[TR24][OF] Nash Ensemble - Ravel - 2025 (Classical • Chamber Music)

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Nash Ensemble
The London-based Nash Ensemble is a chamber orchestra consisting of 11 regular members, though the number can vary widely according to works performed. The group's repertory is broad but favors modern works by English composers like Lennox Berkeley, Harrison Birtwistle, James MacMillan, and Mark-Anthony Turnage. It performs most of its subscription concerts at Wigmore Hall but also appears at other locations, including the Royal Festival Hall's Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall.Founded in 1964 by Amelia Freedman, its longtime artistic director, the Nash Ensemble took its name from the famous Nash terraces in London, designed by architect John Nash. The ensemble initially developed its reputation in Great Britain, only slowly gaining recognition abroad. Its first American tour took place in 1981, but the group remained little-known in the U.S. until the turn of the 21st century. In England, however, it became recognized for its artistic achievements throughout the 1980s and thereafter, both for concerts and recordings. An early recording came in 1976 as the group backed The King's Singers on an album of vocal pieces by John Tavener.In 2010, the Nash Ensemble became the resident chamber ensemble of London's Wigmore Hall. It performs most of its subscription concerts there but also appears at other locations, including the Royal Festival Hall's Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall. By that time, it had given more than 300 premieres by more than 200 composers. The group's membership has evolved over its half-century of existence, but the revolving door has turned very slowly. In the early '80s, the Nash Ensemble began recording for the Hyperion label, and it has remained mostly associated with the label, although it soon began recording with other labels as well, including CRD (Hummel and Berwald septets; 1989), NMC (Turnage works; 1995), and BIS (various albums, including one of chamber works by Harrison Birtwistle; 2022). The Nash Ensemble has continued to record prolifically, with releases balanced between mainstream repertory and contemporary works in many styles and from many different countries. The members of the group have displayed equal sympathy for, to name two composers it recorded in the mid-2010s, George Gershwin and Birtwistle; its recording of the latter's Moth Requiem, with baritone Roderick Williams and the BBC Singers, was hailed by Blair Sanderson as having "a haunting quality that invites closer study." Birtwistle recurred in the group's 2017-2018 season at Wigmore Hall, along with "French Connection" programs featuring French Romantic and Impressionist composers. In 2020, the Nash Ensemble was heard on a Hyperion album of music by Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn, as well as a BIS release of music by John Pickard. The group returned on Hyperion in 2022 with an album of chamber music by Beethoven's student, Ferdinand Ries, and in 2024 on a recording of sextets by Tchaikovsky and Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
http://www.nashensemble.org.uk/

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This Nash Ensemble Ravel disc finds a persuasive middle ground: the players sound fully committed, even passionate, yet the playing still preserves that hard-to-pin-down Ravel blend and precision.
The introduction and Allegro comes off particularly well, helped along by a notably fine harp contribution from Lucy Wakeford; it’s the kind of performance where color and line feel carefully balanced rather than showy.
The Piano Trio goes in a more dramatic direction, with the players’ energy easy to register (the ensemble has recorded the work before, though with different personnel). By contrast, the String Quartet feels airier than some—less treated as post-Romantic lushness, more as four distinct voices, with the inner writing and counterpoint kept in clear view.
The transparent, highly detailed recording reinforces that sense of separation and texture. Taken as a whole (including La Valse in the two-piano version), it’s a well-shaped 75-minute program that holds attention throughout.