CD cover © 1997 Vanderbeek & Imrie Ltd

The Music:

1. Your jumper's very woolly was written for the Holywell Ensemble to perform at a British Music Information Centre concert to mark Robert Steadman's 30th birthday. The title perhaps conjures up visions from cartoons by Larson: in reality the piece, scored for piano trio, is more abstract than picturesque. It falls into four main sections playing without a break.

2. By the Railway Sidings: a Sonata was written for Amanda Hurton, who premiered it at the Newbury Spring Festival in 1994. The title is a lyric from a Peter Gabriel song. The piece is in arch form: ABCBA.

3. Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up... is the final line of Billy Wilder's classic film and, therefore, from the end of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical adaptation. The piece has very little to do with the film of the musical except at the time of writing the work Robert had a lodger who was playing trumpet in the pit orchestra for the show! The title does seem highly suitable for a piece for solo instrument - craving attention and stardom, and indeed the musical material shows a touch of feminine innocence and vulnerability in its character.

4. And then there were three... was also written for The Holywell Ensemble when pianist Margaret Ozanne went to live in Belgium, leaving alone and disconsolate a clarinettist, violinist and 'cellist without a suitable repertoire. The opening is somewhat startling in that now there is no pianist, they begin with percussion: woodblock, claves and bongos. However, The percussive material soon transfers to the clarinet, violin and 'cello, with a new dimension brought by pitch. Some contrast, indeed perhaps relief, comes with the simple yet lush-sounding melodies of the second section. The third section, and the fourth and final, are fast and furious, but now the percussion is redundant, absorbed, so to speak, by the instruments! The players may well now say with complete conviction: "Who needs the pianist?"

5. Shhh... listen is a perpetuum mobile made up of continuous semiquavers played as quickly as possible, with pedal throughout, to create a blurred, misty effect. It is a ripple which grows and shimmers as it climaxes, then subsiding to a simple ripple. This recording was done in one "take".

6. Still Life with Quartet was commissioned in 1991 by The City of London Freemen's School, Ashtead. As the title suggests, the piece is a musical equivalent of a still-life painting: several objects sitting on a table, linked yet somehow independent. The piece falls into three main sections. There is much use of silence. Central to the work is a brief oasis of calm - four long notes which underpin the whole structure. As the end approaches, silence encroaches more and more: the work ends on a very quiet low 'cello C.

Spike Wilson: 'cello
Peter Nichols: clarinet
Kate Bailey: violin
Margaret Ozanne: piano

The Holywell Ensemble was formed in 1983, taking its name from Oxford's famous Holywell Music Room, which was a favourite concert hall of Handel, Mozart and Haydn, and the venue of the ensemble's earliest concerts. The group made its South Bank debut in 1985 (...a pleasure from start to finish... The Times) and its Wigmore Hall debut in 1995 (performers of integrity... The Strad).

Originally a piano quartet, the group expanded to include other instruments, and the versatility of these different combinations results in a broad range of repertoire ranging from Schubert's Trout Quintet and Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, to Messiaen's Quartet for The End of Time and Bartok's Contrasts. The Holywell Ensemble is particularly renowned for its performances of chamber music by British composers and this has been prominent in all their highly acclaimed recordings. The first, released in 1993, featured the music of Herbert Howells and Frank Bridge and was selected as a BBC Music Magazine CD of The Year (...a winner in every way....). Subsequent CDs have included works by John Ireland (including the rarely heard), William Alwyn and Jeffery Wilson, as well as further music by Howells and Bridge.

Robert's 10 songs telling the history of Nottingham will be perfomed by Nottingham Theatre School in the Millennium Dome on April 10th and will be available on CD from December 12th 2000 including a "karaoke" backing track for schools wishing to put on their own performance of the work. For further details please e-mail: Alistair Conquer.