Philip Mead - Stephen Montage: Southern Lam

This collection of Stephen Montague's music for piano explores his roots in the Southern USA - including spirituals such as Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen - and the legacy of American experimental composers such as Charles Ives and John Cage with wit and energy. Pianist Philip Mead (also heard on Lucifer) is joined by singer Monica Acosta, flautist Nancy Ruffer, the Elysian Quartet, the London Sousa Band, and the composer himself on electronics and piano.'A consistently enjoyable portrait of a composer who knows how to focus his appeal. Terrific performances from Philip Mead, all well recorded.' Gramophone'Why we like it: The haunting title piece plays off the composer's upbringing in Florida in the 1950s and '60s by reworking folk tunes John Henry and Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen. Paramell Va has great hard-driving piano. For Merce C at the Barbican is a tribute to choreographer Merce Cunningham.Reminds us of: John CageDownload these: After Ives, Paramell VaGrade: A' St Petersburg Times, Florida'Southern Lament flags up the 1997 soundscape charting the American Deep South as distilled in its ballads and spirituals. A deconstruction as gritty as coarse sandpaper, as tender as a powerfully imagined lament. The other big work is After Ives..., a salute from one maverick to another that contrives a hoe-down for the end of time amid a deal of gleeful ambiguity... Philip Mead, a longtime collaborator with Montague, sweeps all before him. Formidable pianism, ear-stretching music.' BBC Music Magazine, 2006