Familiar on the English musical scene for some years, Margaret Lucy Wilkins
is always active where new music takes a suitable place in the hierarchy of
live performance. Never has this been less than the fruit of absolute
determination, and given the gusto of those who still exclude it from their
experience, things are not likely to change.
Gifted composers and enthusiasts with determination for the health of
new-born music are no less pugnacious in their battle for its survival.
In taking the cause of one such composer -- Margaret Lucy Wilkins -- this
'portrait CD' is no push-over. The content is music with vitality,
promoted by fine performers who link their understanding and skills to the
output of composers who write for today and tomorrow.
Margaret Lucy Wilkins deserves this exposure, as much for the 1989
Symphony [listen -- track 10, 21:17-22:14]
as the rest. I do not rate this as the front-runner, but its
qualities show her invention and the skills that harness it.
Copyright © 5 April 2003
Basil Ramsey, Eastwood, Essex, UK
Margaret Lucy Wilkins - Free Spirit
VMM 3055 DDD Stereo NEW RELEASE 67'10" 2003 Vienna Modern Masters
Sofia Soloists Chamber Ensemble, Plamen Djurov, conductor; Alison Wells, mezzo soprano; Firebird Ensemble, Barrie Webb, conductor; Dov Goldberg, Eb/Bb clarinets/sax, Roger Heaton, clarinet/bass clarinet, Jo Patton, clarinet, Ian Buckle, piano, Christopher Bradley, percussion; Firebird String Trio: Mieko Kanno, violin, Bridget Carey, viola, Zoe Martlew, cello; Barrie Webb, trombone; Timisoara Symphony Orchestra, Alexendru Patrascu, concertmaster, Barrie Webb, conductor
Margaret Lucy Wilkins: Musica Angelorum (1991); Struwwelpeter (1973); Burnt Sienna: Etude for String Trio (1974); 366" for solo trombone (1986); Symphony (1989) |
BUY THIS DISC VIA VIENNA MODERN MASTERS
Record Box is Music & Vision's
regular Saturday series of shorter CD reviews
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