FLAC tracks | Classical | 01:10:25 | 304 MbThis album of premiere recordings of works by Howard Skempton, including ‘Man and Bat’, the Piano Concerto, ‘The Moon is Flashing’ and ‘Eternity’s Sunrise’, features possibly the greatest baritone of our time Roderick Williams, the celebrated tenor James Gilchrist, leading chamber pianist TimHorton and the fantastic Ensemble 360.

Skempton’s music can be said to be exquisite and simple, with strong clarity and sophistication.

His finely crafted, distinctive writing is sometimes catchy, sometimes transcendental, always memorable.

Howard Skempton was born in Chester in 1947, and has worked as a composer, accordionist and music publisher.

He studied in London with Cornelius Cardewfrom 1967, which helped Skempton to discover a musical language of great simplicity.

Since then he has continued to write undeflected by compositional trends, producing a corpus of more than 300 works – many pieces being miniatures for solo piano or accordion.

Skempton calls these pieces ‘the centralnervous system’ of his work.

Skempton’s catalogue of works is also as diverse as it is long, ranging from pieces for solo cello (Six Figures, 1998), and guitar (Five Preludes, 1999), to the Chamber Concerto for fifteen players, the Concerto for Hurdy-Gurdy and Percussion, and Lento, premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Bar-bican in 1991, and performed by the BBC Sco sh Symphony Orchestra, con-ducted by Ilan Volkov, at the 2010 BBC Proms.

Tracklist:01. Man and Bat02. Piano Concerto (Version for Piano & String Quartet): I. —03. Piano Concerto (Version for Piano & String Quartet): II. —04. Piano Concerto (Version for Piano & String Quartet): III. —05. Piano Concerto (Version for Piano & String Quartet): IV. —06. Piano Concerto (Version for Piano & String Quartet): V. —07. The Moon Is Flashing (Version for Tenor & Chamber Ensemble): I. The Moon Is Flashing08. The Moon Is Flashing (Version for Tenor & Chamber Ensemble): II. A Day in 3 Wipes09. The Moon Is Flashing (Version for Tenor & Chamber Ensemble): III. Snake10. Eternity’s Sunrise