This is a fine collection of contemporary British music which should frighten
no one. Andrew Keeling's Hidden Streams for string ensemble
is discussed in
S&H's
review of Opus 20's bmic concert
(November 4th). His Meditatio was inspired by a lexicon
of alchemy, a conversation with someone hidden, represented by a dialogue
between viola and ensemble, the composer's acute aural imagination displayed
in the unique combination of solo viola, cimbalom (John Leach) and harp (Hugh
Webb) with the string ensemble. John Reeman's Symphony is wholly abstract,
a fine, vigorous and well wrought contribution to the genre.
Edward Dudley Hughes is an intriguing composer, his music accessible
but original, well spiced with dissonance and glissandi. The Storyteller
is in two parts, the first tense and melancholy, the second a response to
a description of a fire during a storm.
(Try
also Orchid 777, devoted entirely to music by E. W. Hughes, Cambridge
New Music Players, etc.)
This is an exemplary production on an independent label new to me. Recording
(mostly at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where Scott Stroman teaches)
is excellently clear and bright, notes are legibly black on white, informative
and comprehensive (save for shyness about the composers' ages). The packaging,
which dispenses with jewel case and separate booklet, is attractive and
efficient. Discipline leaves copyright on its recordings with the
artists, and inveighs against the 'common practice' of other record companies
in that respect, which they believe is indefensible. All extremely interesting,
and at mid-price a strong purchasing recommendation.
Reviewer
Peter Grahame Woolf
Opus 20, directed by Scott Stroman
