DAVID W. BOWERMAN (b.1936): Bedham Woods for Cello and Piano, Autumn for Flute, Oboe and Piano, Psalms of Ascent for Soprano, Oboe and Piano, La Grenouille for String Quartet (Sacconi Quartet), 4 Canticles and Greater Love (Stuart Hutchinson [organ], Choir of St. Patrick's Church, London; Stephen Bednarczyk).

Description: This is music of genuinely high quality and ready appeal, eloquent and beautifully written. The only caveat - and this is intended in no derogatory sense whatsoever - is that in order to decide whether this disc is for you, you should entirely disregard the composer's birthdate and the dates of composition of the works. If they actually had been written in the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries by a composer of no progressive tendencies, they would undoubtedly be hailed as forgotten masterworks. Bowerman, a self-taught and self-confessed amateur composer in the very best sense, writes music in the traditions to which he responds as a listener, so the influences of Elgar (above all), Schumann and Franck, among others, are unashamedly audible in these lovely, finely crafted, moving pieces. Thomas Carroll (cello), Daniel Pailthorpe (flute), Emily Pailthorpe (oboe), Julian Milford (piano).