Cole/ Foskett/ Bedford

Jonathan Cole: Testament
Ben Foskett: Violin Concerto
Luke Bedford: Or voit tout en aventure

Claire Booth, Clio Gould, London Sinfonietta/Oliver Knussen

SINF CD1-2007 03 (The Jerwood Series 3)

Here is a worthwhile and recommendable release in the London Sinfonietta's recordings of music by young composers they have nurtured.

Cole's Remembrance for Sue Knussen is a slow threnody which erupts as an expression of grief. Foskett's concerto begins slowly, establishing the soloist as the prime mover with the orchestra 'constituting a kind of double' (Christopher Austin).

Bedford's songs set some extraordinary 13th C poems of (perhaps ironic) regret for the deterioration of modern music. They seem likely to have been composed for the soloist here; Claire Booth likes to live high amongst the leger lines. No way that she could expect her words to be audible there, but texts and translations from the medieval French and Italian are supplied in the economical insert booklets which are a feature of this series. For more information about the composers, click onto the links to their names above.

Peter Grahame Woolf