Volume 3 introduces five composers not automatically associated with the genre. Indeed, one would like to know how these songs and composers were chosen…

Edward Cowie’s Bird Portraits is virtually unique. Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux comes nearest, but in his extensive programme note, Cowie stresses the difference between his and Messiaen’s compositional technique…

The booklet cover displays a wonderful Parisian street, I think the Champs-Élysées, by Pissarro which really conjures up the lights and gaiety of the world which Lennox Berkeley entered in the late 1920s…

The connection between these well-known but diverse works by one of our most significant 20th century composers is clear – both employ the spoken word…

The real highlight of the performance is the wonderfully energetic and incisive playing of the Scherzo. It could easily stand alone as a superb concert piece…

The New Philharmonia play well: moments of struggle are even oddly appropriate, as a sense of heroic striving is arguably intrinsic to the work…