Cobbett's Legacy
The New Cobbett Prize for Chamber Music
Berkeley Ensemble
The enterprising Berkeley Ensemble has set up ‘The New Cobbett Prize or Chamber Music’, inspired by Walter Wilson Cobbett’s early 20th-century original. Here are the first fruits, in meticulous...
Cobbett's Legacy
The New Cobbett Prize for Chamber Music
Berkeley Ensemble
Purchase product
The enterprising Berkeley Ensemble has set up ‘The New Cobbett Prize or Chamber Music’, inspired by Walter Wilson Cobbett’s early 20th-century original. Here are the first fruits, in meticulous...
About
The name of Walter Willson Cobbett (1847-1937) is synonymous with chamber music from the first half of the twentieth century his contribution to the genre was immense, particularly through his many commissions and the prize for chamber music that bore his name. The Berkeley Ensemble have sought to build on this unique legacy, introducing The New Cobbett Prize for Chamber Music. This new recording from the ensemble, brings together the three winning works from the inaugural competition with the work that won the first original competition William Hurlstones Phantasie for string quartet. Also included is A Purcell Garland, three arrangements of a composer who inspired Cobbett by Oliver Knussen, George Benjamin and Colin Matthews.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
October 2019
The enterprising Berkeley Ensemble has set up ‘The New Cobbett Prize or Chamber Music’, inspired by Walter Wilson Cobbett’s early 20th-century original. Here are the first fruits, in meticulous performances.
November 2019
Cobbett was an open-minded soul, and he would surely have been delighted at the range of styles and the depth of imagination in the three winning pieces included here. The spirit of Messiaen hovers over Barnaby Martin’s Lazarus...Samuel Wesley Lewis’s Sequenza probably comes closest to the Phantasy form as Cobbett would have recognised it...it’s performed with energy, sensitivity and superb refinement; bass player Lachlan Radford plays with particular subtlety and expression.
August 2019
A fascinating disc, well programmed and played with splendid commitment.
1st September 2019
Barnaby Martin’s Lazarus colourfully reflects the biblical tale; Samuel Wesley Lewis’s Sequenza adeptly explores string textures; but Laurence Osborn’s Living Floors, cello and bass evoking ancient bone scraping ancient stone, impresses most.
1st August 2019
Lewis’s Sequenza, for string quartet and double bass, is an expert piece of string writing, though in many ways it’s a much less striking composition than either Laurence Osborn’s visceral exploration of string textures in Living Floors for cello and double bass, or Barnaby Martin’s haunting septet Lazarus
11th August 2019
Excitingly original new works by Barnaby Martin, Samuel Lewis and Laurence Osborn sit alongside the piece that won the original prize, William Hurlstone’s lovely Phantasie from 1907. Recommended.
