KEVIN MALONE (b.19??): A Clockwork Operetta for Mezzo-Soprano, Viola and Piano (Emily Howard [mezzo], Cheryl Law [viola], Adam Swayne [piano]), The Radio Song for Mezzo-Soprano, Clarinet and Piano (Emily Howard [mezzo], Elizabeth Jordan [clarinet], Adam Swayne [piano]), American Terpsichore for Piano Quartet (Fidelio Trio, Cheryl Law [viola]), Angels and Fireflies for Recorder and String Orchestra (John Turner [recorder], Manchester Sinfonia; Richard Howarth).

Description: After writing his best-known novel, the viciously satirical, ultraviolent dystopian "A Clockwork Orange", Anthony Burgess wrote lyrics for a musical version, originally as part of his rejected screenplay for Kubrick's film - but oddly, given his fully formed prowess as a composer, no music. The text reflects the style of the novel, in the invented vernacular used by the protagonists. In an introduction, Burgess emphasizes the frequent references to Beethoven's music in the novel, providing a thematic starting-point for Malone's cabaret-style settings, not far removed from the warped world of Bolcom's Cabaret Songs. The Radio Song, a monodrama to Malone's own text is also imbued with something of this, along with 'popular' Bernstein, in a stream-of-consciousness play on the kinds of popular and less popular music that might be encountered idly scanning the frequencies on a radio. Angels and Fireflies, a response to the Shanksville 9/11 crash, is a heartfelt elegy, with episodes of intense anger and lyrical pathos, in a chromatic, emotionally arresting idiom. The piano quartet American Terpsichore presents a confrontation between various popular styles of music and 'serious' idioms, in two engaging movements of musical satire and sophisticated humor.