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Musical Opinion

Twenty-eight individual songs with an overall playing time of less than fifty-five minutes tells its own story; among the wide-ranging gifts this unique figure possessed was that of brevity: not the brevity of minimalism (the word was unknown to him) but of making a relevant musical point without unnecessary padding – nor are these songs wholly epigrammatic; they say, musically, what needs to be said an no more.

There are several compelling gems here: September Lovers, Christmas Lullaby and The Carrion Crow, especially, to which music be added Winter Evening: Dunham Park (at 4’43”, the longest song here); as an example of Pitfield’s brevity, the Four Little Songs last in total less than three-and-a-half minutes (!), but work as a set beautifully, especially in admirable performance and recordings as these.