Richard Blackford: Niobe, Blewbury Air & Kalon

"Richard Blackford has been well served by the Nimbus label over the years, and this disc adds a further instalment to an impressive catalogue of recordings. The presentation is admirable as always… and the sound recording is never less than exemplary. Those who already know and love the composer's output, as I do, will need no further recommendation; those who have yet to make the pleasure of his acquaintance could do no better than to begin here."

Niobe: The music begins with an exposition of Niobe's theme as an extended violin cantilena, with Tamsin Waley-Cohen playing with a sense of rapturous beauty which exactly matches the description of the protagonist as a lover. Throughout the turbulent music which follows, sometimes in combination with the orchestra and sometimes in strenuous opposition to it, she never loses this sense of rapt communication; and at the beginning of the finale, describing Niobe as the mourner, this petrifies into a contemplation in which – in the words of the composer – "like an insect struggling in the last seconds of its life to escape the amber that will encase it for millennia, the violin flails and struggles as the murmuring orchestra overpowers it in the final bar." It would be impossible to better that description of the music at this point, which makes exactly the effect which the composer wishes to achieve. A marvellous piece.

Kalon: The score concentrates on the contrast between the two bodies of players, in the manner of the traditional concerto grosso, but achieves a greater sense of dichotomy by the use of two distinct rhythmic pulses contrasting them, frequently moving towards almost total disassociation. This could be a recipe for chaos and disaster… but Blackford is cunning in his ability to bind together the different units into a convincing whole and the two elements combine with all the skill we might expect in similarly contrasted writing by Holst or Bartók. The co-ordinated playing of the Albion Quartet (led by Waley-Cohen) must have been stupendously difficult to achieve in the polythmical sections, but fits perfectly with the rich sound of the Czech Philharmonic strings in a warmly resonant acoustic.

Blewbury Air: the delicate Blewbury Air for cello and piano forms an oasis of comparative calm. It is a heartfelt and lovely reflection on the composer's home village in Oxfordshire, and its three movements exactly reflect their titles: By the water's edge, Incantation with bells and The wind in the branches… It need hardly be added that Raphael Wallfisch and Adrian Farmer give entirely sympathetic performances of another marvellous piece" MusicWeb International