“Three new Sinfonietta commissions were crammed into an eclectic programme of six works. The most striking came from the youngest composer, Martin Suckling, whose Candlebird is a song cycle to five poems by Don Paterson. Each song is immediately characterised with a new musical idea; the writing is tangibly evocative. The third song, Motive, centres around a storm conjured in buffeting knocks on the instruments; in the title song, sliding, indistinct string melodies sound like a Brahms sextet melting in extreme heat. Baritone Leigh Melrose rose superbly to the music’s demands”