Benedict Mason (b. 1954) made an arresting entry into the record catalogue with his orchestral work Lighthouses of England and Wales (Collins Classics, 3/92), and this new disc confirms his position as one of the most provocative and imaginative composers of his generation.
The Double Concerto (1989) is the boldest of the three works, and the one which most vividly demonstrates Mason's Ligetian knack for taking elementary materials—scales, glissandos and the like—and using them to elemental, magical effect. The confrontation between the tightly constructed and the apparently anarchic risks overkill, but the abundant technical resource and textural variety which Mason summons up is, ultimately, exhilarating, and this bravura performance risks everything in its response to the music's uncompromising rethinking of traditional concerto principles.
The brilliant virtuosity of Christine Whittlesey helps to make Self-referential Songs and Realistic Virelais (1990) no less memorable. As the title makes clear, Mason's texts are crammed with the kind of allusions and wordplay that would be tediously self-regarding were the quality of musical thought less engaging. But Mason has an ear refined enough to match his teeming brain. This music may be avant-garde in style, but it is strikingly sensuous in effect, and the performance as a whole makes the best possible case for it.
The relatively early String Quartet No. 1 (1987) is the longest piece by some way, and also the least successful in that, for all the appeal of certain ideas (Janacek and Tippett come to mind) there is less of the tension and dramatic excitement that dominates the later scores. The processes seem relatively static and protracted, although the Arditti Quartet work their familiar miracles to sustain the structure and the recording, as throughout the disc, is clean and well-balanced.'