Bernard Van Dieren: Works For Voice & Chamber Orch [CD]

The Anglo-Dutch composer Bernard van Dieren (1887-1936) was much else besides: violinist, calligrapher, bookbinder, cabinetmaker, author and critic, photographer, polyglot, foreign correspondent, marksman, well read in the arts and sciences, capable of prodigious feats of memory. Based in London from 1909, he enjoyed the ardent support of a small group of musicians, but his intensely argued music baffled most of his contemporaries, and since his early death from kidney disease, it has rarely been heard. This pioneering recording reveals a musical language between the styles of his friend and mentor Busoni and early Schonberg: tonally anchored but chromatically adventurous - a harmonic ambivalence reflected in textures combining long, lyrical lines with intricate contrapuntal tapestries. It transpires that Van Dieren's reputation as an intellectual was only part of the truth: this music is animated by a wide range of heart-felt emotion, from impassioned anguish to a buoyant sense of fun.