Lyell Cresswell: Music for String Quartet

The composer Lyell Cresswell, now in his 70s, has enjoyed simultaneous prominence in his native New Zealand and his adopted homeland of Scotland. Influences from each have fused to create a musical language that is quizzical and challenging, endlessly creative and whimsically unique. The hallmarks are omnipresent in the varied choice of repertoire featured by the excellent Red Note Ensemble on this tribute disc.

The most substantial work here is the String Quartet, condensed by the composer to three movements from its original four, and whose veiled opening recalls his early seminal work Salm, with its slithering references to Gaelic psalmsetting. The arched intensity of this performance is breathtaking, at its heart the sustained angst of the central movement, dissipating into the reflective wailings and ethereal positioning of the third. Red Note end on a brief frenzied note with the opening movement of the Maoriinspired Kotetetete.