University of York Music Press

Croquis was composed between 1976 and 1980, and is formed from a series of miniatures, flexible in order of performance, which move between the polished and the provisional. Croquis's first performance occurred in 1980, where its short pieces were interspersed across an entire evening on Radio 3. On this new CD they form a collection in their own right, coalescing into a multifaceted work of significant substance. Always virtuosic, these are miniatures that, in Richard Causton's terms, are "volatile, sinuous and intense". Tristia is here recorded for the first time, having been composed in 2006-7 for Peter Sheppard Skærved and Aaron Shorr. This is a work of poised gravitas, weighted with the solidity of its materials, framed, (s)paced, and unfolding, which incorporate a series of revealingly inter related ideas into its structural body. Reviewing the work for The Wire, Jim Haynes remarkets that this is "the most nakedly lyrical work in Roberts' short worklist". The CD can be purchased from NMC or streamed on Spotify, with the scores and parts available from UYMP.