This disc marks the posthumous début of Sir Ralph Richardson as a rap artist. As a sort of pendant to four of Vaughan Williams’s Ten Blake Songs‚ Jacob ter Veldhuis has taken Sir Ralph’s recording of ‘The Garden of Love’‚ altered its speed and edited it into loops and stuttering fragments as a duet partner – he directs that the resulting tape should be played on a ghetto­blaster – for the virtuosically resourceful oboist Bart Schneemann. It is fun‚ and cleverly done‚ but goes on for rather too long. The disc as a whole‚ indeed‚ is rather richer in opportunities for Schneemann to demonstrate his qualities and to enjoy brief musical partnerships than in sheer substance. At its centre are three intense lyrical epigrams by György Kurtág‚ each lasting about a minute‚ and set beside them most of the other pieces seem self­indulgent. Iva Bittová can certainly write appealing‚ folk­like lyrical melodies‚ but the first minute and the last half­minute or so of her V zemi neorané (‘On unploughed land’) consist of repetitions of two notes. Bartók is returned to his folk sources by the use of a cimbalom; arranging Janá¶ek for oboe and clarinet‚ both players bending the notes a little‚ points up a curious affinity with the blues. Andriessen and Burgers provide hard­edged minimalism‚ the former requiring the oboist to play the piano with his free hand‚ the latter combining percussive taped sounds in a duet with bass oboe. The Vaughan Williams Blake Songs are nicely done‚ but the repeated plosives of Blake’s ‘The Piper’ distort rather nastily; the recording throughout is very close. The tangos are entertaining; no service is done to Birtwistle’s Pulse Sampler by playing only a brief extract.