John Turner, Annabelle Lawson, Lawson Trio, Matthew Scott &
Release Date: 15 March 2019
Label: Prima Facie
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 0712396065425
Genres: Classical Contemporary Classical
Description
The latest album from Prima Facie, "On The Shoreline" features music by Gordon Crosse. This neglected composer was at one time a leading light of his generation but chose to take the road less travelled in pursuit of artistic excellence. The artists on the album, including John Turner (recorder), Annabelle Lawson (piano), Lawson Trio, Matthew Scott (clarinet) and Christine Zerafa (piano), perform works that are as hauntingly beautiful as they are unique harmonically and conceptually.
Much of Crosse's work reflects his interest in the dramatic and literary arts. This is evident not only in his four operas (of which "The Story of Vasco" was premiered at the London Coliseum), but also in many of his concert works. Examples are "Memories of Morning: Night", for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, based on Jean Rhys's novel Wide Sargasso Sea and "World Within", for actress, soprano and ten players, with a text taken from the writings of Emily Brontë. From the late 1980s Crosse became heavily involved with computer technology and ceased composing. However, the hiatus was broken in 2008, when he wrote a new collection of songs to words by Rudyard Kipling for the eightieth birthday of his friend Sir John Manduell, and since then he has been extremely prolific. Recent works, in addition to those mentioned in the notes to this CD, include five new string quartets, two more symphonies, a viola concerto, a third violin concerto, several choral works, a Second Elegy (in memory of his late father), an oboe trio, "Brief Encounter" for recorder, oboe d'amore and strings, and a handful of solos for various wind instruments and piano, written mainly for friends.
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
"I relished this new CD of music by Gordon Crosse from end to end. Every work is full of interest, always listenable and occasionally challenging. I hope that many more recordings of Crosse's music (he has a considerable back catalogue and is still busily composing) will be issued soon. In the present disc he has ideal interpreters of his unique compositional achievement." - Recording of the Month, July 2019, MusicWeb International
Tracklisting
Xuefei Yang, Johannes Moser, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Or
Kenneth Hamilton
Michael Cretu
Laura Serra
Vladimir Miller, Neil Latchman, Keri Farish
Terence Charlston, Julian Perkins
John Turner & Neil Smith
I Solisti Di Londra & Aleksander Szram
Gavin Bryars
Nikolaus Heyduck
Ostrava New Orchestra, Owen Underhill, Ostravska Banda, Petr Kotik, Elision Ensemble, Arditti Quartet, Switch~ Ensemble, Jason Thorpe Buchanan
Gavin Bryars
Ilse Eerens, Tomoko Kasai, Mayumi Miyata, Masanori Oishi, Saori Oya, Naoko Yoshino
L'Itineraire, Leo Margue
Hashtag Ensemble
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins, Andrew Davis
