STILL. Quintet for Three Flutes, Violin and 'Cello. Geoffrey Gilbert (flute), George Crozier (flute), Lionel Solomon (flute), Jean Pougnet (violin), Francesco Gabarro ('cello).

Viola Sonata No. st. Frederick Riddle (viola), Eric Harrison (piano). Argo RG74 (12 in., 395. 70.).

Mr. Deryck Cooke's otherwise helpful sleeve-note is silent about the identity of Robert Still, which is a pity, since he has not found his way into Grove either. The music suggests a composer neither very young nor very old, experienced and fluent, but without anything very interesting to say. It is hard to know why he lighted on the unusual combination of instruments for his Quintet—three flutes, violin and 'cello— for the music is, so to speak, just music, and not something urgently calling for the particular medium. The second movement, a contrapuntal web of pastoral themes, is the most interesting to listen to. Elsewhere there is so much interjection and of detached accompaniment chords, rather than a sense of everything moving forward together, that the effect grows monotonous; and by the end one has had more than enough of flute tone. The Viola Sonata exploits the meditative character of the instrument. The idiom is harmlessly " modem " ; perhaps it could fairly be described as suggesting a composer who liked Sibelius but had been looking at Hindemith.

Mr. Still has fine interpreters—there is, in particular, some delightful flute playing from Geoffrey Gilbert in the Quintet. The recording is good. A.P.