Walking around New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, paintings by Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet and more began conjuring the sounds of seasons in Thea Musgrave’s mind. A violent autumnal storm gives way to a frozen wintry wasteland; as the snow melts a dawn chorus heralds a resurgent nature, followed by a summer of celebration.
Every musician becomes a soloist in Winter Song and Autumn Songs, Judith Weir’s chain of melodies inspired by the prospect of better times ahead and Kate Whitley’s 12 string voices drifting across each other’s paths in a constantly evolving mosaic.