GEOFFREY ALLEN (b.1927): Bassoon Sonata, Op. 9, 3 Outback Sketches for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 58, Pastorale for Bassoon and Piano, op. 34/1, Sonatina for Bassoon and Piano, Op. 34/2, Fantasy Trio for Flute, Clarinet and Piano, Op. 70.

Description: Born in the UK, Allen moved to Australia in 1952 where he remains an active composer. His chamber music is broadly neo-Romantic and rhapsodic, repeating motifs in different ways, constantly evading fixed tonality but retaining a soft and mellifluous melodic flow. Thus, his music is distinctive and strongly constructed but very attractive – post-modernist in the best sense. This collection of woodwind works begins with the 1964 Bassoon Sonata – more edgy, redolent of Prokofiev or Hindemith – through to the 2007 Fantasy Trio, polytonal, rhapsodic with beautiful textures. Katherine Walpole (bassoon), Allan Meyer (clarinet), Michael Waye (flute), David Wickham (piano).