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Thomas HYDE
(b. 1978)
Three Dancers, Op. 11a (2005) [5:31]
Autumnal, Op.5 (2003) [15:22]
Nocturnes, Op.7 (2006) [7:54]
Second Suite for solo Cello, Op.3 (2001-02) [15:47]
Birthday Song (2011) [2:24]
Winter Music, Op.6 (2004) [5:45]
String Quartet, Op.10 (2009-10) [21:11]
Aquinas Piano Trio (Edward Vanderspar (viola): Eliza Marshall (flute/alto
flute)); Catriona Scott (clarinet); Ruth Potter (harp); Katherine
Jenkinson (cello); Evalina Puzaite (piano); Iuventus Quartet; Martin
Cousins (piano)/John Traill
rec. Jacqueline du Pre Music Bldg, Oxford, 22-23 October 2007 (Three
Dancers, Autumnal, Nocturnes, Winter Music), 24 August 2011 (Second
Suite), 16 January 2012 (Birthday Song, String Quartet)
GUILD GMCD 7389 [73:54]
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Thomas Hyde was born in 1978 and studied composition for two
years with David Matthews before going up to Oxford. Since that
time he has taken postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy
of Music with Simon Bainbridge, later studying with Robert Saxton
at Oxford. He’s now a visiting lecturer and has composed music
in a wide variety of genres.
The chamber music in this disc ranges over pretty much a decade.
The earliest is the Second Suite for solo Cello, completed
in 2002, in which the various movements fuse one into another
with considerable skill. Whilst they may hint at neo-classical
procedure, via the use of Baroque dance movements, in fact Hyde
ensures that consonance and flux are not simply paramount features
but that they are cleverly maintained. The cellist Katherine
Jenkinson, who performs it, and for whom it was written, asked
Hyde to make some considerable cuts, a point of view to which
he acceded.
The Three Dances Op.11a includes one with a stylised
Tango feel and there’s plenty of terpsichorean motion throughout,
albeit not of the Cubist kind. Autumnal is a larger-scaled
work written for five players and conductor, in 2003, and designated
as a concertino for viola and four instruments.. Hyde relates
that the New England fall and the poetry of Richard Wilbur are
major catalysts in the composition, which vaguely recalls the
Britten of Lachrymae, and has some Ravelian textures
too. The movement from warmth to more austere figures is accompanied
by a distinct feeling of melancholy, well conveyed.
Nocturnes (2006) for solo piano charts a restless night
world in which insomnia is reflected through music of frustration
and anxiety, and in which more nostalgic, spare and compassionate
calm is gradually evoked. Winter Music is a paraphrase
of a song Hyde wrote, and is reserved, withdrawn and elusive.
Birthday Song represents another kind of self-borrowing,
in which it functions as a ‘chippings from the work bench’ —
the work bench in this case being the String Quartet (2010).
Birthday Song is brief but expressive. The Quartet,
from which it sort-of derives was completed in 2010. It and
Autumnal are the big pieces in the programme. It’s
also the most advanced and confidently handled of all these
chamber pieces. The material is quite dense in places, patterns
constantly shifting, and Hyde is not afraid to employ twelve
tone procedures. Terse clipped cells slowly relax into more
obviously lyrical textures and paragraphs: whilst Schoenberg
may be a solid port of call, I sensed also a deep admiration
for Bartókian texture, rhythm and colour. It’s a fine work and
is confidently performed here.
Guild’s promotion of Thomas Hyde is not only welcome but has
been accomplished with skill and attention to detail.
Jonathan Woolf
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