Loops and Verses | Orchestra of the Swan

Vaughan Williams’s Wasps Overture was composed in 1909, the year after he spent three months in Paris studying orchestration with Ravel. A short apprenticeship perhaps but the influence is clear in this thrilling opener.

Anglo-French relationships are further explored through Thomas Adès’s Three Studies from Couperin. Adès’s fruitful obsession with the French baroque keyboard master is laid bare in these intricate and delicately crafted reworkings.

John Adams’s seminal masterpiece of visceral minimalism is concerned with string texture and rhythmic innovation. Shaker Loops was conceived almost half a century ago but it has lost none of its stark originality or elemental power.

Peter Donohoe is the soloist in Ravel’s breathtaking and concise Piano Concerto in G major which incorporates Basque and jazz influences. Ravel’s aim was not to be profound but to entertain in the manner of Mozart or Saint-Saëns.