Simon Holt: Boots of Lead, Feet of Clay (NMC)
The title makes you expect something earthy and lumpen; which is unfortunate, as the music is the reverse, full of energy and a vivid imagination.
The five pieces here cover almost 20 years of Holt’s career, beginning with his early masterpiece, Kites, written in 1983. It’s a brilliant evocation of Japanese kite-flying, a sport which is obviously laden with great cultural significance for the Japanese. This won- derful performance by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group is less frenetic than many, which allows the music’s delicacy to shine through. The later pieces are generally more sombre and meditative. In Boots of Lead, a setting of one of Emily Dickinson’s unfathomably deep poems, the tone turns darker still; it’s sung here with pitiless intensity by the young Israeli soprano Rinat Shaham. Just as impressive is Feet of Clay for solo cello, played with nimble-fingered delicacy by Ulrich Heinen. In terms of performance the CD is a triumph, but it is let down by recordings that seem thin and dry.
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Ivan Hewett