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The Chronicle Review Corner

Second Child is the second album of works by Kevin Raftery, US born but now a British citizen who sings in the New London Chamber Choir and plays bassoon in several ensembles.

The sound is modern and perhaps a little harsh in places but oddly suits the hot weather we’ve had, a little oppressive but also mentally refreshing. Nominally the sound ranges from chamber music to choral, but with modern spins on these forms of music.

The album opens with the String Quartet No.2 Serioso (2017), which develops ideas from Beethoven’s opus 95 quartet, also Serioso.

The quartet consists of three movements: Fragmented, Cool, Poised, Alert, and Three Themes with Variations. The music is complex and textured; the air of slight oppression the listener feels is perhaps explained by the composer’s comment, “My feelings were coloured by a variety of things, from two aggressive neighbours to millions of deluded voters … and the fact that homosapien is destroying other species at a rate unmatched by anything in the last 65 million years”, matching Beethoven’s own frustration when he wrote its inspiration.

The first movement is built “with small melodic bits” — “the horizontal strands from Beethoven’s first and second movements”. The music calms in the middle movement.

The next piece is Cook From Frozen, a piano solo performed by Clare Hammond, and this is more at ease with itself. Indeed, at odd moments the piece — a based on three-note motif — is almost pop music, a few seconds of piano that could be accompanying an RnB tune.

The album then shifts to choral music, the first Dimitte nobis, a fairly traditional setting of the Latin text “Forgive us our trespasses” for eight voices. After the very modern opening, this is quiet and serene, creating a sense of reverence. The second is Musica Fermata “probably the simplest, quietest piece I have written” notes the composer, two muted violins playing what elsewhere could be a tranquil if ever so slightly edgy opening to a louder piece.

The title “makes sense in neither Latin nor Italian” notes the composer but means (to him at least) “stopped music”.

Three English Poems (2004-2005) is for four voices and it’s mostly gentle on the listener, although there is some sense of the oppression from the opening piece, the effect ranging from pastoral to melancholic and even playful.

The programme closes with Elegy Upon Elegy, a companion piece to be programmed with Beethoven’s Septet, Schubert’s Octet, or Stravinsky’s Septet, and triggered by the death of composer Oliver Knussen, so a mix of mournful and celebratory (the wind players are asked to stand as a sign of respect at one point) and despite a little harshness in places closes warmly (and with some nice double bass).

 Second Child is a modern album that is both challenging and accessible, with some classical influences. Its more difficult sections are not all that hard and it’s an engrossing collection of music that rewards the minimal effort needed. The artists are the Berkeley Ensemble, Clare Hammond (piano), Exaudi and the Marmen Quartet.