The densely packed textures of Shellac, a 13-minute movement for piano and large ensemble by 24-year-old Morgan Hayes - it was premiered by the Athelas Sinfonietta, Copenhagen under Giordano Bellincampi in the booming Church of Our most Holy Redeemer, EC1, as part of the European Discoveries festival - must be just as tricky, though the burden of notes certainly falls on the soloist. He - the ultra-deft Ian Pace standing in for Rolf Hind - has big solos to open and close the piece and near the end, each of a complexity bringing Hayes's teacher Michael Finnissy to mind yet in a "languid" stretch of two-part writing also suggesting the rubato ease of a Chopin or Fauré. An engagingly classical use of repeat marks further qualifies the impression of modernist toughness and tautness made by this highly promising score.

Paul Driver, The Sunday Times, 23 November 2007