Recital (NSRCD004): Recital is a CD where two musicians, Matthew McAllister (guitar) and Aisling Agnew (flute) play a very wide variety of music, from Bach (his sonata BWV1034) to very modern works by Dave Heath, Greg Caffrey and David Fennessy – with plenty of works in between! I found the whole CD quite enthralling, wonderful individual musicianship and yet quite obvious “togetherness”. It was simply amazing how much just these two instruments could achieve, and how much they could put over to the listener. To say it is worth listening to is putting it very mildly! Whether it is the variety of flute-playing demonstrated, or the continuo of the guitar (in the Bach sonata particularly), every note is well worth repeated playing!

I had never heard some of the modern works, but their impact is tremendous, whether it is the power of “Pluck, Blow” (Greg Caffrey) or the mystery of “Continuity Error “ (David Fennessy), and one can easily listen to “Gentle Dreams” (Dave Heath) again and again. These three form the middle part of the whole performance, after that we are back to more well-known music, a
wonderful arrangement of “Carmen Fantasie” by Francois Bome, followed by Poulenc’s “Mouvements Perpetuels” and finally Maurice Ravel’s “Pavane pour une infante defunte”. All in all a delightful programme, quite superbly played.

For an introduction to the wide variety of music played by just these two instruments, this CD is excellent in every aspect – thoroughly recommended.

Recital (NSRCD004): Even though the cover of this album depicts two instruments with a long tradition of their own, it is really an album about the interaction between two Classical musicians very much in touch with the present. Aisling Agnew and Matthew McAllister know their way in the digital domain, in the confinements of a studio surrounding and in the splintered landscape of 21st century composition, while at the same time cherishing the purity of a traditional concert with baroque and impressionist pieces. “Recital”, therefore, can be seen as a summary of what they are about, both aesthetically and programatically.

Recital (NSRCD004): The Agnew / McAllister duo once again show their talents as arrangers in a super presentation of the Fantasie from ‘Carmen’ where Aisling Agnew displays her highly polished, fluid technique to its best advantage. The programme concludes in French style with,once again two enjoyable performances of the Poulenc and Ravel works. Throughout this recording the duo handles all the technical and musical requirements with aplomb and have produced a most alluring disc.