Gramophone

Few British violinists have been as active in recent years as Madeleine Mitchell in promoting and the commissioning of new music, as can be heard on Violin Muse.

The largest work here is a violin concerto – Guto Pryderi Puw’s Soft Stillness, taking its cue from “The Merchant of Venice” over two movements, restless then soulful, evoking much of its nocturnal expectancy. There is also Atlantic Drift, a piquant set of folk-inspired pieces for two violinists by Judith Weir in which Mitchell is partnered by Cerys Jones. Otherwise, she and pianist Nigel Clayton tackle the teasing understatement of Geoffrey Poole’s Rhapsody, amalgam of intermezzo and waltz in David Matthews’s Romanza, plainsong-informed meditation that is Sadie Harrison’s Aurea Luce and wistful melancholy of Michael Berkeley’s Veilleuse.

Taking it as Read, two hymn-like miniatures by Michael Nyman, round off a diverse and finely realised programme.

—Richard Whitehouse