Customer Reviews

Dark Inventions: Blue Circus: Chamber Concerto

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Philip Cashian is (still) a young British composer, and this NMC release showcases works from the early part of his career. They are stylistically varied in a way suggesting a young composer trying out various idioms on his way to finding a personal voice. They are technically adept, virtuous works, if perhaps not uniformly top-drawer.

The Chamber Concerto is a sequence of rather brief pieces displaying a range of contemporary influences shows a remarkable ear for various sonorities and is probably the best work on the disc. `... in the still hours' is a quieter piece, but in the end unable really to grab the attention of the listener. `Blue Circus' is a fast-moving kaleidoscopic work where the clarinet soloist is pitted against various instrumental backgrounds, creating a varied and interesting shifting fabric of sound. `Dark Inventions', the title piece, is inspired by - perhaps foremostly - Reich, but with an individual twist to the orchestration. Musica Meccanica for violin and piano are three enjoyable pieces, and the last one, in particular, with its throbbing ostinato and mysterious ending is very fine. `So lonely' is finely sung, but not very interesting.

It is all excellently performed; if I were to single out one pair of performers it would have to be Lyn Fletcher and Sally Bishop for their excellent realization of Musica Meccanica, but the whole disc is really excellent. Sound quality is, as usual from NMC, impeccable. In conclusion, this is an interesting, variegated, if a little variable disc, one that can be strongly recommended for the adventurous.