"A good introduction to the original and skilful gift that Dodgson clearly had for word setting. James Gilchrist colours the texts perfectly, ideally capturing the mood. Roderick Williams is wonderfully sensitive and he is also in top form especially in duetting with Katie Bray in the Bush Ballads."
A Musicweb 'Recording of the Month', "this album reveals a composer whose relationship with his texts is more active and more critically alert than other art-song composers. Having the opportunity to hear the music Dodgson went on to make from those texts in performances of this quality is a real gift."
Out today! Vol. 3 Dodgson solo songs 'Turn Ye to Me'. Ailish Tynan, Katie Bray, James Gilchrist, Roderick Williams, Mark Eden & Christopher Glynn. Lyrical, yearning, playful and gritty!
'Dark, funny, gritty, charming and witty, profound, accessible and beautiful.' After a fantastic couple of days recording Dodgson's Bassoon Concerto, Clarinet Concerto, Symphony in Eb and Idyll for strings, the Outcry Ensemble share their perspectives on Dodgson's music.
Dodgson's Mary Coleridge poems were warmly beguiling with an underlying seam of something rather more fretful and unsettled, a quality that Dodgson achieved so brilliantly. A lovely evening with a gently warm and buzzing atmosphere, and Sonoro were on excellent form – full of richness and versatility.
‘A vibrant, dramatic and playful approach to a contemporary text.’
‘It’s funky and it’s poetic, and it’s very evocative of a hot summer’s day.’
‘An enigmatic and interesting composer, and one I would like to explore some more.’
‘It’s a very surprising and very engaging piece, and very unusual. It’s a privilege to perform it and I hope that’s how our audience will feel when they hear it as well.’
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Vivamus share their experience of singing Stephen Dodgson's Canticle of the Sun.
Student violinist Kangmin Kim reflects on contrasting works by Holst and Dodgson, performed at the opening concert of the Barnes Music Festival. Two composers from Barnes, yet two strikingly contrasting approaches to writing for strings. On the opening night of the Barnes Music Festival 2025 (15th March), the theme of music and literature was explored through a programme made up of music by Dodgson, Britten, Mozart and Holst. Performed by the Academy of St Martin’s in the Fields, the concert opened with a contemporary and abstract showcase of Stephen Dodgson’s Essay No. 7, contrasted with the final work – an […]
In the opening-night Barnes Music Festival concert, ASMF brought wonderful rich, crisp textures to their performance. And players and audience responded warmly and thoughtfully to Stephen Dodgson's atmospheric Essay No. 7, gently full of different full of different personalities: major-minor cross-modalities, rhythmic interest and constantly shifting cross-rhythms, interwoven with more nebulous parts that are almost ‘kaleidoscopically coming into and out of focus'.