wonderful cycle (Collection, 1/17), an experience that has...

Reviewed by Fabrice Fitch in issue: 07/2018

BEETHOVEN Symphonies Nos 4 & 5 (Jordan)

Beethoven wrote the Fourth Symphony to unblock problems he was encountering with what we now know as the Fifth. Karajan...

Reviewed by Richard Osborne in issue: 06/2018

ADAMS Violin Concerto (Josefowicz)

In his memoir Hallelujah Junction (Faber: 2008; 2/09), John Adams pays a glowing tribute to Leila Josefowicz’s tireless advocacy of...

Reviewed by Pwyll ap Siôn in issue: 06/2018

CRUSELL Clarinet Concertos (Collins)

I imagine I am not alone in having first been introduced to the name and music of Bernhard Henrik Crusell...

Reviewed by Jeremy Nicholas in issue: 06/2018

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