Reviews

Music for Chamber Orchestra owes much to Shostakovich and the English string tradition. Two Pictures is a winsome diptych, the Concerto for Trombone a jovial divertissement. Best of all is A Song for Chris, an ear tingling cello concerto of ingenuity, beauty and substance. Tovey, conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra, does Gregson proud.

Andrew Clark Financial Times (March 2011)

During the past several years, Chandos has issued a number of excellent CDs of the orchestral music of Edward Gregson, and this latest issue continues the very welcome exploration of this remarkable compress’s output … A Song for Chris is a memorial cello concerto … It is a beautifully balanced work, and is quietly impressive … The recording is of the quality we have come to expect as standard from Chandos; the result is a most welcome CD of no little distinction.

Robert Matthew-Walker International Record Review (Jan 2011)

A splendid showcase not only for the composer and the two excellent soloists but also for the BBC Concert Orchestra, excelling itself under the Canadian conductor Bramwell Tovey.  Brilliant, cleanly focused Chandos sound.

Edward Greenfield Gramophone (March 2011)

Chandos’s third disc of music by Edward Gregson presents the premiere recordings of five pieces composed over a time span of more than forty years.  The album benefits from the top notch playing of various BBC Young Musician of the Year prize-winning soloists … Guy Johnston’s richly nuanced playing  [in A Song for Chris] makes for an emotive presentation of a work infused with poignant quotations from Shostakovich’s 3rd String Quartet and Cello Concerto No 1.  A mellifluous, soaring melody concludes the piece, Gregson confounding expectations at the very last moment.  This is a formidable release, excellently presented.

Norman Jacobs, Muso (February/March 2011)

This release is the worthy successor to the earlier volumes, be it for the high quality of the playing, the very fine recorded sound and – most importantly – the quality of the music itself.  I hope that more will follow soon.  In the meantime I cannot but recommend this release most heartily.

Hubert Culot, MusicWeb International