James Gilchrist reviews
Legacy – A Tribute to Dennis Brain
Ben Goldscheider (horn), James Gilchrist (tenor), Huw Watkins (piano) (Three World Records)
Proud Songsters – English Solo Song
Michael Chance, Lawrence Zazzo, Tim Mead (countertenor), et al, Simon Lepper (piano) (King's College)
100 Years of British Song, Vol. 1
James Gilchrist (tenor), Nathan Williamson (piano) (SOMM)
Solitude
James Gilchrist (tenor), Anna Tilbrook (piano) (Chandos)
Penelope Thwaites: From Five Continents
Carolyn Sampson (soprano), James Gilchrist (tenor), et al; Ex Cathedra/Jeffrey Skidmore (SOMM)
Parry: Twelve Sets of English Lyrics, Vol. 2
Sarah Fox, James Gilchrist, Roderick Williams, Andrew West (Somm)
Beethoven: Missa solemnis
Ann-Helen Moen, Roxana Constantinescu, James Gilchrist, Benjamin Bevan, Ryo Terakado; Bach Collegium Japan/Masaaki Suzuki (BIS)
JS Bach: St Matthew Passion (King's)
Various; The Choir of King's College, Cambridge/Stephen Cleobury (King's College)
John Eliot Gardiner conducts JS Bach's St Matthew Passion
It is almost 30 years since John Eliot Gardiner made his first commercial recording of Bach’s Great Passion, as his family were accustomed to call it. Gardiner’s approach has not significantly changed over the decades though one discernible difference is a mixed male and female voice texture for the alto strand of the choral numbers as opposed to the all-male countertenor line up of the earlier version. I prefer the mixed sound though some readers may not.
Gritton, Gilchrist, Williams and West sing Parry
'With keen intelligence and a febrile vibrato which not all listeners will find congenial'
James Gilchrist and Anna Tilbrook Perform Robert Schumann's Song Cycles
Liederkreis, Opp. 24, 39 & 48
Bach: St Matthew Passion
Over two decades ago, Joshua Rifkin put theory into practice by recording Bach’s B minor Mass with just one singer to each part. Scholarly arguments over such economical forces have raged ever since, sometimes vitriolically, but McCreesh is the first to hazard them in the St Matthew Passion. The solo narrative is unaffected. Mark Padmore (Evangelist) describes events vividly, respecting Bach’s underlying recitative pulse but varying the dramatic pace freely, from perfunctory description of simple events to high drama – Peter’s weeping, Judas’s suicide.