Philip Grange | Divine Art Recordings

Following the success and critical acclaim of recent recordings, the British chamber ensemble Gemini is busy finalising a new collection of chamber works by Philip Grange which will be released by Métier in the summer.

This CD of music by Philip Grange features Shifting Thresholds, a major new large-scale, structurally sophisticated work marking an important stage in Grange’s compositional development, both aesthetically and in its use of compositional and instrumental techniques in relation to stream of consciousness ideas. The CD is entitled “Homage”. The sextet Shifting Thresholds is a homage to Samuel Beckett and the three other pieces continue this theme: the Piano Quartet Tiers of Time is a homage to Grange’s friend and colleague Professor John Casken, written to mark his retirement from Manchester University; Elegy for solo cello was written as a homage to the poet Edward Thomas and the Piano Trio Homage to Chagall is self-explanatory.

Composer-portrait CDs provide important markers of a composer’s development. Furthermore, they do not promote single pieces, but, as is the case here, draw together works with a common thread, enabling an in-depth exploration of an aspect of a composer’s oeuvre. As recordings are realised carefully in a studio they are fully representative of a piece and thereby attract dissemination via platforms such as Spotify and YouTube and are often broadcast on radio stations. Indeed, a previous CD of Grange’s music recorded by Gemini has been broadcast in its entirety twice on Dutch radio and individual works have been broadcast elsewhere.

The performers are Gemini, who have given over 30 performances of Grange’s compositions, working closely with him for more than 25 years, and recorded two previous discs of his music, both chosen as a Critic’s Choice for Disc of the Year in Gramophone magazine, Thus, the performances on this new CD are informed by a well-established working relationship, exemplified by the previous Metier album ‘Darkness Visible’ (MSVCD 92083). (More recently, Grange’s ‘Ghosts of Great Violence’ was recorded for Metier by Quatuor Danel (MSV 28546).