An individual voice

Music by Julian Dawes, reviewed by MALCOLM MILLER

A concert of recent music including five world premières and a second performance, offered an enjoyable and varied cross section of the music of Julian Dawes displaying an individual voice and assured craftsmanship. Dawes has composed several large scale works in recent years, not least the powerful Holocaust song cycle Songs of Ashes, the choral cantata Death of Moses (reviewed in Music & Vision) as well as a Mandolin Concerto, written as test piece for the 2002 International Mandolin Competition in Schweinfurt Germany (CD recently released on Vogt & Fritz Sound -- Gami 8011) and this concert provided a welcome chance to sample his works for chamber and vocal ensembles. The concert, given at a capacity-filled Lauderdale House Highgate, London UK on 24 May 2004, was framed by two substantial song cycles, Songs from Emily Dickinson (2003), premièred in November 2003 by 'Cantilena' who commissioned it, and here receiving its second performance by the same ensemble, and In the dark times there will also be singing, Brecht settings for soprano and baritone.

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