Recording
Frank Bridge: Isabella
“Howard Williams conducts a most impressively authoritative performance.”
THE GRAMOPHONE
Frank Bridge: The Christmas Rose
Bridge's Christmas opera spans a decade of major change for this composer. The work was largely sketched out the year after the end of the Great War. It was completed and scored by 1929 by which time his earlier 'British pastoral' style (evinced by Summer and The Sea) had given way to the tougher Bergian approach (evident from Enter Spring, String Quartet No. 3).
The bell-echoes of Enter Spring are strong in the Introduction and elsewhere. The music generally carries the stamp of George Butterworth and Bridge's own Ophelia picture - There is a Willow Grows Aslant a Brook. The music also touches the same nerves as Rutland Boughton's Bethlehem (not at all a jarring parallel) as well as various Christmas pieces by Vaughan Williams and Finzi. However it was the vocal technique in Berg's Lulu that was recalled by Scene 2. The choral and orchestral contributions show a sensitive understanding of varied dynamics which makes me want to hear Howard Williams' other Bridge interpretations on CD. I was sorry to have missed the Pearl CD of small orchestral pieces and the Tagore Songs and A Prayer were, sadly, never reissued from LP onto CD.
No text is provided in the otherwise admirable booklet but the singing articulates the words pretty well.
Rob Barnett MUSIC WEB INTERNATIONAL
Rossini & Donizetti: arias
“Howard Williams is the ideal partner, breathing life into every bar of the orchestration, especially notable in the Rossini pieces.”
THE GRAMOPHONE
Rózsa: Cello Concerto; Schurmann: The Gardens of Exile
“Conductor Howard Williams is totally caught up in the spirit of the two works, and he elicits fine ensemble playing from the Pécs Hungarian Symphony Orchestra.”
FANFARE
Edward Cowie: Concerto for Orchestra
“... it receives a magnificent performance under Howard Williams, and a first-rate recording, the frequent large climaxes encompassed without distortion and the sound in general warm and clear.”
THE GRAMOPHONE
Philip Glass: Another Look at Harmony, Pt 4
“The results are …. a triumph. The choir and organist have taken a piece which owes its existence to the idea of structured, almost computer-controlled repetition and given it a whole new life in a live acoustic. What we gain is a feeling of live acoustic, of a real living performance. The choir give the piece vitality and vividness….
The results give a striking new sound to Glass’s familiar world. “
MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL
“Glass’s gradually expanding and contracting sequences eventually generate musical peaks and troughs of quite monumental proportions. Such moments are heard especially during the closing sections of this recording, made by the impressive Choir of the 21st Century under Howard Williams.”
THE GRAMOPHONE
Elgar & Kodály: The Music Makers
“Set down live at a concert at St. John’s Smith Square last May, these two works receive committed, intimate readings from the compact forces of the Oxford Orchestra da Camera and its choir, under the sympathetic, sensitive conducting of Howard Williams. If effects are not as grand as those achieved by greater numbers on other recordings, this lean, forward approach (with some superb diction) adds an element of immediacy to works where the text is such a vital component.
... the listener returns again and again to these endearing performances of such moving music.”
BIRMINGHAM POST
“I have nothing but praise for this performance, distributing this equally between choir, orchestra, soloist, and conductor. The singing is wonderful. Right from the start we know we are in for a treat: witness the final sibilant ‘s’ of ‘We are the music makers’. Unanimity of this order comes from both intelligent choral brains and secure direction. Diction is superb, phrasing and breath control equally so. There is unanimity of attack and complete integration of vocal blend. The playing is inspired: rich strings, fat, opulent brass, marvellous woodwind and wonderful timpani, snare drum and cymbals. The soloist, Christina Wilson, has a voice to drool over: powerful, majestic. Mezzo she may be but rich contralto she sounds: a perfect ‘line’, impeccable diction, the voice always beautifully ‘placed’. But what leaps out of this performance is the wonderful direction of Howard Williams. This piece is a nightmare drive of sudden gearshifts, U-turns of tempo, mood swings all too obviously reflecting Elgar’s character. Williams may be driving a Rolls-Royce, but his foot on the accelerator and brake is light as a feather and solid as a rock. It is a superb piece of performance management.
This is a CD to treasure. I shall listen to it often—for Kodály’s relatively innocent yet virile choral piece, his superb orchestral work, and a superlative performance of the Elgar. SOMM are to be congratulated on their enterprise.”
ELGAR SOCIETY JOURNAL
“Howard Williams conducts a most impressively authoritative performance.”
THE GRAMOPHONE
Frank Bridge: The Christmas Rose
Bridge's Christmas opera spans a decade of major change for this composer. The work was largely sketched out the year after the end of the Great War. It was completed and scored by 1929 by which time his earlier 'British pastoral' style (evinced by Summer and The Sea) had given way to the tougher Bergian approach (evident from Enter Spring, String Quartet No. 3).
The bell-echoes of Enter Spring are strong in the Introduction and elsewhere. The music generally carries the stamp of George Butterworth and Bridge's own Ophelia picture - There is a Willow Grows Aslant a Brook. The music also touches the same nerves as Rutland Boughton's Bethlehem (not at all a jarring parallel) as well as various Christmas pieces by Vaughan Williams and Finzi. However it was the vocal technique in Berg's Lulu that was recalled by Scene 2. The choral and orchestral contributions show a sensitive understanding of varied dynamics which makes me want to hear Howard Williams' other Bridge interpretations on CD. I was sorry to have missed the Pearl CD of small orchestral pieces and the Tagore Songs and A Prayer were, sadly, never reissued from LP onto CD.
No text is provided in the otherwise admirable booklet but the singing articulates the words pretty well.
Rob Barnett MUSIC WEB INTERNATIONAL
Rossini & Donizetti: arias
“Howard Williams is the ideal partner, breathing life into every bar of the orchestration, especially notable in the Rossini pieces.”
THE GRAMOPHONE
Rózsa: Cello Concerto; Schurmann: The Gardens of Exile
“Conductor Howard Williams is totally caught up in the spirit of the two works, and he elicits fine ensemble playing from the Pécs Hungarian Symphony Orchestra.”
FANFARE
Edward Cowie: Concerto for Orchestra
“... it receives a magnificent performance under Howard Williams, and a first-rate recording, the frequent large climaxes encompassed without distortion and the sound in general warm and clear.”
THE GRAMOPHONE
Philip Glass: Another Look at Harmony, Pt 4
“The results are …. a triumph. The choir and organist have taken a piece which owes its existence to the idea of structured, almost computer-controlled repetition and given it a whole new life in a live acoustic. What we gain is a feeling of live acoustic, of a real living performance. The choir give the piece vitality and vividness….
The results give a striking new sound to Glass’s familiar world. “
MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL
“Glass’s gradually expanding and contracting sequences eventually generate musical peaks and troughs of quite monumental proportions. Such moments are heard especially during the closing sections of this recording, made by the impressive Choir of the 21st Century under Howard Williams.”
THE GRAMOPHONE
Elgar & Kodály: The Music Makers
“Set down live at a concert at St. John’s Smith Square last May, these two works receive committed, intimate readings from the compact forces of the Oxford Orchestra da Camera and its choir, under the sympathetic, sensitive conducting of Howard Williams. If effects are not as grand as those achieved by greater numbers on other recordings, this lean, forward approach (with some superb diction) adds an element of immediacy to works where the text is such a vital component.
... the listener returns again and again to these endearing performances of such moving music.”
BIRMINGHAM POST
“I have nothing but praise for this performance, distributing this equally between choir, orchestra, soloist, and conductor. The singing is wonderful. Right from the start we know we are in for a treat: witness the final sibilant ‘s’ of ‘We are the music makers’. Unanimity of this order comes from both intelligent choral brains and secure direction. Diction is superb, phrasing and breath control equally so. There is unanimity of attack and complete integration of vocal blend. The playing is inspired: rich strings, fat, opulent brass, marvellous woodwind and wonderful timpani, snare drum and cymbals. The soloist, Christina Wilson, has a voice to drool over: powerful, majestic. Mezzo she may be but rich contralto she sounds: a perfect ‘line’, impeccable diction, the voice always beautifully ‘placed’. But what leaps out of this performance is the wonderful direction of Howard Williams. This piece is a nightmare drive of sudden gearshifts, U-turns of tempo, mood swings all too obviously reflecting Elgar’s character. Williams may be driving a Rolls-Royce, but his foot on the accelerator and brake is light as a feather and solid as a rock. It is a superb piece of performance management.
This is a CD to treasure. I shall listen to it often—for Kodály’s relatively innocent yet virile choral piece, his superb orchestral work, and a superlative performance of the Elgar. SOMM are to be congratulated on their enterprise.”
ELGAR SOCIETY JOURNAL
