Jonathan Dove’s In Damascusis a song-cycle for tenor and string quartet and was inspired by the Syrian refugee crisis. His response is direct, uncompromising, unsentimental and, as a result, very powerful. Few tenors can galvanise the intensity of Mark Padmore, while the Sacconis are joined by the pianist Charles Owen for Dove’s Piano Quintet which dances, ducks and dives to great effect. The quartet, Out of Time, was commissioned to remember a departed husband, and judging by the vivacity of the music he must have been immense fun.
