Some readers may recall the 1992 BBC television documentary entitled A Life in Reverse which charted the extraordinary career of Minna Keal. Born in 1909, Keal studied at the Royal Academy of Music, winning the Elizabeth Stokes Bursary for composition in 1928-9. However, due to family pressures, she was forced to abandon her studies. Nearly 50 years later, a chance meeting with composer Justin Connolly reignited her creative spark. Under Connolly’s (and later Oliver Knussen’s) watchful and enthusiastic guidance, Keal produced the works gathered here by Lorelt, all of which abundantly proclaim a very real, late-flowering talent.
The String Quartet of 1979 at once impresses in its formal concision, urgent sense of argument and most elegant craft – attributes also very much to the fore in the Op. 2 Wind Quintet (which bears a dedication to William Alwyn, Keal’s composition teacher at the RAM). When it was first publicly performed by Knussen and the BBC SO at the 1989 Proms, Keal’s Symphony No. 3 created a most favourable impression, I recall. Some five years in gestation, it originally started out as a five-movement orchestral suite, inspired in part by the poetry of her second husband, Bill Keal. However, as the composer herself relates in the booklet: “Once I started composition, the music took on a life of its own and it soon became clear to me that I was, in fact, embarking on a symphony which would have four movements and that it could not relate to any extra-musical ideas other than to a general expression of the turmoil of human existence and the spiritual search for serenity and permanence.” Keal’s symphony is an ambitious creation, whose richly opulent garb, pleasing sense of architecture and high emotional quotient (especially in the eloquent Sostenuto slow movement) easily hold the listener’s attention during its 30-minute span – a substantial achievement, well worth getting to know. Similarly the Cantillation for violin and orchestra represents another immensely likeable offering: beguilingly colourful, yet always purposeful and (above all) communicative.
Performances, production-values and presentation are all beyond reproach. Do try and investigate this bold, most stimulating release.'