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Challenging yet rewarding music, fine performance and recording.

Sonoro choir, conducted by Neil Ferris, celebrates the memory of Stephen Dodgson (1924–2013) with a selection of works which, without revolutionising the genre, attest to the composer's attachment to British poetry, such as the dazzling Canticle of the Sun. This colourful lively ensemble, with generous warmth of expression, finds the nocturnal atmosphere of the Poems of Mary Coleridge, woven together under the breath of a meandering flute.

Sonoro sings with precision and produces a vibrant and sumptuous sound. Singers from the choir are well equipped to take solo parts. Dodgson's choice of texts is keen. His compositional style seems to resist categorization. This is a very well performed and recorded album.

A first-rate volume, carefully crafted to appeal to both the average music-lover and the professional seeking more detailed information, this immediately becomes the definitive handbook on its subject. For a volume of this size and extremely modest price, there is an especially generous provision of colour plates – all excellently reproduced – together with other illustrations, photographs and music examples. This is an essential purchase and should win the composer many friends.

Stephen Dodgson's was always elegantly crafted and often quietly memorable, too, usually in a broadly tonal language but always sounding fresh. Such is assuredly the case with a generously fill disc of Dodgson’s piano works. Osman Tack is a thoughtful pianist and he allows Dodgson’s music to unfold naturally, giving it time to breathe and never forcing the pace – exemplary performances and very well recorded.

A very accomplished and enjoyable album. Dodgson's deft, beautiful scores stand the test of time. Sonoro are on marvellously pliant and virtuosic form. Performed with real commitment throughout, this is altogether a commendable selection that shines a welcome light on Dodgson’s appealing and engaging music.

PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★

Eight Fanciful Pieces are quite charming, with an air of impressionism about them. In Three Impromptus, we discover a more original and challenging mind at work. The Allegro is dramatic and quirky, one might say. The Andante semplice in 6/8 time is unpredictable, so it readily holds one’s attention. The ‘staccato-like dance’ of the Allegretto finale has touches of bi-tonality, wit and humour. Osman Tack brings it out wonderfully. Dodgson composed the Six Bagatelles when he was in his early 80s. This is a fascinating, mature and confident language. A very well filled disc.

It has been a pleasure to encounter this third issue of his music from the confident and enterprising chamber choir, Sonoro. Dodgson’s scores are assured and individual, while being somewhat akin to Leighton (especially in the writing for organ) or late Howells, and the superb settings of Coleridge and Herrick undoubtedly deserve far greater dissemination.

Pianist Osman Tack finds plenty of character in the charming ‘Eight Fanciful Preludes’ (1956), I enjoyed the zany ‘Crazy Kate’ and the limping off-kilter ‘Il Zoppo’ (‘The Cripple’). The ‘Four Moods of the Wind Suite’ (1968) is impressionistic, while the ‘Six Bagatelles’ Set 2 (1998-2005) are occasionally dark and disturbing. The ‘Three Impromptus’ (1962, revised 1985) and Piano Sonata No.7 (2003) exhibit Dodgson’s quirky tonal style, the type once called “wrong-note romanticism”. The recording, made at Potton Hall, is clear, spacious and impressively life-like.