TANSY DAVIES: SPINE

BCMG | Azalea/ Christopher Austin, conductor | Concordia | Samuel Boden, tenor | Joby Burgess, percussion | Simon Haram, saxophone | Darragh Morgan, violin |Huw Watkins, piano

NMC D176

A great portrait CD compilation of works from the first decade of our musically woderful new century, by our great composer (Tansy Davies, b. 1973) who never repeats herself.

Charming and unpretentious to meet, Tansy Davies draws inspiration from her wide reading, touched on in her own notes which relate the pieces to different cultures and mythologies, rituals, drawing on music history and even trilobites from Paleozoic times (illustrated on the cover !).

No matter, those are triggers for music which is self-sufficient, and the sequence here is so good that I have listened to it all twice through with mounting pleasure and admiration.

There is also a substantial article by Paul Griffiths who seeks to pin down Davies' uniquity in several of the works, mostly prestigious commissions.

I am eager to hear Tansy's ever next composition, assured of delight and surprise.

Peter Grahame Woolf

See M P's Davies reviews: Troubairitz etc