COMPOSERS: Bainbridge,Barry,Burrell,C Matthews,Cashain,Finnissy,Fitkin,Hoddinott,Maxwell Davies,Swayne,Táár
LABELS: USK
ALBUM TITLE: Spectrum 4
WORKS: 66 Miniatures for solo piano
PERFORMER: Thalia Myers (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: 1227 CDD
This latest collection of premiere recordings contains works by no less than 66 composers from across the globe who were set the task of writing ‘technically approachable pieces in which the essence of their concert music is distilled’. The resulting miniatures are published by the Associated Board, but regardless of their pedagogical benefits, these pieces provide a wonderful and appealing album of snapshots of contemporary music, a splendid insight into its richly variegated splendour. Performed in alphabetical order, there are marvellous juxtapositions among these vignettes, not least the opening pair, Eleanor Alberga’s For Whom? and Simon Bainbridge’s Bells, or Maxwell Davies’s Orkney-inspired Snow Cloud, over Lochan and John McCleod’s Balinese postcard The Temple by the Sea. There is something for everyone, but most fun is setting the CD player to random and being surprised, charmed and moved by turns. If only a sentence or two on each piece could be included.