Nomination for Recording of the Year
A recording featuring NZSM’s Senior Lecturer in Voice Jenny Wollerman has been nominated for MusicWeb International’s ‘Recording of the Year’ for 2015.
The recording is of Anthony Ritchie’s Symphony No. 4 'Stations', by the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra with Jenny Wollerman (soprano).
The 123 nominations for Recording of the Year were made by 21 members of the MusicWeb International reviewing team. The selection of Symphony No. 4 is a significant achievement given the calibre of the recording artists and recording labels that it was nominated alongside, such as Dorothea Röschmann with Malcolm Martineau, Gerald Finley, Jonas Kaufmann with Antonio Pappano, and Anna Netrebko on Deutsche Grammophon.
The nomination was made by reviewer Nick Barnard, who says it is “a very personal and powerful response to the earthquake that struck the country in 2011. Ritchie is a prolific composer but this strikes me as one of his profoundest and best works.”
Barnard wrote a glowing review of the recording earlier in the year, and at the time chose it as his 'recording of the month'.
"Ritchie has subtitled his Symphony Stations. It is scored for Symphony Orchestra and solo soprano and plays in fourteen continuous movements… I have not been as impressed by a contemporary piece of music since I heard Tommie Haglund's magnificent Hymns to the Night. Although of very different musical styles both works show that contemporary music can still speak in an intensely personal and deeply moving way. The fact that the source of Ritchie's inspiration lies entombed in the ruined cathedral [the Christchurch Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament] and might well never be recovered…adds power and poignancy. That aside this is a work for all times and all people. Ritchie's music speaks with a very individual yet accessible voice and his work - and certainly this symphony - deserves a wide audience."
“Station 9 is one of the most overtly illustrative sections of the work; ‘The wood is a hammer that drives me into the ground’ is dramatically illustrated by full-orchestra blows that slam into the singer. Soprano Jenny Wollerman is particularly impressive in this movement, spitting out the words with a venomous intensity… She is clearly immersed in the score and what might be sacrificed in terms of shear aural beauty is compensated for by a near-operatic intensity. [In Station 12] with a sure theatrical touch, Ritchie has kept the soloist silent except for single lines since Station 10. Here, her cry of ‘why have you abandoned me?’ has an impact that is powerfully humane and profoundly moving.”
A full review of the recording can be read here.