‘Magical stuff … Engaging and affecting, it’s a grower … immaculately produced and designed … when lockdown eases, I’m Louthward bound’:
https://theartsdesk.com/classical-music/classical-cds-music-easter-vocal-anthologies-and-trip-dundalk
Linda Catlin Smith: Meadow (Louth Contemporary Music)
New music thrives in the most unlikely places; Sheffields Another Timbre is one of the largest experimental record labels and just a short walk across the Pennines is Huddersfield, home to one of the world’s leading contemporary music festivals. Then there is the Louth Contemporary Music Society in Dundalk, Ireland, whose founder Eamonn Quinn has secured visits from John Zorn, Terry Riley and Arvo Pärt. The festival has its own record label and two new releases have come my way recently. Linda Catlin Smiths Wiese is a 33-minute string trio. The title is explained by her description of a meadow as a superficially unspectacular garden in which “many different types of plants and tiny flowers are hidden … it is a place of infinite variation”. Smith draws an exquisite palette of colors from her three musicians, from dense chords to deliciously airy textures, gentle violin harmonics floating above the top. as “more like patient observation than a form of self-expression … I try to stay away from it and just let it be.” Magical stuff performed with love by Mia Cooper, Joachim Roewer and William Butt.
Embers contains more chamber music for strings, this time by Raymond Deane and Valentin Silvestrov. The latter’s string quartet No. 3 is a rare commission. Silvestrov willingly writes the work after meeting Quinn. As with the Smith String Trio, Silvestrov’s music follows its own rules and unfolds slowly and euphonically. The quartet’s origins are occasionally signaled by an allusion to Irish folk music or a squeaky cadence. The final fade to silence is extraordinary. It is associated with two pieces by Irish composer Raymond Deane. Marthiya, a string trio played here by the Crash Ensemble, is an ongoing, compelling lament brought about by “the broader slaughter the West has inflicted on the Arab and Islamic world.” Embers, heard here in a string quartet version (played together with the Silvestrov from the Carducci Quartet), is Deane’s most frequently performed work. The musical material occasionally sways in the abyss before it is brought back to life. Engaging and touching, it’s a breeder. Both discs are flawlessly manufactured and designed. Next month’s festival is inevitably an online affair, but when the lockdown wears off I’m tied to Louthward.
