Winter Reels

The work explores something of how we might experience winter. The title is a play on words and the normal meaning of reels as dances infects both the first movement, with its lilting triplet rhythms, and the last movement which incorporates a vigorous reel-like unison melody that unfolds as part of a series of energetic episodes. The song of the second movement is a long singing line given to the cello, and the ensemble here, as elsewhere, is coloured in the percussion by the use of a steel pan. John Casken