This is the debut CD of the Cappa Ensemble, winners of Music Network's Young Musicwide Award in 2009. The Cappa allow rather more light into Bridge's Phantasy for piano quartet and Walton's youthful Piano Quartet than the Frith Ensemble, also on Nimbus. It's as if fat has been burned off to show more muscular musical outlines. And there's no underselling of the exuberance of the Walton, with its insistently chunky rhythms in the finale. The performances of Bax's Piano Quartet and Ian Wilson's Noct , an atmospheric night piece that's anything but calming (especially in its use of microtones), is equally fine. This is hardly surprising in the case of the Wilson – it was specially written for these players.
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