Among the Generation Z of contemporary composers, Sam Rudd-Jones is rapidly emerging as one of its leading figures. Polemical statements, such as ‘almost all of my music is about nothing’, have certainly raised a few eyebrows among new-music cognoscenti. The proof lies in the pudding, however, and in that respect, ‘Three Sonatas’ serves up an enticing and invigorating four-course musical ‘degustation’ of Rudd-Jones’s creative achievements to date.

The two early works contained on this release reveal contrasting, even contradictory elements to Rudd-Jones’s style. While the song-cycle Hardy in Love (2018) for tenor and piano exudes a restrained lyricism, capturing themes of loss, grief and resignation expressed in Thomas Hardy’s poignant set of poems, Three Sonatas (2019-23) for violin, clarinet and piano adopts an altogether more formalist approach. Cleverly conflating three large-scale movements featuring various combinations of all three instruments alongside a prologue, epilogue and two short cadenza-like interludes for solo violin and clarinet (‘palate cleansers’ in John Fallas’s words), the result is a multi-tiered and multi-layered musical facade that pits solo against ensemble, simplicity against complexity, hip-hop patterns against Classical archetypes and sonata form against a deconstructed version of itself.

A clearer and more auspicious indication of where Rudd-Jones’s music may be heading can be found in the two more recent solo pieces included on this recording. As its title indicates, Variations (2023) for solo violin comprises an introduction, theme and set of nine variations, wherein a wide range of timbral and textural transformations (sul ponticello, artificial harmonics, double- and triple-stopping) are kept in check by a complex network of timekeeping devices, from free to strict tempo. Violinist Darragh Morgan’s impressively poised and immaculately controlled performance does much to tease out these temporal nuances.

Various kinds of tricks with tempo also come into play in Jeux d’eau (2022) for solo piano. Rubato and ‘swing’ rhythms of varying degrees alongside acceleration or deceleration processes are purposefully combined with decorative, ornamental and filigree-like material, giving rise to dense contrapuntal pianistic layers that suggest the influence of Thomas Adès and Timo Andres as much as Debussy and Ravel.