The Continuum Ensemble, dedicated to new and neglected music from the 20th and 21st centuries, have split this programme between British composers Richard Causton (b1971) and Kenneth Hesketh (b1968). Their contrasting styles make the disc feel doubly worthwhile. Tamsin Waley-Cohen makes a persuasive case for the title work, an 11-minute piece for violin and piano (Aleksander Szram) by Hesketh, whose other featured works, Cautionary Tales, IMMH and Netsuke, delight in radiant harmonic colour and pithy, abstract narrative. Soprano Mary Bevan is the soloist in Causton’s powerfully sombre Threnody. His Sleep and Mozart-inspired Night Piece have taut beauty, while Non mi comporto male slides wittily and ain’t misbehavingly into Fats Waller.
