Martin Butler - American Rounds - NMC: NMCD120 - CD or download

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Martin Butler's contribution to the chamber domain has been a significant one. All of these pieces were written over the past decade with the Schubert Ensemble in mind: the earliest being American... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 14th May 2007
Catalogue No: NMCD120
Label: NMC
Length: 70 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Butler, M: American Rounds

Work length35:39

Album only

$5.20

Schubert Ensemble

I. Vigoroso

Track length5:43

$1.00

$1.30

II. Grazioso, semplice

Track length4:46

$1.00

$1.30

III. Andante

Track length9:07

$1.50

$1.30

IV. Pesante. Vivace

Track length16:03

Album only

$1.30

Butler, M: Siward's River Song

Work length2:28

$1.00

$1.30

Jane Salmon

Butler, M: Suzanne's River Song

Work length4:34

$1.00

$1.30

Simon Blendis, William Howard

Butler, M: Nathaniel's Mobile

Work length11:37

$2.05

$2.60

William Howard

Butler, M: Funérailles

Work length3:17

$1.00

$5.15

William Howard

Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata in D Major, Kk. 119 (Arr. for Piano Quintet)

Work length2:43

$1.00

$1.30

Schubert Ensemble

Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata in E Major, Kk. 215 (Arr. for Piano Quintet)

Work length4:09

$1.00

$1.30

Schubert Ensemble

Butler, M: Sequenza notturna

Work length3:33

$1.00

$3.85

Schubert Ensemble

Butler, M: Walden Snow

Work length2:55

$1.00

$1.30

Douglas Paterson, William Howard

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William Howard and the Schubert Ensemble in Martin Butler's piano quintet American Rounds, and other chamber music, plus Funerailles - Butler's major new work for solo piano - and arrangements of two Scarlatti sonatas.

Reviews

2010

Martin Butler's contribution to the chamber domain has been a significant one. All of these pieces were written over the past decade with the Schubert Ensemble in mind: the earliest being American Rounds – which combines American folk idioms with a rhythmic impetus whose Stravinskian incisiveness is anything but mindlessly post-minimalist. Equally engaging are the 'River Songs' derived from the chamber opera A Better Place, its restrained yet evocative mood distilled in the threnody for Siward and the effulgent lyricism of that for Suzanne. On a lighter note, the two Scarlatti transcriptions – respectively vigorous and poetic – evince a keen ingenuity. The most striking works, however, are the two piano pieces: Nathaniel's Mobile – which intercuts linear and harmonised melody so the music evolves, without intensifying, towards its conclusion; and Funérailles, which adds a more disruptive element that opens out the music's dynamic and emotional range on the way to its quiet yet restive close. Sequenza notturna passes through several expressive vignettes, given focus by the unassuming viola melody that underpins them, while WaldenSnow is a 'postcard' from New England of touching limpidity.
The performances are as sensitive and assured as one would expect from the Schubert Ensemble, continuing their laudable contribution to British new music, and the sound is a model of chamber balance. Informative notes from John Fallas, and a disc that should extend the audience for a composer whose idiom – distinctive but accessible and never remotely facile – is nowhere better represented than here.

August 2007

The performances are as sensitive and assured as one would expect from the Schubert Ensemble, continuing their laudable contribution to British new music, and the sound is a model of chamber balance. Informative notes from John Fallas, and a disc that should extend the audience for a composer whose idiom - distinctive but accessible and never remotely facile - is nowhere better represented than here.

[Butler’s] virtuoso skill at placing and displacing, nudging and manipulating rhythms creates a brilliant pattern of light and movement.

Martin Butler - American Rounds

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