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Recording – Deadly Pleasures

A CD recorded by Counterpoise is also available on the Deux-Elles label. See http://www.counterpoise.org.uk/cd.php for sample extracts and to purchase.

Trumpet-and-organ in accord

Deborah Calland has established quite a niche for herself at a time when the trumpet is enjoying prominence as a primary colour in many contemporary musical landscapes. Her sound is assured and communicative, at once raunchy in the compelling Three Orations by Huw Watkins and John Hawkins’s Sortie, yet innately lyrical with all the risks inherent in Rhian Samuel’s and Robin Holloway’s exposed and atmospheric creations.

Far from a heavy-going recital of an unfashionable duo medium (at least in this country), Calland and the prize-winning organist William Whitehead seek out vibrancy of timbre and a definition of character rarely achieved in reverberant buildings, where the best organs tend to reside.

Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, Gramophone

Deadly Pleasures

The acclaimed ensemble Counterpoise brings its groundbreaking repertoire to CD for the first time with two of its most successful commissions for spoken narrator and ensemble. In John Casken's Deadly Pleasures, Donald Maxwell tells the story of nights of passion and subsequent forfeits at Cleopatra's court, while in David Matthews' Actaeon, Eleanor Bron narrates Ovid's tale of Diana and Actaeon in Ted Hughes' vibrant translation. Britten's jazz-inflected Cabaret Suite and the Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, played on the soprano saxophone, complete the programme.

...the insightful characterisations of Deborah Calland’s expressive trumpet, and the attentive focus of William Whitehead...

Paul Riley, BBC Music Magazine

Counterpoise

Together with other members of the ensemble – Alexandra Wood, Kyle Horch, and Iain Farrington – Deborah has recently made a recording featuring two works the ensemble has commissioned. See www.counterpoise.org.uk for further details.

North Star was chosen by Michael Church as Disc of the Week in The Independent and selected by Radio 3's CD Review for The Listening Booth.

All in all, a rewarding and stimulating collection of contemporary British music which makes a very worthwhile contribution to the trumpet-and-organ genre. The playing throughout is impeccable and persuasive and the recorded sound is excellent. Glyn Pursglove, Music Web