A Vigorous Spirit Music by Matthew Taylor - heard by PATRIC STANDFORD '... skill and personality in equal measures ...'

Matthew Taylor has, since last year, seven string quartets to his credit and the third on this recording, written during 1995, shows a strong sympathy with what must inevitably be a medium that can expose a composer's skill and personality in equal measures -- or indeed a lack of either ingredient. Taylor would appear to have enough of both. A more meditative central movement precedes an energetic return to the rhythmic precision of the first movement which, however, disappears into the ether most effectively. The work opens with a weighty introduction that dissolves into an Allegro of placid lightness.The conflict is presented as 'highly charged motives which collide fiercely with one another'...

BBC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

TOCCATA CLASSICS

LONDON

UNITED KINGDOM