A.Payne:The Stones and Lonely Places Sing -Empty Landscape/Poems of Edward Thomas/etc(2006):Jane Manning(S)/Roger Montgomery(cond)/Jane's Minstrels

British composer Anthony Payne, born in 1936, is old enough to have come of age when the "English sound" of Vaughan Williams and Holst was still prominent and young enough to have encountered the dominance of serialism during his formative years. While his style couldn't be called a synthesis of the two strains of influence -- his work is firmly in the modernist camp -- it's possible to hear traces of the English Pastoral Style flickering through his music. He describes several of his works (even vocal pieces) as tone poems, and the fact that he gives his pieces evocative titles should alert the listener to pay attention to his roots in the English tradition. Two of the most persuasive of his works recorded here, Empty Landscape -- Heart's Ease and The Stones and Lonely Places Sing, both for mixed instrumental ensemble, are thoroughly abstract, but their striking and memorable gestures return often enough to keep the listener oriented and engaged. Two works, Scenes from the Woodlanders, based on texts by Hardy, and 3 Poems of Edward Thomas were written for his wife, soprano Jane Manning, a longtime passionate advocate for and interpreter of challenging new music. Payne's text setting has an angularity that sounds more instrumentally than lyrically conceived. Manning sings with great expressivity, but her voice has lost some of its bloom. The ensemble Jane's Minstrels, conducted by Roger Montgomery, performs with nuance and delicacy.