Smiling in the Dark

Also at the New York Times, a more promising article on new music: In a Dark Time, This Music Will Make You Smile that looks at some offerings from a new British label, NMC Recordings.

Last fall, when the world was being told to expect a long, dark winter after what had already been a brutal year, I decided to search for some new, bracing orchestral music. It had been months since I’d been walloped by symphonic forces in a live setting. And if it was to be grim times ahead, I wanted at least some music that gestured toward that sense of scale.

Thanks to the British label NMC Recordings, I quickly found what I was looking for in the Irish composer Ed Bennett’s “Freefalling,” the opening track from his October release “Psychedelia.”

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxUTQemhApE

the label has continued to put out a string of winning recordings, including, this month, “Nature,” the first full-length collection of orchestral pieces by the English composer Tansy Davies.

Follow the first link above for the clip embedded in the NYT article. We have an excerpt from another piece, Re-greening, performed at the BBC Proms in 2015:

 Another composer mentioned in the article is Martin Suckling. Here is the first movement of his Piano Concerto:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujdZH2F-T6I&t=1s

All these composers are in their forties. Plainly there is nothing wrong with the UK music scene when it comes to up and coming composers. And what an enlightened record label!