June 2019 brought the release Erika Fox’s first portrait CD – Paths – released by NMC records. This has been a very special album, being a revelation of the 82-years Austrian-refugee composer led by Goldfield Ensemble Artistic Director Kate Romano.
Critics have been already in awe of Erika’s music:
The Vienna-born British composer has been neglected in recent years, but this disc of four ensemble pieces and one for piano affords her an intriguing showcase. Two compositions are inspired by poetry: Larkin in Paths Where the Mourners Tread and Milosz in Café Warsaw 1944. The piano solo is a ‘tombeau’ for Stravinsky, while Quasi una Cadenza is about the cadenza usurping the concerto. Fox’s idiom is refreshingly unusual – exotic and anti-harmonic, a ritual of untethered lines.
Paul Driver, Sunday Times.
In a way, [Erika Fox’s music] is like opening a door to another era only to find the inhabitants speaking the music language of the present in order to express their older sentiments. The music doesn’t so much steamroll you as creep up on you and wind its way into and around your psyche, creating disturbing yet strangely interesting figures that somehow manage to touch several different tendrils in your mind. Fox’s music is really fascinating and different. This album is a gem, which I hope gets noticed by more and more people within the classical community.
Lynn René Bayley, Art Music Lounge
Distinctive, uncompromising, theatrical…the performances are exemplary, bringing vivid colour and vibrancy to Erika Fox’s striking aural world.
Planet Hugill
How is it possible that a composer this talented with such a distinctive and assured musical voice had to wait so long for a monograph recording?
Christian Carey, Sequenza 21
Hear and read more about Erika Fox in these two interviews:
At 82, composer achieves a first Jessica Duchen talks to Erika for the Jewish Chronicle
Music Matters: Music Roots and Heritage BBC Interview with Tom Service
Composers Edition is very proud to help shinning a light on Erika Fox’s music by publishing her music scores – including the works from Paths.
Erika Fox Profile & WorksErika Fox : Paths
Goldfield Ensemble
Richard Baker conductor
Richard Uttley piano
NMC D254
All sheet music for this album also available on nkoda
Tags: Café Warsaw 1944, David Lefeber, Erika Fox, Goldfield Ensemble, Hungarian Rhapsody, Kaleidoscope, Kate Romano, Malinconia Militare, NMC Recordings, On Visiting Stravinsky's Grave at San Michele, Paths Where the Mourners Tread, Quasi Una Cadenza, Richard Baker, Richard Uttley, To Veronica