Kevin Raftery: Second Child

Price range: £8.99 through £14.99

Label:
Catalogue No: MSV 28600
EAN/UPC: 809730860027
Artists: , , ,
Composers:
Release Date: September 2022
Genres: , ,
Periods:
Discs: 1
Total Playing Time: 76:25

Kevin Raftery was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1951 and studied composition with Peter Racine Fricker at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

In 1989 he moved to London where he studied with Justin Connolly and maintained a dual career as musician and project manager until 2004 when he retired from non-musical work. Now a citizen of the UK and of Ireland, he sings in the New London Chamber Choir and plays bassoon in several ensembles. Composing, however, has always been his primary concern.

This ‘Second Child’ album follows his first portrait recording for Métier, which included his First String Quartet and other chamber works. Here his Second Quartet is partnered with choral works (both sacred and secular), and works for solo piano, violin duo and ensemble. Raftery’s music may be mildly dissonant at times and harmonically adventurous, but is always brilliantly constructed: new music which is a joy to hear.

The performers here are of the top flight. Clare Hammond is in great demand for recordings and recitals, and recently for film roles too. She was described by Gramophone as a ‘pianist of extraordinary gits’. EXAUDI is one the world’s leading vocal ensembles in the field of new music and while here they produce delightful renditions of relatively tonal works they also have a special affinity with the ‘radical edge’ of new music.

The Marmen String Quartet, founded in 2013 at the Royal College of Music in London, is fast gaining a reputation for the vitality and vigour of their performances. They won major international competitions in 2019. The Berkeley Ensemble also specialises in the new – and also the neglected and forgotten. Its eight recordings (before this one) include 18 world premieres and have elicited great praise including a Gramophone award nomination.

Track Listing

    Kevin Raftery:

  1. String Quartet No. 2 "Serioso" - I. Fragmented
  2. String Quartet No. 2 "Serioso" - II. Cool, poised, alert
  3. String Quartet No. 2 "Serioso" - III. Three themes with Variations
  4. Cook From Frozen
  5. Dimitte nobis
  6. Musica Fermata
  7. Three English Poems - I. Ribblesdale
  8. Three English Poems - II. Unhaunted Desert
  9. Three English Poems - III. From Prison
  10. Elegy Upon Elegy

Reviews

The Chronicle Review Corner

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.

” —Jeremy Condliffe
Fanfare

This is a very carefully planned program, and beautifully executed on all fronts. Constellations of sound, performed with such beauty, make this one of the most memorable of recent contemporary recordings.

” —Colin Clarke
Infodad

This multifaceted CD will appeal to listeners who have a strong interest in how today’s composers think about and rethink various instruments (including the voice) and traditional forms.

” —Mark J. Estren
Classical Music Daily

Raftery’s second quartet more than adequately speaks for itself to the extent that it is the most absorbing new string quartet that I have had the pleasure to encounter recently. Throughout the various forms and textures offered to the listener on this generously filled disc, one is constantly aware that none of this music is just a score on a printed page. Everything here is wonderfully attuned to the specific characteristics innate to the various instruments and forces for which Raftery composes. This is exemplified in his writing for voices. The performance by EXAUDI on all the choral pieces here is magnificent. . I feel that nothing I have written here fully does justice to the richness of textures and sonorities nor the sheer generosity of invention on display on this CD. To sum up, this is one of the most richly stimulating, impressive and sheerly enjoyable CDs of music, new or old, that I have heard in quite some time.

” —Robert McCarney