Reviews
The Dazzling Universe of Symphonic Jazz
David Owen Norris with the Luxembourg Philharmonic, conducted by Bramwell Tovey
.. the influence of jazz on European music was also brilliantly illustrated by a work brimming over with vitality, by the Czech composer Jaroslav Jezek. We heard his Concerto for piano and orchestra, a piece where the composer marries his native melodic spirit with the flavours of jazz in a vast palette of subtleties. For Jezek's jazz is voluptuous, sliding away to impalpable dreams.
The pianist David Owen Norris, by turns virtuosic, burning, dreaming the blues in notes of nostalgia, now light, now deeply meaningful, sparkled in the rhythms, and enchanted us by his multi-facetted personality, with a freedom that showed itself in every phrase of his interpretation.
Hilda van Heel
D'Wort Luxembourg 22ix05
Naxos CD of Quilter Song Arrangements, released April 2005
(Naxos 8.557495) Amanda Pitt, Joanne Thomas, Philip Langridge, David Wilson-Johnson
Recorded February and August 2004, Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton.
Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone January 2006
Not surprisingly, given the calibre of the artists involved, performances are consistently sympathetic, soprano Amanda Pitt and mezzo Joanne Thomas blending especially well. David Owen Norris's accompaniments are past praise in their scrupulous sensitivity. Clean and true sound, too.
MusicWeb (Anne Ozorio)
An important recording .. a worthy addition to British song history. …charming and natural. Langridge and Pitt come over particularly well. Owen Norris negotiates Quilter's subtle arrangements with aplomb.
MusicWeb (Ian Lace)
Just think of his treatment of the Scottish song ‘Ye banks and braes' sung most sympathetically by Amanda Pitt. She rises so well to the rhythmic and tempi challenges of the following arrangement of ‘Charlie is my darling' while David Owen Norris has fun with its amusing and rousing march-like piano line, a delicious accompaniment. And the depth of feeling that they convey in that lovely song of regret ‘Ca the yowes to the knowes'.
Imagine : Elgar and the Missing Piano Concerto (BBC1 TV)
Produced by John Bridcut. Norris contributed to the documentary, and was the soloist in the performance with David Lloyd-Jones and the BBC Concert Orchestra (a quite different performance from the one on the Dutton CD, interesting in its differences, but equally valid. This filmed performance will be available on DVD in 2006.)
James Walton Daily Telegraph November 24 th 2005
But Life in the Undergrowth wasn't BBC 1's only documentary triumph of the night. Imagine … returned on top form with an almost defiantly esoteric programme about Edward Elgar's great lost piano concerto. The programme was followed by the finished concerto's first TV performance.
What made it so good was that it made no concessions to classical-music ignoramuses – such as me. Usually, classical music is the subject which sees television at its most excruciatingly determined not to frighten us off with anything that smacks of elitism. Here, knowledgable people were simply invited to tell us about their subject. This uncompromising approach proved far more informative, interesting and enjoyable than any of the supposedly viewer-friendly documentaries. It also had the advantage of not making us feel hopelessly patronised.
Peter Paterson Daily Mail November 24 th 2005
Much of the credit for the piece – and it did sound remarkably like a work from Elgar's own pen – has to go to pianist David Owen Norris.
Sir Edward Elgar : Piano Concerto (realised by Robert Walker)
(Dutton CDLX 7148)
Recorded October 2004, Abbey Road Studios, David Lloyd-Jones BBCCO
Editor's Choice in Gramophone April 2005
‘…most moving … dashing conviction exhibited by David Owen Norris.'
Gramophone
‘ a must-have disc…. brilliantly and delightfully played…'
International Record Review
Elgar's Solo Piano Music Vol. One
Elgar Editions EECD002
Recorded November 2002, Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton.
Robert Matthew-Walker in International Record Review (September 2003)
Norris plays superbly, with melting passage-work and delicate phrasing throughout, alongside strength and power when called for. His sense of style is superb – this disc deserves every success.
Stephen Johnson in BBC Music Magazine (September 2003)
The outstanding work is the Concert Allegro , and having heard Norris's performance I simply can't get over how much more impressive it sounds than on the rare occasions I've heard it before. It has brilliance, fantastical humour, and best of all Norris knows how to make Elgar's long chains of sequences sound expressive. Altogether an enjoyable collection, played with obvious devotion.
Lewis Foreman in British Music Society News (Summer 2003)
This is a wonderful example of practical musicology by a pianist totally in sympathy with his subject – intelligent, idiomatic playing, a sympathetic, eminently realistic recorded sound, and the promise of other volumes to follow; it could not be better.
The World's First Piano Concertos (1769-1774)
Johann Christian BACH (1735-1782) Concertos in Eb and G Op.7 Nos. 5 and 6
Carl Friedrich ABEL (1723-1787) Concerto in Bb Op.11 No.2
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791) Concerto in D K107
Philip HAYES (1738-1797) Concerto in A major
James HOOK (1746-1827) Concerto in D, Op.1 No.5
David Owen Norris (square piano)
Sonnerie: (Monica Huggett and Emilia Benjamin (violins); Joseph Crouch (cello))
Recorded December 2002, The Music Room, Hatchlands, Surrey, England.
AVIE AV 0014
Lewis Foreman on Musicweb.co.uk and in BMS News :
David Owen Norris triumphantly demonstrates .. the birth of the piano concerto in the London of the 1770s. The performances are poised and crisp, Norris scaling his pianism perfectly to the instrument. ….. fascinating and erudite booklet…. practical musicology at its best, at once enjoyable and enlightening.
Stanley Sadie in Gramophone (July 2003 issue) :
David Owen Norris combines archaeology and accuracy to intriguing and entertaining effect
The sound of these instruments is a delight, as played by David Owen Norris – clear, sweet and gentle, though quite incisive. The music is beautifully played, on just the right scale, with neat and crisp fingerwork from Norris in the quick movements and with a real understanding of the expressive nature of galant music in the slow ones – so many players hurry these movements along and it is refreshing to hear a player who gives them time to unfold. And the cadenzas are appropriate in proportion and style.
Richard Wigmore in BBC Music Magazine , July 2003:
Owen Norris is a lively advocate of both instrument and music, with many deft and witty touches of timing and a subtle feeling for the tender galanterie of the slow movements, while the accompanying string trio play with plenty of character and rhythmic life.
Music Week :
…inspired plan – outstanding Avie disc ….
Anna Picard in The Independent on Sunday 24iv03 :
…impeccable historical pedigree … Norris's playing is excellent ; nimble and delightfully temperate, with Sonnerie taking a genial backseat to the delicate, silvery sound of the Zumpe pianos.
Jessica Duchen on Classic fm Magazine 's Discovery of the Month (April 03):
Norris works expressive wonders …
David Cairns in The Sunday Times 25v03 :
… interesting and instructive. David Owen Norris and Monica Huggett have brought a piece of music history intriguingly to life.
D James Ross in Early Music Forum of Scotland News :
… rich in invention and virtuosity ... compelling performances … a disc of much more than technical interest. The repertoire and playing are delicious and a revelation to players of the later instrument, which can only feel and sound cumbersome by comparison to its delicate ancestor.
With Amanda Pitt, soprano
RNCM Schumann&Brahms Festival, January 2005
Manchester Evening News
...a fine and poised delivery of Robert Schumann's Frauen-liebe und Leben cycle, plus songs by Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms - all, arguably, composed or first tried out at this very piano.
The Independent
The youthful singer of these expressions of warm sentiment was the soprano
Amanda Pitt. Pitt's simple and direct interpretation was wonderfully free
from the cloying sentimentality or mawkish coyness that has ruined
performances by many more illustrious singers.
