Sir John Manduell was a pivotal figure in British music – as composer, teacher, BBC producer, first principal of the Northern Royal College of Music and founder of the European Opera Centre. Beloved and revered by musicians, yet someone whose name is shamefully little known outside the music profession. This album in tribute presents works by 16 composers from more than one generation, centered around settings of W.B. Yeats and principally songs with oboe, recorder, violin and cello. The music is varied, rich and wonderfully set to the texts, and yet the textures are always transparent and clear; there is nothing inherently ‘difficult’ for the listener. The performers are among the cream of the Music world of Northern England, and also, in the Robin Walker Nursery Rhymes (the only work not specially recorded for the album), feature the iconic veteran BBC presenter Richard Baker. Even without the Manduell connection this is a wonderfully constructed program of new chamber music.

“The instrumental ensembles add much colour or atmosphere. They vary amazingly too. The song arrangements [are] sung with sparkling clarity by Lesley-Jane Rogers.”
– Alan Cooper (British Music Society)

“Assembled in exemplary fashion.. The comparatively limited instrumental complement is employed skillfully by all the composers, and both the singing and the playing are very fine. A considerable number of well-thought-through settings that provide listeners who have a taste for modern British chamber music with the chance to hear quite a few interesting examples of it.”
– Mark Estren (Infodad)