News

25-year-old Singaporean guitarist Kevin Loh has won second prize at the renowned Guitar Foundation of America's 'International Concert Artist Competition' in New York with a superb performance including Stephen Dodgson's Fantasy Divisions.

Mark Eden's guitar provides the recording’s ear-catching opening with the Four Poems of John Clare [sung by] James Gilchrist... Elsewhere, pianist Christopher Glynn adroitly elicits the diverse character of each song, emphatic and unruly in Irishry, yet inscrutably supporting soprano Ailish Tynan’s sublimely ethereal ‘Psyche’ from Tideways... Roderick Williams is typically captivating in the storytelling of the Bush Ballads... These approachable, sometimes quirky vignettes could hardly have better advocates.

An excellent aspect of this disc is that we have a wide variety of star-studded voices adding interest throughout with the guitar (for which Dodgson was brilliant at writing) and recorder. In all there are 26 songs here and that includes five cycles and these are, attractively, divided between the voices. The texts stretch from light verse through Gerard Manley Hopkins and Walter de la Mare. In the accompanying essays, Dodgson’s style and language is neatly summed up as ‘a tonal-based inspiration and a natural creative communicative desire’, although Matthew-Walker does add that Dodgson clearly has his own personal voice. And, one must agree with him that Dodgson has been ‘unfairly neglected’.

The album’s title is owed to Stephen Dodgson, eight delightful vignettes, beautifully crafted, which fall on grateful ears. Throughout, Emma Abbate and Julian Perkins play as one, with dedication and shared pleasure.

Captured in beguilingly immediate sound that creates the impression of Emma Abbate and Julian Perkins playing in your living room, this is a recording I have already returned to several times simply for the pleasure of hearing two players at the top of their game.

We're delighted to announce that guitarist Sungbin Cho has won second prize at the Royal Academy of Music's concerto competition with Stephen Dodgson's Guitar Concerto No. 1. Cho also won the International Guitar Competition in October with a programme which featured Dodgson's Partita No. 1.

Announcing the release of 'Tournament for Twenty Fingers', a collection of piano duets performed by Julian Perkins and Emma Abbate, featuring the Dodgson suite by the same name and his Sonata for piano duet alongside works by Berkeley, Arnell and Lambert.

Duo Guitartes perform Stephen Dodgson's Promenade 1 which featured on their recent release 'Colloquy', a sublime disc of guitar compositions.

Osman Tack's delightful recital of Stephen Dodgson's Six Bagatelles Set 2 and Chopin's 24 Preludes at the Barnes Music Festival.