Vividly coloured orchestral works championed in stunning performances

Here are premiere recordings of three strikingly colourful and strongly evocative orchestral works by Jamaican-born British composer Eleanor Alberga.

Tower (2017), a concertante work for string quartet and orchestra, was written in memory of David Angel, the late second violinist of the Maggini Quartet who was a personal friend of the composer. Their shared relish of Bartók is reflected in its atmospheric opening, while Angel’s “big heart” prompts a central section of beguiling sweetness.

Symphony No. 1 “Strata” (2022), though also a memorial to a musician—the viola player David Nash—focuses on the planet Earth. The cloudy sound of a soft-sticked cymbal and eerie avian sounds from woodwind depict the Old Testament “Firmament”. Then follows Earth’s various layers from “Core” to “Crust”, the latter involving the string players shouting “Earth” in different languages and “vita super terra” (“life on earth”). In “Sailing on Tethys”, the prehistoric ocean is seductively depicted with sighing strings, while “Plumes” vividly depicts volcanic eruptions through the Earth’s mantle.

Alberga’s much earlier Mythologies (2000) features restrained yet evocative portraits of three Greek goddesses alongside more succinct and generally brutish portraits of two gods and the demigod Hercules.