Winter Fragments: Chamber Music by Michael Berkeley - Fleur Barron (mezzo-soprano), Berkeley Ensemble, Dominic Grier (conductor) - Resonus Classics - RES10223

Winter Fragments: Chamber Music by Michael Berkeley

£12.99
Total playing time [59:03]

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Fleur Barron (mezzo-soprano)
Berkeley Ensemble
Dominic Grier (conductor)

Following on from their lauded recording of chamber works by their namesake, Lennox Berkeley, the Berkeley Ensemble – celebrating their 10th anniversary – return to Resonus Classics to turn their attention to the music of his son, Michael.

In the year of his 70th birthday, the ensemble record a selection of Michael’s chamber works from across the last thirty-five years, including the virtuosic Catch Me if You Can and the Clarinet Quintet. The Ensemble are joined by mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron and conductor Dominic Grier for Winter Fragments, Sonnet for Orpheus, and the poignant Seven.

Album Booklet (PDF)

Tracklist

Catch Me If You Can (1994)
1. Vivo
2. Mesto
3. Presto

4. Clarinet Quintet (1983)

Winter Fragments (1996)
5. Winter fragments the earth
6. Death lies on her
7. The reeling clouds stagger
8. Frozen still
9. A widow bird sate mourning
10. Silent and soft
11. Time that knows more

12. Sonnet for Orpheus
from Three Rilke Sonnets (2010)

13. Seven (2007)

“

'[The album ranges] from the 1983 Clarinet Quintet, with its medieval-pastoral strain, to an impassioned Rilke sonnet setting for mezzo-soprano and cello: Barron compels here and in the seven Winter Fragments (1996). The wind quintet Catch Me If You Can (1994) makes a spruce opener.'

- The Sunday Times

'The chamber context provides such an effective vehicle for one of his music’s most distinctive features – the often dichotomous interplay between the individual and the group […] The Berkeley Ensemble, directed by Dominic Grier, are excellent throughout – entirely at one with the music of their namesake composer.'
Gramophone

'An attractive disc of five chamber pieces...These range from the 1983 Clarinet Quintet, with its medieval-pastoral strain, to an impassioned Rilke sonnet setting for mezzo-soprano and cello: Barron compels here and in the seven Winter Fragments (1996).'
The Sunday Times

'The Berkeley Ensemble, conducted by Dominic Grier and dedicated to music of the 20th and 21st centuries, provides endlessly responsive playing, whether alone or as part of the Winter Fragments song cycle, sung by Fleur Barron, who is also exceptional in the Sonnet for Orpheus.'
The Observer

'A disc which will give a great deal of pleasure, and one which leaves me longing for more.'
MusicWeb International

'[...] the pieces receive very fine performances from the performers, and this is a disc which enables you not only to explore Berkeley's music but to experience how it has changed over the years.'
Planet Hugill

© 2018 Resonus Limited
Ⓟ 2018 Resonus Limited
Catalogue No. RES10223
Producer, engineer & editor: Adam Binks
EAN: 5060262791301
Release date: 28 September 2018
Cover image: Winter Landscape by Printeboek (www.pixabay.com)