The flautist-composer Dave Heath first came to prominence in 1978 with Out of the Cool, which openly flaunted the influence of jazz at a time when this still wasn’t quite the done thing. Listening to Out of the Cool now, it is still appealingly fresh in its invention and you can understand why the work has continued to attract interest from artists of the calibre of Gerard McChrystal, John Harle and Nigel Kennedy.
I wish I could say the same for the works on this disc, which has otherwise so much to commend it: marvellously expressive playing from the soloists Clio Gould and the composer himself in their respective concertos for violin and flute; the tremendous commitment and sensitivity of the BT Scottish Ensemble (who even put their string instruments aside to conjure up the haunting windpipe sounds at the beginning of Celtic Air); and the imaginative concept for the CD itself, in which individual movements have been taken out of their normal context and reordered so as to maximize the contrast between them.
Nevertheless, Heath’s direct, uncluttered approach to composition does not serve him well when it comes to sustaining his musical invention throughout the course of a whole movement. All three works draw their inspiration from Celtic music, but in each case the melodic material is neither arresting enough nor handled with sufficient imagination to make for really compelling listening. However, to hear the best of Dave Heath’s music, listen to the powerful climax of “Lament for Collessie” (the slow movement of The Celtic), the atmospheric opening of Celtic Air and the composer’s account of The Connemara, which remains for me the most satisfying single work on the disc.'