RHIAN SAMUEL (b.1944): The Hare in the Moon (Lucy Crowe [soprano], Simon Lepper [piano]), Time out of Time (Gemma Rosefield [cello], Lepper [piano]), A Garland for Anne (Chenyin Li [piano]), Trinity (Joana Seara [soprano], Adam Walker [flute], John Reid [piano]), Piano Quartet "Light and Water" (Fidelio Piano Quartet), Gaslight Square II (Antithesis Piano Duo).

Description: Samuel was born and raised in Wales, and the song tradition of that country seems to have left an indelible mark on her compositional style. There is also a constantly present element of fantasy, a sense of illumination of everyday scenes by a mysterious faerie light. In this, as well as her free-ranging but solidly tonal vocabulary and inventive but wholly natural use of the human voice, her music is reminiscent of the great Irish song- and piano-composer, Philip Martin. The title of the piano quartet is aptly used because the play of light and the many motions of water find many analogies in the music; dancing rhythms abound (sometimes inflected by minimalism, the composer having lived in the U.S. and having absorbed some trends in American post-romanticism - and in Gaslight Square II, jazz), and beautifully judged plays of light and shadow.