GREG CAFFREY: Environments
Ulster OrchestraSinead Hayes ConductorCraig Ogden guitar Daniel Browell piano DIVINE ART DDX 21131 The Ulster composer Greg Caffrey is a new name to me, though I have been aware of the Hard Rain Ensemble that he founded a decade ago. Aingeal is a tribute to a loved...
NEXUS
Twenty compositions by seven contemporary composers Oscar Whight trumpetZeynep Özsuca piano Willowhayne Records WHR093 It was trumpet-player Oscar Whight who, in 2020 during the pandemic, when musicians were being forced apart from one another, decided to bring...
THE PRE-RAPHAELITE CELLO
Adrian Bradbury celloAndrew West piano SOMM SOMMCD 0685 It might be thought perverse to choose the shortest piece here as the defining example of the distinguished artistry epitomised within. Grainger’s Variations on Handel’s ‘The Harmonious Blacksmith’, which later...
HUW WATKINS: Chamber Music and Works
Leonore Piano TrioOrchestra NovaGeorge Vass conductor Resonus RES10338 The booklet notes confidently proclaim right from the start that ‘Huw Watkins is widely recognised as the leading Welsh composer of his generation’. It is certainly true that his CV proves as much....