It's a dramatic and somewhat maudlin tale, is Oscar Wilde's short story ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’. The titular bird overhears a student decrying his unhappiness owing to his not having a rose to present to a potential girlfriend; the nightingale gets talking to a rose tree and finds that only by singing a sweet melody while simultaneously impaling herself on a thorn can she obtain a rose for the student. This she does with selfless (not to say suicidal) magnanimity, only for the gift subsequently to be rejected by the student's ungracious object of desire, and for the student to get back to his books. I can't remember what Wilde said about the moral of his tale, but it was probably something about not trusting students – or was it something about the nobility of loving self-sacrifice? Anyway, the story has already tempted composers to start scoring ballets and operas, and now Will Butterworth has produced this charming suite for his quartet. The result is a work of great delicacy and tenderness – Butterworth's classical training is very much in evidence, although he knows how to swing out a tune where appropriate too. The piano tends to lead, with Nick Pini's bass casting lovely shadows and the ensemble working itself up into a pretty froth on the likes of ‘… And Like A Shadow She Sailed Through The Grove’, which sustains a nice agitated groove, while ‘The Cold Crystal Moon Leaned Down To Listen’ is a solo for Seb Pipe's sax.