SIMON BAINBRIDGE (b.1952): String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2, Clarinet Quintet, Cheltenham Fragments for String Quartet.

Description: The composing career of Simon Bainbridge is spanned by the four chamber works in this album, all of them cast as single narrative spans. The First String Quartet, written when its composer was not yet twenty, blends lyricism and pointillism, rather as if it were recasting abstract poetry in sound; and the recent Second (2014-16) offers a kaleidoscopic tableau of color and nervous energy inspired by visual art. In his Cheltenham Fragments, as the title suggests, Bainbridge uses mosaic technique to build up textures and thematic outlines. And the long lines of the virtuosic Clarinet Quintet generate fleetfooted whirlwinds as they unfold. Linda Merrick (clarinet), Kreutzer Quartet.