Martin Speake, a master of such subtly personal variation on themes that even a jazz-sax professor at the Royal Academy of Music he must find hard to analyse for students, is joined here by eclectic cellist Matthew Forbes and percussion/composition newcomer Phelan Burgoyne in improv variations on some of the short, folk-rooted exercise pieces Bela Bartók originally wrote as duets for two violinists.
Speake’s quiet ingenuity and bluesy Ornette Coleman-like elisions make a fertile match with the cello’s sonorities, and Burgoyne’s blend of textural effects and free-grooving attack. Slovakian Song’s playful theme is soon shadowed by long cello tones before adopting a solemn drum strut like a medieval minstrel band. Hungarian March 1 sees Forbes and Speake freely swapping phrases, Hungarian March 2 has a hoedown-fiddle slur, Farewell to the Bride’s deep harmonies are mournfully tender. Like much of the music here, the dreamy Cradle Song, floating on bell sounds and cymbal showers, casually subverts the relevance of inquiring if it’s classical music or jazz.
