Terpsichore's Box of Dreams by Augusta Read Thomas (2024)
Previous instalments in this long-running survey of Augusta Read Thomas's oeuvre have ranged far and wide within a catalogue that spans some 30 years to date. In contrast, we here explore a variety of works of more immediately recent vintage (the earliest work here dates from 2018), and between them fill out a vividly coloured snapshot of Thomas' irrepressible compositional persona as it stands at present. Many of her long-standing preoccupations are to be found in this collection: the love of dance which propels the music into a tirelessly evolving voyage in both rhythmic and narrative terms, the iridescent, bell-saturated sonic environment that fills her musical landscapes with light and clarity, the sense of jazz auras acting as guiding spirits propelling the music on its course with its restless, hocketing rhythms and penetrating harmonic flavours, a celebration and understanding of instrumental virtuosity, the overall sense of her music engaged in a deep-seated interaction between the present and the past. © Paul Pellay
BBC Music Magazine Album of the Month
Three Grammy Nominations, 2024
Blue Sounds: Piano Music by Camden Reeves (2022)
In January 2020 Pianist Tom Hicks began recording with the composer Camden Reeves for their new record for Metier, Blue Sounds for Piano. Since 2013, Camden has been working on a series of blues-inspired works for Tom
“Reeves couldn’t have asked for a better interpreter. Blue Sounds, with its playing distinguished by fluidity, authority, and musicality, shows the connection between him and Reeves to be especially strong. Blue Sounds appeals for many reasons beyond Hicks’s sterling treatments. What makes the three pieces particularly fascinating is to witness the way Reeves reconciles the spontaneous personal expression of blues (and jazz) with the meticulous through-composition of classical writing ” —Ron Schepper (Textura)
“This CD explores both sounds and colors in a wide variety of ways [with] well-executed effects, all of which Hicks brings out very clearly indeed. Listeners intrigued by contemporary keyboard works performed with genuine flair will find much here to enjoy” —Mark J, Estren (Infodad)
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Liszt and Ireland: Piano Sonatas (2022)
Two monumental Romantic sonatas of different sound ‘coloration’ together with little gems by Rebecca Clarke, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Charles Stanford, in the debut Divine Art album for the exciting young pianist Tom Hicks.
"A fascinating collection; the pianist is to be congratulated for his imagination in assembling such an interesting program. Performance is not lacking in any aspect… his stunning technical agility refuses to be suppressed. All of this sounds forth in full glory on the Steinway D" —Alan Becker (American Record Guide)
“There is no doubt that Tom Hicks is a serious musician, possessor of a formidable technique and has the intellectual capacity to master a relatively wide range of repertoire. Playing of consistent excellence supported by very fine recording quality” —Robert Matthew-Walker (Musical Opinion)
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Tom Hicks: Ireland & Tchaikovsky (2019)
“Hicks’ account is brilliantly evocative”
Colin Clarke (International Piano, 2020)
“This is gorgeously creative playing of incredibly evocative music…Hicks shapes this music beautifully…[and] transports the listener to another place and another time”
Scott Noriega (Fanfare, 2020)
“Hicks’ sensitive attention to detail and understated bravura brings this music fully to life with colour, spacious expression, pungent sonorities and a tender poignancy”
Frances Wilson (Cross-Eyed Pianist, 2020)
“Hicks performs these mini gems with grace and elan, and his loving attention to detail brings out all the hidden nuances of these ethereal pieces”
Gerald Fenech (Classical Music Daily, 2020)
“Beautiful resonances and a celebration of spacious fantasy …Hicks creates a miniature universe of colouristic wonder”
Alexander Thompson (Piano Journal, 2019)
