Music News

AOIFE O’DONOVAN

Aoife O’Donovan
Fossils
(Yep Roc Records, $16.98)
This is singer and songwriter Aoife O’Donovan’s first solo album, but you’ve heard her voice and her songs before. Aoife  (EE-fa) is the vocalist for Crooked Still and has been part of two wonderful projects in the last year or so: she sang two songs on Yo-Yo Ma’s new-grass Goat Rodeo Sessions, and traditional hymns and ballads on jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas’s Be Still. She also wrote “Lay My Burden Down,” covered by Alison Krauss. Fossils is filled with great songs from beginning to end—all originals—and inspired arrangements. For example, O’Donovan’s take on “Lay My Burden Down” features peeling pedal steel, soft brushes on snare drum, a ringing baritone electric guitar solo, harmony vocals, and the undertow of accordion and the mysterious mellotron. Highly recommended.

NEW CLASSICAL

The King’s Singers
Richafort: Requiem
(Signum Records, $18.98)
There is a long tradition of composers writing musical tributes to fellow composers who have died. Josquin Deprez (c.1450-1521) had a huge influence on both secular and sacred choral music in the Renaissance, and his death inspired many great works. The six vocalists of the King’s Singers center their program around Jean Richafort’s Requiem in Memorian Josquin Desprez, as well as works by Nicolas Gombert, Benedictus Appenzeller, Jacquet of Mantua, and Hieronymus Vinders. They also sing two pieces by Deprez in new editions prepared by David Skinner.

Emerson String Quartet
Journeys
(Sony Classical, $12.98)
The Emersons, joined by violist Paul Neubauer and cellist Colin Carr, play string sextets from the 1890s that embody different ideas of journeys. The quartet writes: “[Tchaikovsky’s] thrilling Souvenir de Florence could be experienced as a journey from Russia through central Europe to Italy, and back again…Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) depicts more of an internal journey, from anguish and psychological torment to acceptance and love.”

Martha Argerich and Friends
Live from Lugano 2012
(EMI Classics, Three CDs, $18.98)
Twelve years ago, pianist Martha Argerich started to mentor and collaborate with young classical players at the Lugano Festival in Switzerland. This is the tenth annual CD set which features the best of these performances, many featuring Argerich in duets, chamber music, and orchestral settings. Argerich is featured on Schumann, Mozart, and Smetana, and her friends join in some Mahler, Brahms, Prokofiev, and Medtner. There is also an arrangement of Debussy’s La Mer for three pianos.