English Minimalism ?

This is a fine retrospective on a double cd issue entitled Gavin Bryars: A Portrait. It concentrates on music he wrote in the 1990s. There are brief edited extracts from his two most well known pieces The Sinking Of The Titanic and Jesus' Blood but I have the full length versions of these remarkable works which I'll consider when that disk has its' turn. Anyway, Tom Waits egocentric intrusions wreck the snippets of Jesus' Blood on this disk. This is well worth hearing though for the three lengthy works on each disk. Disk one has the Cello Concerto ( Farewell to Philosphy )played by Julian Lloyd Webber with the English Chamber Orchestra under James Judd, a lyrical rather than outwardly virtuosic piece. That is followed by One Last Bar, Then Joe Can Sing for the percussion group Nexus using tuned percussion, marimbas etc. Finally on disk one is Les Fiancialles by the Gavin Bryars Ensemble a pulsing string piece that maybe shows hints of an English minimalism. Disk two commences with The Green Ray, a showpiece for saxophonist John Harle with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta with long yearning soprano sax lines based on a seascape. That's followed by Adnan Songbook which sets love poems by the Lebanese writer Etel Adnan for soprano Valerie Anderson and the Gavin Bryars Ensemble ( as ever, a small chamber group )and conductor Dave Smith. The last piece is The North Shore with a solo viola part taken by Bill Hawkes of the Gavin Bryars Ensemble which here also has a conductor, Roger Heaton. another atmospheric work inspired by the North sea coastline around Whitby close to where Bryars lives.