Benedict Mason
Chamber works
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE: BEST OF YEAR |
|
|
|
Order from 
Mason- Double concerto for horn &...
|
Order
from ArkivMusic.com:
Mason
- Chamber Works |
|
Click
here for MP3 audio sample |
Benedict Mason
String Quartet No. 1 (1987)
Double Concerto (1989)
Self-Referential Songs and Realistic Virelais (1990)
Arditti String Quartet
Michael Thompson, horn
David Purser, trombone
London Sinfonietta: Diego Masson
Christine Whittlesey, soprano
Ensemble Modern
Ingo Metzmacher, conductor
BRIDGE 9045 |
|
The English composer, Benedict Mason, has been called "one of the major
talents in music today" by the critic Julian Anderson. The three works
recorded on this disc introduce the work of a startlingly original voice. Mason’s
music incorporates a huge range of expression- from commonplace to the sublime.
Barriers between tonality and non-tonality are swept aside easily by the force
of Mason’s musical argument, his broadly inclusive vision calling to mind such
visionaries as Janacek, Mahler and Ives. Indeed, ghosts of Beethoven,
Stravinsky, Ives and even Elgar occasionally haunt the discourse of Mason’s
surreal landscape, projecting a brilliantly refractory sub-text, the music’s
surface always alive with humor and highly detailed invention.
The virtuosic performances on this disc are ample testimony to the high
esteem in which Benedict Mason is held by his English and German colleagues-
members of three of Europe’s leading contemporary ensembles.
|
