Editorial Reviews

It may come as a surprise to some that there is enough English music composed for the combination of flute, oboe, and piano to fill an entire CD, but, as this collection demonstrates, there is and a lot of it is quite good. And while some of the composers here will be unfamiliar except to fans of English music -- Eugene Goossens, Richard Rodney Bennett, Malcolm Arnold -- and others will be unknown except the hardest of hardcore fans of English music -- Madeleine Dring, Edward McGuire, Rhian Samuel -- the music here is likely to appeal to all but the hardest hearted Anglophobes. As superbly played by flutist Nancy Ruffer, oboist John Anderson, and pianist Helen Crayford, some of the music is charming -- Goossens' ebullient "Pastorale et Arlequinade," Dring's bouncy "Trio," and Arnold's tongue-in-cheek "Suite Bourgeoisie" -- some is more challenging -- McGuire's "Three Dialogues" and Samuel's "Shadow Dance" -- and some of it is somewhere in-between -- Bennett's sly "Sounds and Sweet Aires" and Thea Musgrave's insouciant "Impromptu." But with the effervescent Ruffer, the penetrating Anderson, and the accommodating Crayford performing, all of it is persuasively played. The performances were clearly yet warmly recorded in 2005 and 2006 by Dutton. James Leonard, All Music Guide

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