This first volume focuses equally on miniatures and larger studies – with the former typified by Three Impromptus (1959) written for John Ogdon, emerging out of the most basic motifs, or Five Bagatelles (1964), which provide a pithy though never simplistic introduction to serial writing. More relaxed in content and expression, the seven pieces comprising Afternoons and Afterwards (1981) effortlessly bridge any supposed divide between didactic and ‘real’ music, as does that winsome 250th-anniversary tribute to Haydn which is Lamentation Rag (1982).

The remaining pieces form part of the series (rather than cycle per se) of Studies that occupied McCabe over 42 years. Paraphrase on ‘Mary Queen of Scots’ (1979) is a ‘prelude and fugue’ on themes from his ballet of that name, channelling the intimate then confrontational aspects of an eventful if tragic life, while Snowfall in Winter (2003) evokes a visit to Vilnius through its diaphanous textures and subtle dynamics. Subtitled ‘Hommage à Ravel’, Tunstall Chimes (2004) is a toccata of steadily mounting energy, then Epithalamium (2006) does likewise for Mussorgsky with its resonating bell sonorities and increasingly celebratory manner. The 13th and last of these studies, Berceuse (2011), recalls antecedents of the lullaby only in terms of its underlying rhythm, from which emerges a markedly outgoing and affirmative expression.

Ford is always more than equal to the technical and emotional demands of this music. The sound has all the requisite clarity, if a touch brittle above forte, with McCabe’s notes on each piece complemented by reminiscences from Giles Easterbrook. Roll on successive volumes!