Classical Music

This lovely recording includes works for strings by Aurthur Benjamin (1893-1960), Bernard Stevens (1916-1983), Andrzej Panufnik (1914-1991), Arnold Bax (1883-1953), and Lennox Berkeley (1903-1989). The recordngs by Benjamin, Stevens, Panufnik, and Bax were broadcast originally on the BBC on January 31, 1961, and the Berkeley was broadcast on March 20, 1961. The recordings are performed by the Boyd Neel Orchestra, and the London Chamber Orchestra.

Berkeley’s first opera, Nelson, was put on at Sadler’s Wells in 1954. The others were performed by the English Opera Group which had been founded by the young Benjamin Britten, Joan Cross, Eric Crozier and Peter Pears in 1946. In the same year as the Nelson premiere Berkeley’s first one-acter, A Dinner Engagement, featured at Aldeburgh. Aldeburgh was also the scene of Ruth in 1956 and Castaway in 1967. Each work inhabits its own world, and each finds Berkeley’s musical imagination delivering new sounds to match the drama.

Philip Cannon’s catalogue embraces a broad range of genres from operas and symphonies to songs and keyboard works. His first significant pieces were written whilst he was still a student at the RCM. Musicologist Rollo Myers wrote of Philip Cannon, ‘One is conscious of a strong and instinctive musical personality and a purposefulness which excludes all irrelevancies and anything in the nature of “padding” ... in listening to his music one is never conscious of any deliberate striving for effect; what one hears is a direct and personal utterance’. Each of the three works presented here demonstrate that powerful combination of clarity and originality. The music is an extension of the man – unaffected, fearlessly independent and emotionally honest - and he was unsparing of himself in his quest to realise the full potential of his material. As Cannon himself put it, ‘it is what the music says that counts in sincere compositions, and this should be said as simply, lucidly and directly as possible, and should flow inevitably’. Paul Conway

William Alwyn’s musical style is in the main of a romantic nature firmly grounded in tonality, notwithstanding some forays into modernity, calling on dissonance and freedom of form when he felt the need. This approach can be keenly felt in the works included on this album, all of which were completed when he was aged between eighteen and twenty-five. The medium of the string quartet held a long and lasting fascination for Alwyn, which began during the earliest years of his composing career. He was to compose a total of sixteen string quartets between the years 1920 and 1984. Alwyn considered that the string quartet was the ‘most intimate of mediums’ and reveled in the challenge to provide interesting material in which to balance the four instruments. The sixteen string quartets that he was to compose can be divided into two groups; the first thirteen quartets were composed between 1920 and 1936, and the last three quartets were composed between 1953 and 1984.

Classical Music

The international reputation of Bernard Rands as one of the leading composers of his generation rests on over a hundred well-crafted scores of notable formal cohesion, dramatic intensity and lyrical beauty. The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (2013) was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in celebration of Rands's eightieth birthday year and as implied by it's title, the piece is for piano and orchestra rather than a piano concerto. Hence, the solo part is primus inter pares and is not required to play the conventional role of a protagonist striving heroically for supremacy over the masses. Canti del Sole, for tenor and orchestra (1983) describes a day's progression from dawn to dusk through a continuous setting of fourteen poems about the sun. The poems are arranged into two groups of seven. Music for Shoko: Aubade is an atmospheric mini-tone poem for English horn and string quartet (2017). It is dedicated to Bernard Rands's friend Shoko Suzuki in appreciation of their many years of friendship and her devotion to the composer's music. The piece is a transcription of the central 'Aubade' movement from the Concerto for English Horn and Orchestra, which was written for the soloist Robert Walters. The solo part of the chamber piece is identical to that of the concerto movement, while the orchestral music is accommodated, with adjustments, by the string quartet.

Robert Simpson wrote his Fifth Symphony in 1972 in response to a commission by the London Symphony Orchestra. The first performance of the symphony took place on 3 May 1973 at the Royal Festival Hall, under the direction of Andrew Davis. Another London performance took place on 29 March 1984, again in the Royal Festival Hall, with the Philharmonia, the conductor again being Andrew Davis. In both cases audience and press reception was unanimously enthusiastic. Desmond Shawe-Taylor, in a review in the Sunday Times headed “Power of Robert Simpson”, detected “some shattering personal crisis” and observed that the 4th and 5th Symphonies “compel all but the most rigidly advanced of listeners to take a closer look at this remarkable composer.” He found the Fifth “bolder, tougher and more mysterious in substance.” Simpson’s Sixth Symphony, of 1977, was commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with funds provided by the Arts Council, who later sponsored the recording of the Sixth and Seventh, and also contributed to a number of later Commissions. It received its premiere performance on 8 April 1980 at the Royal Festival Hall with The London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Charles Groves. Edward Greenfield wrote in his Guardian review: “Happily Dr Simpson’s metaphors are incidental to his genuinely musical imagination. So after the fragmentary germinal motives at the start, he turns very quickly to a bold tonal melody such as Nielsen might have written. One might even say that another of Dr Simpson’s great influences is represented too; he has often acknowledged his debt to Beethoven and here he has in effect written a Pastoral symphony for the 20th century, a view of nature observed not through the eye of the individual but through the microscope.”

Composers do not usually make conscious choices about the music they write: they write in accordance with the talents given to them. For this reason I do not write complex or experimental music: I have no gift for such things. Instead, my music is lyrical, rhythmic, economical, clear cut in texture and, as far as I can make it, direct of utterance. This incisive assessment by Georffrey Bush of his own output is indicative of his lucidity on the printed page as well as on the stave, both accomplishments the result of a compulsive urge to communicate effectively. (Geoffrey Bush) Though composition was foremost among his many gifts, Bush was something of an all-rounder. He performed as both pianist and organist, made regular broadcasts for the BBC and was also a successful writer. His eminently readable guide to music, Musical Creation and the Listener, first appeared in 1954. His wide-ranging catalogue includes music for the stage, choral works, church music, orchestral pieces, chamber music and songs. Of his two symphonies, the first, which has at its core an elegiac blues in memory of Constant Lambert, was premiered at the Cheltenham Festival in 1954 and performed at the Proms four years later, whilst the second, subtitled "The Guildford", was commissioned for the 700th anniversary of the City of Guildford in 1957. He wrote a number of works for chamber orchestra in which his understanding of the intimacy and inherent reciprocity of the medium resulted in scores that are eloquent and conversational, epitomising his credo quoted at the head of these notes.

Francis Shaw has become one of the most versatile British composers of this day, having written a wide range of music, most notably for film and television. As with many composers whose work has taken them into diverse musical fields, the range of his accomplishments has tended to draw attention away from what lies at the heart of his output - his serious music, less extensive than that of his more commercial work, but which - is of a quality and achievement manifestly deserving of far greater recognition than it has received hitherto.

Though made less than a decade before his last studio versions for EMI (regarded by many collectors as classics), these 1968 Elgar Symphony recordings for Lyrita reveal a younger and more energized Adrian Boult--especially so in Symphony No. 2, where the earlier recording's swagger and bite would be mellowed by a greater refinement and nuance (Boult's scrupulous attention to the subtle timbres of Elgar's orchestration at times make the music sound almost Debussyian).

Symphony No. 1 clearly was Boult's less favored of the two, and his EMI recording suffered from a degree of stiffness (especially compared to Barbirolli). But the Lyrita version has a raw, edgy quality--with swifter tempos and snappier rhythms--that's most welcome. The London Philharmonic sounds slightly less polished in 1968 than in 1976, but the playing is still excellent. Some collectors may find Lyrita's close and clear recorded sound preferable to EMI's plushy resonance (though the latter has greater dynamic range). As it stands, this Lyrita set, priced at 2-for-1, is an essential acquisition for Elgarians (and Boulters).

--Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com

John Ireland's Cello Sonata in G minor was written in 1923 and premiered the following year on April 4th by the Cellist Beatrice Harrison wit pianist Evlyn Howard-Jones at teh Aeolian Hall, London. The composer himself performed the Sonata many times as pianist with several cellists including Antoni Sala, who prnounced it ''the best cello sonata of modern times'', and recorded it with Ireland on the Columbia label in October, 1928. Frederick Delius' four violin and piano sonatas were written between 1892 and 1930 and so chart comprehensively his creative development. Violin Sonata No. 3 forms a part of the remarkable Indian summer of composition made possible by the blind and paralyzed composer's collaboration with Eric Fenby. Lionel Handy arranged the Sonata for cello and piano in 2012 and on November 23 of that year he gave the first public performance of his transcription with Nigel Clayton as pianist at a concert held in The Warehouse, London to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Delius's birth. Arnold Bax is widely regarded as an orchestral composer. However, he also wrote a significant quantity of chamber music. One of his most impressive works for the instrument, the Cello Sonata in E flat was writte in 1923 at a time when his popularity and standing aong British composers was at its height. Completed on November 7 of that year, the Sonata was premiered on February 26, 1924 at the Wigmore Hall with Harriet Cohen accompanying Beatrice Harrison, to whom the score was originally dedicated.

This release presents a program of British works for violin and piano from the first half of the 20th century. Premieres include Thomas Pitfield's Sonata No. 1 and smaller scale works by C.W. Orr, Cyril Scott, and Percy M. Young. Doreen Carwithen's Sonata is the program's centerpiece, and works by John Ireland, Lennox Berkeley, Frederick Delius complete the album. With playing described as "alluring", "unforgettable" and "a wonder", violinist Fenella Humphreys enjoys a busy career combining chamber music and solo work. Performances have taken her around the world to venues including the Wigmore Hall, the South Bank Centre, and the new Helsinki Music Centre. Pianist and composer Nathan Williamson studied with Joan Havill, Malcolm Singer, Martin Bresnik and many others. Nathan gives regular solo recitals and concerto performances and is in demand for new work from artists both at home and abroad.

A fine example of Jones at his most succinct and incisive, the Twelfth Symphony (1985) was commissioned by the Civil and Public Services Association as a farewell gift to their retiring General Secretary, Ken Thomas The Twelfth Symphony was first performed by the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra and conductor Erich Bergel at a gala concert at St David's Hall, Cardiff on 26 September 1985. The score bears a superscription consisting of a brief quotation from Pushkin, which reads 'Yet one last tale, And my chronicle is ended'. Daniel Jones's Symphony in memory of John Fussell (Symphony No.13) (1992) was first performed by the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra and conductor Richard Hickox at the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea on 17 October 1992 at that year's Swansea Festival. The work is a personal tribute to a friend of the composer, who was Swansea's Director of Music and City Organist from 1970 until 1990, the year of his death. The cantata Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life (1987) was written in memory of John Aeron-Thomas, whose widow Margaret commissioned the work. A devout Christian, John Aeron-Thomas had been a founder-member of the Swansea Festival, who commissioned Jones's First Symphony. among other works. The text is taken from poetry by George Herbert (1593-1633), which details his sacred journey.

Thanks to the tireless advocacy of the pianist Simon Callaghan, the music of the Derbyshire-born Roger Sacheverell Coke has started to emerge from the obscurity in which it has languished since the composer’s death in 1972. Despite showing considerable early promise, Coke remained an outsider in British musical life. Following studies at Eton (until 1931), he took private lessons with Mabel Lander (piano) and Alan Bush (composition) rather than attending university or music college. Coke credited Bush for helping him to find his musical voice, and cited Arnold Bax as a major influence, but his musical sympathies also extended to Bruckner, Mahler and Rachmaninoff at a time when all three were deeply unfashionable among musical cognoscenti. The three cello sonatas featuring on this disc frame the years 1936 to 1941, a very productive period in Coke’s life. It is a measure of Coke’s confidence in the cello sonatas that he programmed them all in a single concert at the Wigmore in London on 6 October 1951, with the cellist Sela Trau, and invited critics from several of the major broadsheets.

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REVIEW:

Composer and pianist Roger Sacheverell Coke (1912-1972) was born into an affluent family and produced a large body of works before a number of mental and physical health problems took their toll. Coke bankrolled concerts to promote his music, yet critical acclaim largely eluded him. Then again, his unabashedly Romantic idiom, heavily influenced by Rachmaninov, had fallen out of fashion. However, pianist Simon Callaghan’s passionate advocacy on Coke’s behalf may be spearheading a revival. If you like early 20th-century British Romantics like Arnold Bax, Cyril Scott, and York Bowen, you’ll definitely respond to Coke’s aesthetic.

His three sonatas for cello and piano date from between 1936 and 1941, and are characterized by lush yet never cloying harmonic invention, skillfully deployed balances between the instruments, slow movements that build toward intense climaxes, and occasional moments of wry humor–the First sonata’s jauntily acerbic Scherzo, for example (sound clip). Perhaps the Second sonata is the strongest and most substantial of the three, with its bold, declamatory motives and inventive textural interplay.

Callaghan and cellist Raphael Wallfisch throw themselves into each work wholeheartedly, embracing the idiom’s full-blooded heights and stark moments of respite with both abandon and sensitivity. Excellent, informative notes and fine engineering enhance this worthy addition to the chamber music catalog.

– ClassicsToday (Jed Distler)

The opera opens with a Wizard working his mystical ways and summoning the spirits of air, fire and water in the form of a brilliant ballet. His plan is to wed the Princess who is destined to select a husband that very day. An older Mother enters with a drowsy sleep-prone son in tow. The Mother is obsessed with a prophecy her son will woo and win the Princess. There is an elixir of course and once drained the man who does so will be loved by the Princess. The Wizard tries some of this on the Princess. The Mother has already switched it for pure water while administering the elixir to her yawning son. The Wizard flies into a fury promising to bring death and destruction on everyone. He departs. A troubadour and a wanderer have appeared and pay songful court to the Princess which she is having none of. When the Princess sees the Fool she falls in love with him and asks him to marry her. He answers with the word ‘No’ but the whole scenario leaves you wondering about their future. The Wizard returns with his horrors but after some stern and encouraging words from the Mother all the Wizard’s fell crew are burnt to a crisp.

A BBC studio recording, broadcast on 7 May 1967.

REVIEW:

The opening dances, the best music in the work, invariably overbalance things given they all appear at the start. Charles Groves directs, and his Holst studio recordings – The Hymn of Jesus, Short Festival Te Deum, Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda Group 2 and the Ode to Death – were always an index of his excellence in this repertoire, as indeed in all his recordings of British music. He finds the core of Holst’s rhythmic vivacity in the dances, those piquant cross-rhythms and jaunty use of his own instrument, the trombone, and he is just as good in the limpidity of the Spirits of the Water dance as he is in the vivid pounding, Planets-like, of the Dance of Fire, with its eventful touches of Spanishry and convulsive, well-balanced percussion.

The role of the Wizard is taken by the bass Richard Golding and you can imagine him in the The Dream of Gerontius though I see that he was active in opera and sang in a Scottish performance of George Lloyd’s John Socman and in a TV performance of Arthur Bliss’ Tobias and the Angel. Given the strange temperature of the opera, it comes as a surprise that Holst can turn in a seemingly straightforwardly fine scene – try track nine – where the words are well set and the choral role is sensible. There’s more than a whiff of G & S though in the subsequent passage, and when the Troubadour appears (John Mitchinson), Holst pokes fun at Verdian posturing allowing the Princess, the fine Margaret Neville, to pastiche the Troubadour’s own pastiche. In the twelfth track one finds another G & S chorus, Wagnerian vengeance and a stock peasant character. There’s a brief sonic cataclysm in the thirteenth track, trumpets and percussion to the fore, that shows that Holst couldn’t quite suppress his instincts for drama and in fact the orchestration throughout is always apt and colourful.

Contralto Pamela Bowden has a strong role as The Mother and all the characters, singing or speaking, acquit themselves well. In the service of what, precisely, I’m not quite sure. There are lots of operas that really aren’t operas so maybe if you think of The Perfect Fool as a pantomime-ballet-pastiche operetta rather as one thinks of Lord Berners’s The Triumph of Neptune as a ballet-pantomime-harlequinade, you won’t be far wrong and you won’t be disappointed. Full credit to Lyrita for this retrieval however, though you’ll notice a few deviations from the libretto in the actual performance. Talking of this, the notes are contained in one booklet, the libretto in another. The box artwork has been well selected. This work has never appeared in full on disc before and the archive sound quality is excellent.

– MusicWeb International

Paul Conway writes: “One of Musgrave’s most powerfully expressive and lavishly intricate vocal works, Rorate Coeli (1973) is scored for unaccompanied SATB choir. There are also five soloists (SSATB), who sing both as a quintet and as individuals. This dramatic and virtuosic piece shows an inventive approach to text-setting in its use of quasi-improvised musical effects. The Voices of our Ancestors (2014) is scored for brass quintet (horn, two trumpets, trombone and tuba), organ and SATB choir. Substantial and ambitious, The Voices of our Ancestors draws upon ancient texts from a number of linguistic sources, including Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Egyptian and Chinese, all translated into English. Commissioned by Wells Cathedral, Missa Brevis, for SATB choir and organ (2017) was first performed by Wells Cathedral Choir, on the Feast of John the Baptist, Sunday 24 June 2018, in the presence of the composer. This compact setting of the Ordinary of the Mass has a reassuring, positive character with several of the sections concluding brightly on major chords.”

Nicholas Maw’s most fervent desire was to communicate directly with his audiences and produce material which performers would enjoy playing and Spring Music, written with the express purpose of diverting and entertaining an audience, finds the composer at his most uninhibited and freely expressive. Fresh, colorful and vibrant, this score has the exotic, open-hearted spirit of a curtain-raiser by William Walton or Alan Rawsthorne. In its final, slimmed-down version, it rapidly became one of Maw’s favorite pieces among his own output and he once described the long-breathed cello-led melody as ‘one of the best tunes I think I’ve actually ever written’. In 1995 Maw was commissioned by the BBC to write a work commemorating the 300th anniversary that year of the death of Purcell. Maw soon came to the conclusion that he wanted to round off his tribute piece with an example of a chaconne, a form in which Purcell was pre-eminent. The theme which Maw chose to embellish is derived from the first of his Life Studies for 15 solo strings. Taking his lead from Tchaikovsky, Maw decided that the main title should reflect precisely the reference vocabulary of the piece and so the piece became known for a while as Romantic Variations. Later still the title was altered to its definitive form of Voices of Memory: Variations for Orchestra. Described by Andrew Burn as ‘a major contribution to the genre’, the Sonata for Solo Violin was requested by Jorja Fleezanis, to whom the work is dedicated. In Maw’s Sonata for Solo Violin, the constraints of writing for a single stringed instrument in a four-movement, large-scale work are deftly surmounted by the composer’s gift for melodic lines and rhythmic invention. Each movement has a vivid sense of color, formal logic and onward momentum so that the writing, however demanding it may be, never suggests an arid study or a shallow technical exercise.

The Third Symphony was written between March and May 1951 and played by the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra under the composer in a studio performance broadcast on 26 June 1952. It was first performed in public at the Cheltenham Festival on 9 July 1956 by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Adrian Boult. In the same year, the third movement was used as an examination piece for conductors at the Royal National Eisteddfod. The Third Symphony is terse and closely argued. Reviewing the concert premiere at the 1956 Cheltenham Festival, the New York Times critic described it as 'a work of stubborn force'. In his review of the same event, Kenneth Loveland hailed the score as 'logically and boldly written', observing that it conveyed 'an idea of strength in composition, and an acute understanding of the capacity and projecting qualities of the individual instruments, and choirs of instruments'. By the time Jones turned to the medium again, his position as one of foremost symphonists of his generation was assured. Commissioned by the BBC, the Fifth Symphony was written between August and December 1958 at Jones's home on the outskirts of Swansea high up on the Gower Peninsula in a room looking down on Oystermouth Castle and out over Swansea Bay. The work was premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the composer at the Royal Festival Hall on 18 February 1959 and on 25 October 1962 the symphony was broadcast on the Radio Welsh Home Service by the BBC Welsh Orchestra conducted by the composer.

This is a generous CD of reissues of classic new music from the 1960s, later recordings of which exist only for the Clarinet Concerto (Clarinet Classics, 35), Excursions (Campion 1353) and Monologue (Capstone 8714). They are played by performers then at the height of their powers and with flair and surety that makes this a landmark disc and one to be bought without hesitation by anyone interested in the development of post-war British music in general and Thea Musgrave’s mellow, steady and always inventive style in particular.

Born in Scotland but now resident in the United States, Musgrave’s career and output have always matched breadth with a rather single-minded determination to work as she has wanted to, and not as fad or fashion might have suggested. An example would be her adherence to the dramatic qualities of her music in their conscious rejection of tonality while at the same time avoiding the formality of serialism. Thus the concerto as a genre proved a suitable vehicle for the resultant exploration of structure with gusto. Particularly since, for Musgrave, her music’s performers are more actors than conveyors of a pre-existing score. That’s very evident in the orchestral pieces here.

The Concerto for Orchestra is a work full of tension, tonal and temporal. Indeed, it explores the notion of instruments ‘in revolt’ against the conductor. There is a certain liberality of interpretation (freedom to repeat, with rubato) which is designed to strain the very fabric of the music. For this to be effective the playing has to be impeccable; every note has to be heard; every attack and decay controlled; every timbre distinct. And so it is on this landmark recording by another provincial orchestra (the Scottish National Orchestra) than that to which the work was dedicated (the CBSO). The playing is crisp, vibrant, rounded, tuneful; yet it fully conveys the apparent waywardness of line which is in fact the very essence of the concerto. The supremacy of the clarinet before, throughout and after the stunning tutti and crescendi is key to the work and emerges with great effect here. Exemplary.

Musgrave’s Clarinet Concerto has the distinction of requiring the soloist to promenade through the orchestra. It’s a logical progression after the Concerto for Orchestra - again exploring aural space. Musgrave was (and has remained) fascinated by the way sounds group in space as well as time and ways in which (orchestral) soloists can wrest the lead from the conventional director of events, the conductor. Once again there are extremes of volume and texture. Once again, the forces of - this time - the LSO are more than up to the task, playing with a certainty and conviction that carry the work as far, surely, as Musgrave intended it to go: these were the days before sounds were savoured exclusively for their own sake with emphasis on massed percussion or aleatoric devices. Notable (as was the case with the Concerto for Orchestra) is a major part for harp; there is also a prominent accordion part.

The Horn Concerto also builds upon Musgrave’s concept of ‘Space music’: in this piece members of the horn section themselves move around the hall. There are also ‘prepared’ instruments – a piano with screws, a book and a metal bar; and a harp with paper threaded through some of its strings. This is not a frenetic or self-conscious work; rather a virtuosic and lyrical concerto, although the extent to which the leading role of the horn soloist is established yet undermined confers an iconoclastic quality on the piece. As de Peyer’s in the Clarinet Concerto, Tuckwell’s (the work’s dedicatee) articulation and phrasing in this concerto are outstanding.

Monologue is the earliest (and shortest) piece on this disc; it does experiment with serialism. Again, this is a piece of contrasts and music distinguished by Musgrave’s characteristic ‘tumultuoso’ marking, it still lives in the world of contrasts and the sort of subdued rhetoric which was to interest Musgrave later on in her career when composing vocal and operatic works. Again, beautifully played by Musgrave herself.

Excursions is interesting in that it was written for four hands on one piano also as a teaching piece: one ‘easy part’ for pupils to play with their teachers literally close at hand. In the first four of the eight pieces the easy part is the lower one; in the second four the top one. Miniatures they are – but with a substantial impact. Although they do have descriptive (of car journey) titles, these are only printed in small type at the end of each piece. Inasmuch as the material in Excursions is intended to emphasise learning, composer clearly has much respect for pupil. She is joined by Malcolm Williamson.

This is a disc whose primary interest will certainly be historic: it makes available again music that made waves in the early 70s, but music that has clung to a place in the repertoire – and justly so. Played with conviction and delight by the Scottish National and London Symphony orchestras under Gibson, Del Mar and Musgrave herself, it rightly acts as testament to just how significant and appealing her works were then. Perhaps it will revive interest in them now.

-- Mark Sealey, MusicWeb International

The opera centres on the love affair of Horatio Nelson, and Emma, Lady Hamilton. Completed in 1951, it was first performed in full in 1954. The British Embassy in Naples is the scene of a birthday party for Nelson, arranged to celebrate his victory at the Nile. He appears with ‘the sadness of the world upon his lips’ and while the other guests are dancing, Nelson, with Emma Hamilton, the Ambassador’s wife, beside him, hears a servant foretell his future unhappiness. This releases the passionate feelings of the couple for each other and the conflict in their lives.

Among his many compositions, Kenneth V. Jones wrote a concerto for string orchestra (1956), a concerto for oboe and strings (1963), The Pollock, an orchestral prelude (1963), O Light Invisible, a cantata for soprano, mixed chorus and orchestra (1963), a sonata for solo violin (1967), Dialysis, for violin and harpsichord (1973), Quaquaverse, for saxophone quartet (1979), Paean for organ (1983), three Sinfonias for orchestra, as well as piano works, song cycles, film, play and television scores and church music, including hymns and anthems. The Quintet for Piano and String Quartet, Op.26 (1967) is a compact, finely balanced score in which the keyboard is in constant, purposeful dialogue with the strings and no single player is allowed to dominate the textures for too long. The resolute opening Allegro contains a couple of ear-catching passages where string phrases are repeated hypnotically, but for the most part, this is a vibrant, forthright movement, driven by the composer's characteristically punchy syncopated rhythms. The central Adagio brings a more expansive tempo, while maintaining an intensity of mood established by the opening movement. The outer sections are presided over by a tenacious, repeated-note figure first heard on the viola at the outset, while the central episode is more diverse and adventurous in spirit. The vigorous, lilting Allegro finale revisits material from the previous movements and rounds off the piece in exuberant style.

Among his many compositions, Kenneth V. Jones wrote a concerto for string orchestra (1956), a concerto for oboe and strings (1963), The Pollock, an orchestral prelude (1963), O Light Invisible, a cantata for soprano, mixed chorus and orchestra (1963), a sonata for solo violin (1967), Dialysis, for violin and harpsichord (1973), Quaquaverse, for saxophone quartet (1979), Paean for organ (1983), three Sinfonias for orchestra, as well as piano works, song cycles, film, play and television scores and church music, including hymns and anthems. The String Quartet No. 1, Op. 6 (1950) is cast in one unbroken movement consisting of two clear sections. In the short opening Lento espressivo, an eloquent, sinuous theme is introduced by the first violin and then taken up the viola. Gradually the tempo increases, heralding the arrival of the main Allegro moderato, closely argued and driven by an unflagging rhythmic energy. Commenting on this piece, Jones asserted that the 'acerbic, gritty character of the music' is in 'direct contrast' to the pre-Second World War 'English pastoral style'. Nevertheless, there is, to these ears at least, a certain folk-like quality to the writing, not least in it's punchy syncopations, that roots the score in a distinctly British landscape.

Among his many compositions, Kenneth V. Jones wrote a concerto for string orchestra (1956), a concerto for oboe and strings (1963), The Pollock, an orchestral prelude (1963), O Light Invisible, a cantata for soprano, mixed chorus and orchestra (1963), a sonata for solo violin (1967), Dialysis, for violin and harpsichord (1973), Quaquaverse, for saxophone quartet (1979), Paean for organ (1983), three Sinfonias for orchestra, as well as piano works, song cycles, film, play and television scores and church music, including hymns and anthems. Quinquifid for Brass Quintet (1980) was written for Equale Brass, who premiered the piece in the Purcell Room on 6 December 1980. Quinquifid was first broadcast by the BBC on Radio 3 on 30 December 1981. The structure of this work is built on a notion of five sections, each linked without a break by cadenzas for each of the solo instruments. The opening movement begins with an Andante introduction flecked by flutter-tongued trumpet and moves into a more urgent Allegro section that exploits the lyrical qualities of the tuba to expressive effect. Gradually the music intensifies, building to a powerful climax, before falling away abruptly, paving the way for the next section, a brief duet for the two trumpets, marked 'Shadow Play' in the score. Light and lively, the finale offers flowing interplay between the instruments and brings the score to a confident conclusion.

Among his many compositions, Kenneth V. Jones wrote a concerto for string orchestra (1956), a concerto for oboe and strings (1963), The Pollock, an orchestral prelude (1963), O Light Invisible, a cantata for soprano, mixed chorus and orchestra (1963), a sonata for solo violin (1967), Dialysis, for violin and harpsichord (1973), Quaquaverse, for saxophone quartet (1979), Paean for organ (1983), three Sinfonias for orchestra, as well as piano works, song cycles, film, play and television scores and church music, including hymns and anthems. Commissioned by UNESCO, the Wind Quintet No. 2, Op. 2 (1952) begins with an assertive Lento movement that commands the listener's attention with it's flourishes and fanfare-like gestures. The ensuing Vigoroso is breezy and relaxed, allowing each player a chance to take centre-stage during it's crisp, clipped progress. The following, moderately slow, movement has an almost liquid fluency, while the Giocoso finale exudes an airy and insouciant elegance, the players' imminent departure judiciously signalled by a couple of whooping horn calls.