MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE (b.1960): Three for Two for Piano Quartet, Four Chants for Violin and Piano, A Slow Pavane for Piano Trio, Grazioso! For 6 Players, A Constant Obsession for Tenor and 8 Players.

Description: Turnage's orchestral works and operas have generally tended toward the brash, extrovert, even violent to the point at which some have achieved some notoriety and raised a degree of controversy. The closest to that sort of thing here is the strident Grazioso!, which is anything but. The piece is energetic and aggressive, and scored to allow extremes of register and to maximize pungency of timbre. Apparently it draws some inspiration from a Led Zeppelin song. The other works, like most of Turnage's chamber music, reveals a more intimate, even tender side. The song cycle sets love poems by five English poets; the music is lyrical and somewhat elegiac in mood, to match the texts, chosen to express regret, loss or unrequited passion. The piano quartet Three for Two is jazz infused and celebratory in mood, having been written to celebrate the birthdays of two colleagues of the composer. A Slow Pavane is a gentle work, with a sense of suppressed passion that takes it beyond the confines of the 16th century dance form. The Chants are violin showpieces, two of them in rambunctious, burlesque style. Texts included. Nicky Spence (tenor), Chamber Domaine; Thomas Kemp.