Towards the end of Kagel’s life, the teasing, confrontational world of his earlier pieces, with their theatricality and regular attacks on the conventions of performance, was often abandoned in favour of pieces that brought together bundles of cultural and historical references. The eight pieces for this “salon orchestra”, The Compass Rose, define that world better than any of his other works. Composed between 1988 and 1994, they were named after the directions on a compass, with the pieces increasing in length as Kagel became more fascinated by the allusive possibilities they suggested.

...this is the first recording of all eight, done with wonderful suppleness and wit by Ensemble Aleph. It’s perhaps not a set to play all in one go – more something to savour piece by piece, with regular amazement to be found in the sheer range of Kagel’s imagination.  Andrew Clements