Caffrey is modern, so if jarring modernity is not your bag, perhaps listen at a distance. But if you like your music meaty and slightly challenging, have a listen.
“Aingeal II” opens dramatically with a violin and is in memory of a loved one “who left this world long before her time”. The piece reflects some of the beauty and the pain of her life. As one might expect, it’s portentous and has bells tolling but also some hope in there.
“Environments I and II” are, says Caffrey, the most abstract of the four works, having no programme but dealing with technical approaches. “While that description of the work’s development may sound rather academic … I consider these pieces …more intuitive,” he says.
OK so it’s not a tune or anything but they do have an outdoorsy feel (presumably the title is something outdoorsy) and reminds me of walking up Gunnerside in North Yorks, which is both beautiful and deeply scarred by lead mining. Walking round the beck, I once stood in a fold in the hill and realised I was in absolute silence. Harsh and ugly but also beautiful.
“A Terrible Beauty” is neither terrible nor a beauty; the three movements each take a poem by WB Yeats as inspiration.
He reminds me of Russian composer Vyacheslav Artyomov, who sees music as akin to science, a big spiritual, sprawling thing.
This is out on Divine Art, DDX 21131.
