Elder Statesman Of Contemporary British Music

A cd of music from the British pianist and composer John McCabe. The featured work is his Piano Concerto no 2 played by Tamami Honma with the St Christopher Chamber Orchestra conducted by Donatus Katkus. Honma is an advocate of McCabe's music and I believe has played duet repertoire with him too. The St Christopher Chamber Orchestra are young musicians from Lithuania and they also play the remaining works on the disk; Concertante Variations on a Theme of Nicholas Maw, Six Minute Symphony and Sonata on a Motet. The variations do are self explanatory, as in fact is the symphony which is an exercise in miniature but does keep to a full symphonic structure. McCabe's music as represented here has modern influences and a certain dissonance but there are plenty of warm string sounds and evocative piano playing to reward the more conservative without there being any feeling of compromise. A noted teacher as well as performer and composer, McCabe has been awarded a CBE but that was over twenty years ago and he remains slightly off the radar of the more casual classical follower.