Anthems After Prometheus

"The beginning of the notes by Allen Shawn on this superb disc of new music is so immodest on Amy Williams' behalf as to almost sound like braggadocio. And within the circumscribed audiences for new music, what Shanw says is not only phenomenally accurate but revealing about what makes her work appealing – so much more, in fact, than a huge number of composers her age. The performance level here is so high that any worries about classical new music having too hopelessly narrow an audience to communicate clearly are more than a little absurd. The best recording of Williams' music yet."

"No matter where we hear it, this album, titled Anthems After Prometheus, is an excellent collection of David Osbon's fascinating compositions played by musicians of great virtuosity."

"David Osbon is a British composer who obtained his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was one of the last students of George Crumb. Since then he has returned to the UK and is currently associate dean and head of graduate studies at the London College of Music. He also explored musical analysis at the University of Sussex. Violinist Timothy Schwarz offers a little note in Albany's booklet about his fascination with creative couples (Robert and Clara Schumann, for instance), in response to the dynamic at play here: The pianist of the Anglo-American Duo, Jane Beament, is Osbon's wife. There is certainly a pronounced feeling of rapport between violinist, pianist, and composition around the performance of Prometheus Sonata of 2017, in which the seven ages of man meet the seven deadly sins. The Five Hommages for violin and piano, premiered in 1999, celebrate Elgar, Beethoven, Messiaen, Crumb, and Nigel Kennedy respectively. Timothy Schwarz's control of his instrument in this movement (Messaien) is particularly impressive. The solo violin piece Into the Sun again takes as its basis another work by the composer All credit to Timothy Schwarz for providing a performance as gripping from first to last as this one. The violin is forward in the soundstage but, thankfully, not right in one's ear. Osbon's piece sustains its length via a core of intensity, an intensity that holds throughout the work's silences (around half way through). but the present disc indicates a deep thinker with a wide expressive palette and sound compositional technique. Even the title of the disc implies this depth of thought: Anthems after Prometheus