Magnard Ensemble - Stephen Dodgson: Chamber Music, Volume Five � Music for Winds II

This fifth album in the Toccata Classics survey of the chamber music of London-born Stephen Dodgson (1924�2013) offers a second instalment of his many works for woodwinds, as well as a duo for the unusual combination of horn and harp. Much of it brings Dodgson�s sense of fun to the fore, often through rhythmic mischief or an insouciance that recalls Poulenc. It can have a spiky vivacity that suggests Jan�?ek, too, and a hint of Baroque formality � but it also has that particularly English strain of lyricism that suggests the impermanence of beauty.