Rich textures Chamber music by John McCabe, appreciated by KEITH BRAMICH Epoch    CDLX 7125

A dramatic Maestoso opening to the Concerto for Piano and Wind Quintet [listen -- track 1, 0:04-1:08] heralds the start of a fascinating new CD of late twentieth century chamber music by John McCabe. The concerto spotlights each of the instruments, and the movements are all linked together -- a McCabe hallmark.

Musica Notturna depicts the changing moods of a large city at night, with the rich textures of the work's soft opening (returning also at the end) suggesting perhaps a Mediterranean city.

The much-performed Fauvel's Rondeaux is a spin-off from the ballet Edward II (1994-5), and a study in changing character [listen -- track 7, 9:56-11:00] as the corrupting effects of lust and power take hold on Edward's assassins.

Postcards, an expanded reworking of Bagatelles for Two Clarinets (1965) is a set of eight short miniatures for wind quintet, postcards 'sent' not from places, but from various musical genres.

During a long and distinguished career -- he was active as both composer and pianist in the early 1960s and is currently touring Lithuania in the same capacity, having visited Belgium, Japan and the USA in 2002), British musician John McCabe (born 1939) has resisted attempts to be pigeon-holed by the musical world -- for example as an academic, a brass band composer or a ballet composer -- all fields in which he has excelled but doesn't wish to be typecast. This new disc, featuring crisp, lively and sympathetic playing by the Fibonacci Sequence, will surely help this versatile musician to keep all his options open!

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Record Box is Music & Vision's regular Saturday series of shorter CD reviews