New music for the violoncello has only recently become a preoccupation for the composer Nigel Morgan. In the past two years he has written three works for the instrument and is in the planning stage of a fourth. It was his discovery of the rich world of Beethoven's Cello Sonatas that produced Four Commentaries composed for Moray Welsh and Martin Roscoe in 2007. This work takes inspiration from some of the many devices employed by Beethoven to explore the potential of cello and piano as a duo.

Studies in Movement (2008) was written for the emerging cellist Peter Gregson. These studies look to the future with the new techniques of algorithmic composition and to the past with the dance movements of Baroque music. Nigel Morgan's most recent music for cello, L'Esquisse d'un Sourire, is a short work for cellist Tim Lowe and pianist Stephen Gutman written as a companion piece to Eric Tanguy's Trois Esquisses.

Two compositions from 2001 and 2006 respectively complete this presentation. Every Picture Tells a Story is a lively fantasy piece from the composer's concert-length series Childhood and Memory. Rising, Falling is a unique study in bowing for solo violoncello (with optional drone): one of a number of instrumental studies that reference composer Sam Richard's description of melody as 'rising, falling, hovering'.

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New Music Guides
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