Alexander’s performance at LSO St Luke’s as part of the Gresham Lecture series with Marina Frolova-Walker is now available online. An excerpt here is of John Adams’s China Gates.
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Alexander performed as part of the ‘900 Years of Music and Medicine’ recital to celebrate St Bart’s Heritage. Alongside Jerome Knox, baritone and Claire Ward, soprano, he gave the world premiere of Derri Joseph Lewis’s new song cycle. The concert was curated by Simon Callow, and also featured a performance alongside BBC Radio 3 presenter, Donald Macleod. Click here for more info.
Alexander’s appeared on BBC Radio 3 ‘In Tune’ to discuss his upcoming projects with Katie Derham, including recitals at St Parts and St Martin-in-the-fields and his Tippett Sonatas project. He also performed music by Tailleferre, Lili Boulanger and Beethoven live in the studio. Click here for more info.
Alexander’s second album with Rubicon Classics — threnodies — will be released on 25th June 2021.
Click here for more info.
“The programme of this album seeks to illuminate the position of Bridge’s monumental Piano Sonata, by setting it alongside works by the composers who influenced it – Berg and Ravel – and his most famous pupil, Britten. Both the sonata and each movement of Ravel’s suite were dedicated to those who fell in the war. Whilst the repertoire on this disc conveys strikingly varied tones, the title, threnodies – a song of lamentation – reflects the essence of these memorials.
Alexander’s new album is another thought provoking recital, placing Frank Bridge in the mainstream of 20th century music where he rightly belongs.”
The Isolation Songbook CD will be released on 26th March 2021 by Delphian Records. Click here to pre-order.
Alexander joins forces with Helen Charlston, mezzo soprano, and Michael Craddock, baritone. In their project, 15 composers were commissioned to create new works during the first lockdown in 2020.
Picked up by Delphian Records, the album was recorded in The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, and provides a testament to musical life during the COVID-19 pandemic.
★★★★★
Alexander’s performance of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time received a 5-star review in The Independent. The City Music Foundation concert, with Emily Sun (violin), Ariana Kashefi (cello) and Joseph Shiner (clarinet) was reviewed by Michael Church:
“But as it progresses, the textures become ever more magical, with Ariana Kashefi’s persuasive cello underpinning the flights of Emily Sun’s violin and Alexander Soares’s piano. This work may be frequently played, but it can never have sounded as transcendental as this.”
Click here for the full review.
NowState released by KAIROS: Alexander performs the solo piano works by talented Portuguese composer Gonçalo Gato. Gato’s ensemble works are recorded by some of today’s leading contemporary music ensembles, including ensemble research, CHROMA and the Remix Ensemble. Alexander recorded the works with the composer in the Casa da Música, Porto, and the Centro Cultural de Belém, with Hugo Romano Guimarães engineering.
Notations & Sketches, featuring the solo piano works of Boulez, Dutilleux and Messiaen was recorded in Milton Court Concert Hall, Barbican. Produced by the renowned Andrew Keener with the talented recording engineer Oscar Torres, the project was generously supported by City Music Foundation, and a range of private sponsors. It will be released on January 25th 2019 by Rubicon Classics.
Producer and pianist Philippe Cassard has praised Alexander’s debut recording as “A stunning album” on FranceMusique (November 2019).
Click here to listen to the broadcast, which includes the broadcast of Alexander’s recording of Boulez’s Notations.
Alexander’s debut album has been selected as one of Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice for May 2019.
“Although most of these pieces have been collated on various anthologies of French piano music, few of them can match this new release in its balanced conception or consistency of execution…Soares has their measure in abundance, resulting in what could hardly be a more auspicious debut album.”
Four-star review in the April 2019 BBC Music Magazine for Notations & Sketches:
“A bold debut programme: Boulez, Dutilleux and Messiaen. But Soares pulls it off, with playing of sophistication, style and a clear affinity with this repertoire”
Click here to read the review by Rebecca Franks.
“An extremely beautiful interpretation of Dutilleux’s Piano Sonata by the pianist Alexander Soares”
Click here to listen to the broadcast.
Notations & Sketches is reviewed in the April 2019 edition of International Piano Magazine:
“British pianist Alexander Soares is enjoying a growing reputation as an interpreter of modern French piano music; this is his debut album. He starts with Dutilleux’ phenomenal, under-rated Piano Sonata, finding Messiaen-like glowing spirituality in the harmonies of the central Lied while retaining its ominous underpinnings… Soares’s account is compelling”
“Notations finds Soares matching virtuosity and exploratory curiosity, fierce competition for Pierre-Laurent Aimard and David Fray.”
Click here to see more reviews
Alexander’s second album with Rubicon Classics — threnodies — will be released on 25th June 2021.
Click here for more info.
“The programme of this album seeks to illuminate the position of Bridge’s monumental Piano Sonata, by setting it alongside works by the composers who influenced it – Berg and Ravel – and his most famous pupil, Britten. Both the sonata and each movement of Ravel’s suite were dedicated to those who fell in the war. Whilst the repertoire on this disc conveys strikingly varied tones, the title, threnodies – a song of lamentation – reflects the essence of these memorials.
Alexander’s new album is another thought provoking recital, placing Frank Bridge in the mainstream of 20th century music where he rightly belongs.”
