Eve de CASTRO ROBINSON
Chamber Music
Tumbling Strains (1992)
Tingling Strings (1993)
Commemoration (1988)
Split the Lark (1991)
A Chaos of Delight I (1995)
A Chaos of Delight II (1996)
a pink-lit phase (1997)
small blue (1998)
Douglas Bellman (violin),
James Tennant (cello) (Strains); Dan Poynton (piano) (Strings);
Alexander Ivashkin (cello); Mark Menzies (violin), Dan Poynton (piano)
(Split the Lark), Andrew Uren (bass clarinet) (A Chaos of Delight
I); Jane Manning (sop) (A Chaos of Delight II); Nash Ensemble
of London (phase); Dan Poynton (piano) (small blue)
ATOLL A9806 [79.02]
De Castro Robinson's 1970s Pendereckian modernism is lightened in the case
of Tumbling Strains (for hyper active violin and cello) by the something
of the clarity of Ravel's Quartet. The much shorter Tingling Strings is
for solo piano and is classic 'plink-plunk' material - angry, impatient
dysfunctional. The very early Elegy for solo cello keens with the
passion of the bereft. Split the Lark (a title taken from an Emily
Dickinson poem) is a fifteen minute piece for violin and piano - a rhapsody,
tentative and exploratory, feeling its dissonant way, skittering in insect
fury, barking and thundering. A Chaos of Delight is an 8 minute solo
for bass clarinet. Its frame of reference is birdsong - songs wild not
domesticated, songs concerned with death and predation redolent of Ted Hughes
- no Lark Ascending here. Jane Manning trills, warbles, stridulates,
clicks and howls her way through A Chaos of Delight II. A pink
lit phase is for flute, viola and harp (a not unheard of combination)
and is the most yielding of the pieces here - leading the listener by the
hand through recall of the high-days of youth's summers. This is the piece
to hear if you are wanting an easier route to de Castro Robinson. Small
Blue (1998) for solo piano was written in memory of Michael Tippett and
in its piano part holds up Satie's muse to a Schoenbergian refracting glass.
This is tough but substantial and as out of step with neo-romantic trends
as George Lloyd was back in the 1970s when this de Castro Robinson's music
would have found a readier audience at London's Round House and in the late
evening reaches of BBC Radio 3. The composer must be delighted with
these performances which are hoarse with conviction. The recording quality
is a faithful advocate for such creativity.
Rob Barnett
In case of difficulty available from
Atoll ltd, PO Box 99039, Newmarket, Auckland, New Zealand.
www.atoll.co.nz
atoll@atoll.co.nz
