Celebrating 25 Years of Excellence

Archive for Private Passions

Two MusicWeb International Recordings of the Year!

TWO SOMM releases have been named MusicWeb International Recordings of the Year! We also have to share this wonderful quote from critic Nick Barnard: “I am glad to be able to include a disc from SOMM again this year – their recordings, repertoire and performances are always a delight.” “Mark Bebbington has an astonishingly wide […]

Two SOMM Recordings Are International Piano Highlights of 2019!

“The main event on this intelligently programmed disc is Bax’s Sonata in E-flat minor (1921). The white-hot intensity in the music may be a response to the loss of life in the Irish Easter Uprising of 1916, and Bebbington catches the music’s anger and grief superbly in playing of enourmous range and power. First-rate sound […]

Mark Bebbington Brings Astonishing Force to Arnold Bax

“…the lava tumbles out with astonishing force from Mark Bebbington, who plays with tremendous authority, supported by a vivid recording with an appropriately wide dynamic range. In its orchestrated symphonic form…the music writhes with a tumult of colours; but Bebbington proves that Bax’s first thoughts, testing piano and pianist to the limit, have their own […]

Private Passions a Gramophone Editor’s Choice!

“First recordings of two sets of piano pieces by Arnold Bax and Harriet Cohen (his charismatic muse and lover) adorn this latest helping of home-grown fare from the excellent Mark Bebbington. Cohen’s four Russian Impressions prove a charming find, the first two especially winning Bax’s approval. Bebbington lends them atmospheric and deftly affectionate advocacy, as he […]