Review of New Music with Guitar vol. 10 by David Starobin, Bridge Records, 2016
This is the last record, part of a collection of ten cds dedicated to contemporary music for guitar. A truly remarkable achievement for an independent record label, an interesting and continuous work that lasts from more than thirty-five years since the first volume, product as a vinyl record released in 1981.
In these thirty-five years everything has fundamentally changed, everything.., society, politics, even the way we listen to and enjoy our favourite music. It’s even changed the same way of composing and producing music.
What has not changed is Bridge Records’s style and David Starobin’s desire to promote and to record so much good new music for our favourite instrument.
This disc doesn’t show any works for solo guitar but for duo or ensemble, showing a greater preference for chamber music.
The CD contains eight passages, only one of them, The Girl from Yerevan, does not provide for the use of voice. All songs, with the exception of Steps Gregg Smith, dated 1975 and Four Stevens by the same Starobin, 1992, are from the last decade. The result is as always remarkable and interesting, Starobin and his colleagues (baritone Patrick Mason, soprano Rosalind Rees, pianist Vassily Primakov, violinist Movses Pogossian and violist Paul Coletti) are really excellent musicians and confirm their skills as interpreters . I wish that Bridge Records will release again more and more records, my compliments for their incredible job.
1) Gregg Smith: Steps (1975)
Rosalind Rees, soprano
David Starobin, guitar
2) William Bland: Variations on a Theme by Carl Nielsen- “Underlige Aftenlufte” (2010)
David Starobin, guitar
Vassily Primakov, piano
3-6) Michael Starobin: Four Stevens (1992)
Patrick Mason, baritone
David Starobin, guitar
7) Paul Chihara: The Girl from Yerevan (2014)
David Starobin, guitar
Movses Pogossian, violin
Paul Coletti, viola
8) Poul Ruders: Oh, Mother (from the opera, “The Thirteenth Child”) (2015)
Camille Zamora, soprano
Robert Belinic, guitar
Giovanni Andrea Zanon, violin
Jee Yoon Kim, violin
Thomas Howerton, viola
Blake Anthony Johnson, cello
David Starobin, conductor
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