Roger Smalley is best remembered in the UK for pioneering improvisation work with Intermodulation during the early 1970s. A resident of Western Australia for some 28 years, his compositions include an impressive Symphony in One Movement and a Piano Concerto (both worth searching out on ABC Classics). Having released his early orchestral work Pulses, NMC now delves into Smalley’s recent chamber music, in which the Romantic era is reassessed from a distinctly present-day perspective.

After stating the first six bars of the B flat minor Mazurka (Op 24 No 4), Variations on a Theme of Chopin proceeds brusquely until, with Variation 9, turning inward: the final three variations are a lengthy coda in which with the Chopin becomes ever more pervasive. It is the A flat Mazurka (Op 59 No 2) which underlies the Piano Trio. In linked pairs of movements, a quietly rhetorical Prelude gives way to an energetic Scherzo. A brief Passacaglia forms the basis for variations which again reach a mid-point culmination before retreating to their source. More engaging in its abstraction is Poles Apart. After a vigorous workout, an Intermezzo crosscuts the melodic writing of each instrument, then the finale combines a chorale with variations on Chopin’s C sharp minor Mazurka. Here, momentum is allowed to accelerate over the course of the movement, just in time for the chorale to end the work in ethereal calm. Even more compact is the Clarinet Trio, eliding sonata-form and variations so the latter half becomes a subtly altered reprise of the initial ideas. Brahms is the indirect inspiration: overtly so in Crepuscule, where the E minor Intermezzo gives rise to three movements of fifteen variations.

Acclaimed for their recording of Errollyn Wallen’s music (Avie, 7/02), the Continuum Ensemble prove equally adept here, with Douglas Finch in command of writing whose demands are a reminder that Smalley is himself no mean pianist. Tightly focused sound, and booklet-notes from Christopher Mark and the composer, add to the appeal of music where a positive compromise between retrenchment and progress is evident at every turn.