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British Music Society

The current CD of Orchestral Works by Marcus Blunt (b. 1947) presents four very different pieces. The Chamber Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, conducted by Stephen Threlfall, are joined by pianist Murray McLachlan in the Concerto and by bassoonist Lesley Wilson in the Concertino. Aspects of Saturn is scored for strings alone as is the orchestra supporting the bassoonist. Full orchestra is used in both the Piano Concerto and the Symphony. The performances of all, soloists and orchestra, in all these works are admirable.

The first of three movements in the Piano Concerto opens with a grand flourish of brass and they feature strongly throughout this movement. Murray McLachlan plays with razor-sharp crystalline clarity. Both piano and orchestra are deliberately ‘spasmodic’ in this movement. Is the influence of Messiaen only just there in the background?
In the second movement the strings are to the fore in more romantically inclined music with the piano moving independently in the foreground. (In the first movement, the piano had been more closely melded to the orchestral writing.) In the Finale, the piano really takes charge with virtuoso playing. The music is more overtly romantic and the piano rejoices in a splendid cadenza.

The Concertino for bassoon was originally composed for bassoon accompanied by piano. This version was originally entitled ‘Lorenzo, the Much-Travel’d Clown’. The string writing in this new version works brilliantly well and Lesley Wilson’s playing is just marvellous. The two outer movements of five celebrate the idea of the bassoon as the clown of the orchestra but two of the central movements, a melancholy Aria and an alluring Elegy have just a hint of an eastern flavour. Lesley Wilson proves that the bassoon can express great depth of feeling too.

The Second Symphony has four relatively brief movements. The themes are angular in brass and woodwind set against alluring string writing. String pizzicatos and rather dreamy trumpet solos really shine forth in this music.

In Aspects of Saturn, passages of quite luscious string writing are contrasted with the rhythmically edgy writing which is a feature of Marcus Blunt’s style.

For me though, it was the Concertino for Bassoon that really carried off the laurels in this CD.