Album

British composer Anthony Payne, born in 1936, is old enough to have come of age when the "English sound" of Vaughan Williams and Holst was still prominent and young enough to have encountered the dominance of serialism during his formative years. While his style couldn't be called a synthesis of the two strains of influence—his work is firmly in the modernist camp—it's possible to hear traces of the English Pastoral Style flickering through his music. He describes several of his works (even vocal pieces) as tone poems, and the fact that he gives his pieces evocative titles should alert the listener to pay attention to his roots in the English tradition. Two of the most persuasive of his works recorded here, Empty Landscape—Heart's Ease and The Stones and Lonely Places Sing, both for mixed instrumental ensemble, are thoroughly abstract, but their striking and memorable gestures return often enough to keep the listener oriented and engaged. Two works, Scenes from the Woodlanders, based on texts by Hardy, and 3 Poems of Edward Thomas were written for his wife, soprano Jane Manning, a longtime passionate advocate for and interpreter of challenging new music. Payne's text setting has an angularity that sounds more instrumentally than lyrically conceived. Manning sings with great expressivity, but her voice has lost some of its bloom. The ensemble Jane's Minstrels, conducted by Roger Montgomery, performs with nuance and delicacy.

© Stephen Eddins, Rovi

CD 1
Anthony Payne Composer Empty Landscape - Heart's Ease Work Roger Montgomery Conductor, Jane Manning Soprano, Jane's Minstrels Ensemble
1	Empty Landscape - Heart's Ease	14:43			$2.49
Anthony Payne Composer From the Woodlanders, for voice, 2 clarinets, violin & cello Work Roger Montgomery Conductor, Jane Manning Soprano, Jane's Minstrels Ensemble
2	From the Woodlanders, for voice, 2 clarinets, violin & cello	17:45			$2.99
Anthony Payne Composer Of Knots and Skeins, for violin & piano Work Roger Montgomery Conductor, Jane Manning Soprano, Jane's Minstrels Ensemble
3	Of Knots and Skeins, for violin & piano	11:07			$1.99
Anthony Payne Composer Words (Poem from Edward Thomas) Work Roger Montgomery Conductor, Jane Manning Soprano, Jane's Minstrels Ensemble
4	Words (Poem from Edward Thomas)	4:39			$0.99
Anthony Payne Composer Lights Out (Poem from Edward Thomas) Work Roger Montgomery Conductor, Jane Manning Soprano, Jane's Minstrels Ensemble
5	Lights Out (Poem from Edward Thomas)	5:24			$0.99
Anthony Payne Composer Adelstrop, for soprano (voice) & piano Work Roger Montgomery Conductor, Jane Manning Soprano, Jane's Minstrels Ensemble
6	Adelstrop, for soprano (voice) & piano	5:39			$0.99
Anthony Payne Composer The Stones and Lonely Places Sing Work Roger Montgomery Conductor, Jane Manning Soprano, Jane's Minstrels Ensemble
7	The Stones and Lonely Places Sing	18:23			$2.99