Skempton reviews

The choral conductor Paul Hillier has expounded early music and new music – and much in between – with distinction for many decades. But, since the 1990s, the latter period has held sway, and he has forged enduring relationships with some of the most significant composers of our time. This collection of 11 short pieces by nine, mainly American and British, composers is a touching retrospective of Hillier’s association over several years with the 12-strong Ars Nova Copenhagen. Almost all are first recordings, captured between 2006 and 2015.

Howard Skempton, the inimitable master of intimate miniatures? Think again. These mesmerising exemplars of his growing number of more expansive scores reveal his adroit pacing of events in larger canvasses. He judges the balance between reiteration and variety to perfection, while the typical Skempton traits – his remarkable clarity, deceptive simplicity and apparently familiar yet fresh and capricious language – are all here, conveyed with typical sensitivity by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

This album is like the curate’s bowl of oatmeal: in parts bland, in parts stodgy, but sometimes delicious and nourishing. It has its roots in a collaboration between composer Tom Cunningham and writer Alexander McCall Smith, who produced the texts for the seven song cycle, Scotland at Night.

This album is like the curate’s bowl of oatmeal: in parts bland, in parts stodgy, but sometimes delicious and nourishing. It has its roots in a collaboration between composer Tom Cunningham and writer Alexander McCall Smith, who produced the texts for the seven song cycle, Scotland at Night.