ANTHONY PAYNE (b.1936): Empty Landscape - Heart's Ease for Oboe, Clarinet, Horn and String Trio, Scenes from "The Woodlanders" for Soprano, 2 Clarinets, Violin and Cello, Of Knots and Skeins for Violin and Piano, 3 Poems of Edward Thomas for Soprano and Piano Quartet, The Stones and Lonely Places Sing for Flute/Piccolo, Clarinet/Bass Clarinet, Horn and Piano Quartet.
Catalogue Number: 06I130
Label: NMC
Reference: D130
Format: CD
Price: $19.98
Description: The chamber tone poem is a genre that has almost become the exclusive preserve of Anthony Payne; frequently taking his cue from poetical, literary or landscape imagery, Payne has quietly been building up a body of marvellously vivid and evocative works which quite belie their modest scale in the richness and variety of their expressive content. His titles, as here, frequently suggest an Elgarian or Vaughan Williams-esque preoccupation with landscape in all its moods and colors (and his choice of texts - Thomas Hardy and Edward Thomas, the latter including the once ubiquitously anthologised 'Adlestrop' contributes to this impression), but his economy of gesture and intellectually rigorous compositional technique (which never draws attention to itself, but stays firmly in place in the "composer's workshop") point to a more cosmopolitan æsthetic, a composer thoroughly versed in whatever modern technique he might wish to use. Firmly grounded in tonality, the music sounds as fresh and original as any avant-garde experimentation, the technique always at the service of the emotional expression of the moment. Texts included. Jane Manning (soprano), Jane's Minstrels; Roger Montgomery.