Helen Grime: Chamber Music

Hebrides Ensemble continues its acclaimed series of albums devoted to the work of contemporary Scottish composers with this survey of chamber music by Helen Grime.

Seven Pierrot Miniatures, commissioned by the Ensemble in 2010, ranges from dream-like melancholy to mischief and mania in its response to moods derived from Albert Giraud’s moonstruck symbolism. Harp of the North, for solo piano, and the string sextet Into the Faded Air move beyond their extra-musical stimuli (evocations of the natural world prompted by the poetry of, respectively, Walter Scott and T.S. Eliot) into purely musical explorations of texture and melodic patterning, while four other works for a variety of instrumental duos and trios reveal inspirations ranging from the painter Joan Eardley to the ‘outdoor’ associations of the French horn.

01. Seven Pierrot Miniatures: I. The Clouds
02. Seven Pierrot Miniatures: II. Décor
03. Seven Pierrot Miniatures: III. Absinthe
04. Seven Pierrot Miniatures: IV. Suicide
05. Seven Pierrot Miniatures: V. The Church
06. Seven Pierrot Miniatures: VI. Sunset
07. Seven Pierrot Miniatures: VII. The Harp
08. Snow and Snow: I.
09. Snow and Snow: II.
10. Snow and Snow: III.
11. To See the Summer Sky: I. With freedom
12. To See the Summer Sky: II. With energy
13. To See the Summer Sky: III. Very still
14. To See the Summer Sky: IV. Moto (With energy)
15. Five North-Eastern Scenes: I. Suspended, dreamlike
16. Five North-Eastern Scenes: II. Gently flowing, sweetly
17. Five North-Eastern Scenes: III. Dark, lamenting
18. Five North-Eastern Scenes: IV. Exuberant / very still
19. Five North-Eastern Scenes: V. A slow processional, always distant, restrained
20. Harp of the North
21. Braid Hills: I. Freely
22. Braid Hills: II. Rhythmic and exuberant
23. Braid Hills: III. From a distance
24. Into the Faded Air: I. Con moto
25. Into the Faded Air: II. Lento
26. Into the Faded Air: III. Agitato
27. Into the Faded Air: IV. Grave