Rhian Samuel – Light and Water
Deux-Elles DXL 1128 www.deux-elles.co.uk
CD Reviews
I first encountered the music of Rhian Samuel, professor of music at London's City University, when her piano quartet Light and Water (2003) received its premiere at the 2004 Hampstead and Highgate Festival by the Fidelio Quartet. A suite of four evocative tone-paintings - the structures of most of Samuel's pieces follow poetic or atmospheric stimuli rather than standard formal designs - inspired by the interaction of water and light, the music echoes the title of each movement, as in "Light through water", where the first violin's opening motif recurs like a shaft of light seen through the waves, or in the flickering textures of "Light above water". The range of moods is impressively achieved. It is quite the most compelling item on offer, though there is much to enjoy elsewhere, particularly in the opening item, The Hare in the Moon (1978), a guilefully straight-faced speech-and-song setting of the Japanese folk tale delivered with gusto by Lucy Crowe, and the suite for cello and piano Time out of Time (2002), nicely played by Gemma Rosefield.
Gaslight Square II ... is a lively piano duo and a fine addition to a repertoire all too under-stocked. With excellent performances and sound this well produced disc should do much to bring Samuel's finely crafted music deservedly to the attention of a wider audience.
Guy Rickards, Gramophone, December 2007
The title tracks of this collection by the Welsh composer form a richly imagined quartet in which the strings represent light and the piano water. Samuel's free-flowing piano- writing is a highlight of The Hare and the Moon, a retelling of a Japanese folktale with Lucy Crowe's wide-ranging vocalism riding high over Simon Lepper's intricate accompaniment. There's more brilliant activity in A Garland for Anne, a piano cycle celebrating the poet Anne Stevenson, perfectly articulated by Chenyin Li, but everywhere a distinctive voice shines through Samuel's craftsmanship.
George Hall, The Independent on Sunday, 9 December 2007
Welsh composer Rhian Samuel's preoccupations with landscape and how natural processes can be mirrored in music are well represented on this engagingly performed disc. There is her early song setting The Hare in the Moon (sung by Lucy Crowe) and her response to the nature-imbued poetry of Anne Stevenson in vocal terms (Trinity, with soprano Joana Seara) and instrumental form (A Garland for Anne, with pianist Chenyin Li).
Quirkier are the cello suite Time out of Time (Gemma Rosefield) and the jazzy Gaslight Square II (Antithesis Piano Duo), but perhaps most characteristic of Samuel's art is the title work, the inventive and atmospheric Light and Water for piano quartet (Fidelio Piano Quartet).
Matthew Rye, The Daily Telegraph, 12 January 2008