Richard Baker
Crank (1994)a
Motet II (2020)b
The Tyranny of Fun (2012)c
Angelus (2004)d
Learning to Fly (1999)e
To Keep a True Lent (2001)f
Hommagesquisse (2008)g
Hwyl fawr ffriniau (2016, rev. 2020)h

^hMelinda Maxwell (oboe); ^eOliver Janes (clarinet); ^bNye Parry (live electronics); ^aRichard Baker (diatonic music box); ^dThree Strange Angels (Richard Benjafield and Chris Brannick, percussion); ^fChoir of King’s College, Cambridge / Stephen Cleobury; ^bCHROMA Ensemble / Richard Baker; ^ceghBirmingham Contemporary Music Group / Finnigan Downie Dear

NMC D275 [60’37’’]
Producers/Engineers David Lefeber, ^fBen Collingwood
Recorded ^d19 April 2004 at St Giles’s Church, London; ^f29 February 2004 at Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge; ^b 4 August 2022 at Menuhin Hall, Cobham; ^cegh5 & 6 November 2022 at the CBSO Centre, Birmingham; ^a10 December 2023 at Parry-Williams Building, University of Aberystwyth

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

NMC adds to its invaluable Debut Discs series with this timely release devoted to the music of Richard Baker, expertly realized by ensembles and musicians with which has been associated – not least the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group – whether as composer or conductor.

What’s the music like?

Prominent on the new music scene for over a quarter-century, Baker (b.1972) is equally well regarded as a conductor – notably for the German premiere of Gerald Barry’s The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit or the world premiere of Philip Venable’s 4.48 Psychosis – but he has built a select catalogue (published by Composers Edition), the variety of which is duly in evidence. BCMG has been central to his creative and executive work, so it is good to see this ensemble featured here – not least in two pieces commissioned as part of its Sound Investment scheme.

Baker was among numerous UK figures who undertook their postgraduate studies with Louis Andriessen, Crank being a whimsically oblique tribute in its unfolding of multiple pulses over a consistent tempo. The Dutch composer is also an influence behind Learning to Fly as takes its cue from those novels by Paul Auster for this compact concerto; the tonal range of basset clarinet tellingly to the fore in the eventful interplay of ‘Boisterous’, the subdued acceptance of ‘Somnolent’ and renewed animation of ‘Suddenly awake’ with its epiphanic closing phase.

Choral music features sparingly in Baker’s output, but his motet To Keep a True Lent captures Robert Herrick’s message unerringly. Hardly less affecting is his eliding between anxiety and repose in the dextrous percussion duo Angelus, while the punningly entitled Hommagesquisse serves as a laconic tribute to Pierre Boulez in alluding to his own music and that of others he advocated as conductor. Most substantial work here, The Tyranny of Fun draws on the notion of entertainment as distraction – hence escape – from the ambiguity of existence, along with a homage to Ravel (and Edgar Allen Poe) via Balanchine across two sections whose respective emergence and subsidence, then gradually accumulating energy outline a trajectory in which any tendency towards self-gratification is curtailed by vicissitudes of an encroaching reality.

The other pieces reflect aspects of Wales where Baker now lives. What translates as Goodbye Friends draws Edwin Christy’s song into a resourceful tribute, while Motet II makes reference to Welsh culture ‘then and now’ across six aphoristic movements understated yet provocative.

Does it all work?

Yes, inasmuch as this collection confirms the distinctiveness of Baker’s musical idiom across three decades of his composing. The recordings prove as assured as might be expected given these are artists with whom he has often collaborated, Oliver Janes taking time out as principal clarinettist of City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to demonstrate his prowess with the basset instrument, and Melinda Maxwell underlining why she has long been among the UK’s leading oboists. Gratifying too that a reading by the late Stephen Cleobury could be included.

Is it recommended?

Indeed, and those acquiring this release should be encouraged to investigate other of Baker’s works available from NMC – notably his breakthrough piece Los Rabanos (NMCD076), or his four diverse contributions to that label’s extensive download project Digital Discoveries.

Listen & Buy

To explore purchase options, visit the NMC Recordings website – and click on Richard Baker for his own website. Meanwhile for more on the performers, click on the names – Melinda Maxwell, Oliver James, Richard Benjafield, Chris Brannick, Nye Parry, King’s College Choir, Stephen Cleobury, Finnigan Downie Dear, CHROMA and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

Published post no.2,130 – Wednesday 27 March 2024