The newest music

Abstract

Hicken reviews recordings of classical recent music, including "Premieres, Volume 1" by Kim McCormick and the University of South Florida Percussion Ensemble under Robert McCormick "Rune" and "Discoveries" by the Borealis Wind Quintet.

Premieres, Volume 1

RELLER: Black Magic Flute; CONSTABLE: Crackhead; JONES: Timecraft; LEWIS: Dr Time; BENSCOTER: Salty Fish Flesh; BUSS: Mysterious Exit

Kim McCormick, fl; TJ Glowacki, db; Corey Jane Holt, p; University of South Florida Percussion Ensemble/ Robert McCormick USF 97159-61 minutes (C. Alan Publications; PO

Box 29323, Greensboro NC 27429)

CAGE: Third Construction; HOUNG: 5 Marimbas; KATZER: Schlagmusik 2; STRINDBERG: Ursprung/Glantor; SANDSTROM: Kroumata Pieces

Kroumata Percussion Ensemble BIS 932 (Qualiton) 68 minutes

Rune

HAWKINS: Dance Variations; TENNEY: Rune;

MATHER: Clos d'Audignac

Nexus-Nexus 10511 (Albany) 47 minutes

Bonk

LYON: Vectors V. Intuitions; RELLER: Some Good Old-Fashioned Electronic Music; CONSTABLE: Recursion 6; Variation XVI; ROGERS: Phoenix Aeolis: Re-Variations; MARQUARDT: PRODUCT; KRAUSE: Panic

Lowell Adams, vc; Robert Constable, drums; Corey Jane Holt, p; Conrad Harris, Lisa Wolfe, v; Margaret Lancaster, fl; David Rogers, hn; THUMP; Jean Crossman, mz; Percussion Ensemble/ Robert M McCormick

BFM 047-63 minutes (U of S FL School of Music;

FAH 110, Tampa FL 33620)

APPLEBAUM: Salmagundi; Scrape: Threaded Rods; Bow: Tam Trees; 3 Ictus; Strike: 3/2+5:2 Groove; Pluck: Koto; 16 Things; Stroke: Nails; Strike: Dulcimer Groove; S-tog Mark Applebaum, mousetrap, mini-mouse, duplex mausphon, midi-mouse

Innova 511 (Albany) 69 minutes

HOVDA: Coastal Traces Tidepools 1; Shaenai Sky; Record of an Ocean Cliff Crossings in a Mountain Dream; Glacier Track; Glosses/Glacier; Beginnings; Coastal Traces Tidepools 2 Libby Van Cleve, ob, eh, ob d'amore, shenai; Jack Vees, electric bass, g, waterphone; Eleanor Hovda, p -00 29 (Albany) 62 minutes

Other Places

LAUTEN: Variations on the Orange Cycle; HUNT: Trapani (stream); GANN: Desert Sonata Lois Svard, p----Lovely Music 3052 (Allegro) 58 min

New Music from Utah

JOHNSON: Nocturne; ROENS: Invocatio; Delicate Arch; Time and Again; YAO: Drifting About; WOLKING: Reaching; CATHEY: Bardol Saga; QUAGLIA: Quartetto Canyonlands Abramyan Quartet-Centaur 2360 (Qual) 53 min

180 Degrees from Normal

PIAZZOLLA: Four, for Tango; SISKIND: Rituale; LARSEN: Black Roller; GUBAIDULINA: Chaconne; ZAPPA: Black Page; GLECK: 2 Trumpets; TRENKA: Watch... Wait

Minnesota Contemporary Ensemble

Innova 513 (Albany) 64 minutes

FORD: Cross; RIJNVOS: Gigue et Double; HAMEL: There was nothing nobody could say; AYRES: Untitled; EMMERIK: Valise; CARL: Claremont Concerto

Ives Ensemble-Donemus 63(Albany) 71 minutes

Voces Americanas

RODRIGUEZ: Les Niais Amoureux; LAVISTA: Quotations; Madrigal; SIERRA: Trio Tropical; DAVIDOVSKY: Romancero; LEON: Pueblo Mulato Voices of Change-CRI 773 (Koch) 67 minutes

Pick it up

GANN: Hesapa Ki Lakhota Ki Thawapi; MARQUEZ: Octeto Malandro; NYMAN: HRT; MONTAQUE: Paramell VI

Relache- Monroe St 60102-46 minutes (666 5th Ave, suite 232, NY 10103)

ZOBEL: Flodigarry; HELLER: Domino; DINESCU: Es nimmt mich wunder...; OYENS: Concerto; HOLSZKY: WeltenEnden; JANARCEKOVA: Yan

Urla Kahl, hn-Salto 7001-57 minutes

DINESCU: Tautropfen; Echoes I; Satya IV; Wenn der freude thranen fliesen; Lichtwellen; Aretusa; Ostrov II

Aurelian-Octav Popa, cl; Carlos Roggan, Ursula Trede-Boettcher, p; Wolfgang Boettcher, vc; Dora Entcheva, v; Arundo Clarinet Quartet Cue 2532-75 minutes

Romania Today

DINESCU: Euraculos; DEDIU: Sepia Girl; STROE: Auf Dem Weg Zu Hohenfeuern; BRUMARIU: On y Va; MARBE: Paos; OLAH: Pasarea Maiastra; VIERU: Couple; TAUTU: De Doi Sanda Craciun, va; Aurelian Octav Popa, cl ProViva 180 (Albany) 68 minutes

BENJAMIN: Aperitif, Recitativo/Allegro Barbaro; Tango Triste; Diversions; Entertainments Trio Americas; Michael Adcock, p; Erica Wise, vc NYAM 9710-53 minutes (fax [phone])

MORRILL: Dance Bagatelles; Quartet 2; Fantasy; Lyric Pieces Tremont Quartet; Klugherz-Timmons Duo Capstone 8642 (Albany) 51 minutes

FLEISCHER: In Chromatic Mood; Masks and Pipes; The Clock Wants to Sleep; Resuscitation; Fragments; Piece of Earth; Ballad of Unexpected Death in Cairo; To the Fruit of My Land; War; Mein Volk; Songs from Girl-Butterfly-Girl; Salt Crystals; Strings-Bow and Arrow Sarah Fuxon, Jean Francois Zygel, p; Naomi Rogel, rec; Tokyo Radio Children's Choir/ Fujio Furahashi; Simca Heled, Leonardo Massa vc; Aspen Wind Quintet; Sybil Michelow, Dietburg Spohr, Patricia Adkins Chiti, mz; Jennifer Stinton, Deborah Kruzansky, fl; Richard Hand, Jose Luis Rodrigo, Orly Lavan, g; Hassan Kamy, tpt; Emmanuel Conquer, Elizabeth Glab, Anne Marie Mairesse, Oyvind Bjora, v; Duo Contemporain; Keshet Eilon Ensemble; Chen Zimbalista, drums; Warsaw Philharmonic/ Gerard Wilgowicz VMM 2023 (Jem) 73 minutes

BRINGS: Fantasie; Fantasy Piece; Chimeric Fantasy; Sonata da Chiesa; Trio

Lisa Hansen, fl; Susan Jolles, hp; Morey Ritt, Donald Pirone, Allen Brings, p; Cynthia Sikes, sax; Leo Grinhauz, Alexander Kouguell, Wolfram Koessel, vc; Sebu Sirinian, v; Liuh-Wen Ting, va

Capstone 8644 (Albany) 61 minutes

BEGLARIAN: No Man's Land; Garden of Cyrus; Preciosilla; Disappearance Act; Overstepping twisted tutu

Margaret Lancaster, fl; Eve Begalarian, Christian Bruckner, narr-OO 33 (Albany) 64 minutes

MOSHER: Sonorities; Painters; Brief Encounters; Dances; Snapshots; Dialogs; Harpsichord Speaks Sally Mosher, hpsi, syn; Xin-Hua Ma, vc; Patrick Lindley, hpsi

New Mix 1005-62 minutes (PO Box 3748, Padadena CA 91109)

LARSEN: Corker; Blue Third Pieces; Dancing Solo; Black Birds, Red Hills; 3 Pieces; Song Without Words

Caroline Hartig, cl; Kevin Purrone, p; Robert Adney, perc; David Harding, va; Christopher Kachian, g-Innova 512 (Albany) 55 minutes

WARTENSEE: Lustiges Drey mal Drey oder neun Scherzi; LAUBER: Caprices; SCRIABIN: Preludes, op 11; EISENMANN: Varianten; DIETHELM: Klaniguren; BENARY: Sonata 2; WILLISEGGER: Sakura

Hiroko Sakagami, p

Gallo 966+967 (Albany) [2CD] 122 minutes

Discoveries

EWAZEN: Roaring Fork Quintet; STEINMETZ: Quintet;AGUILA: Quintet2 Borealis Wind Quintet Helicon 1030 (Eclipse) 66 minutes

CDCM Computer Music Series Volume 25

MONTAGUE: Silence: John, Yvar, and Tim; HARRISON: Unsound Objects; MATTHEWS: In Emptiness, Over Emptiness; DAL FARRA: Tierra y Sol; WHITE: Bird wing Smith Quartet; Philip Mead, p; David Sheppard, electronics; Therese Costes, s; Tomie Hahn, shakuhachi-Centaur 2347 (Qualiton) 68 minutes

Illuminations

BIELAWA: Stone Settings; BOYADJIAN: Googleegoo; BESTOR: Of Times and Their Places; RICHEY: Variations; HUTCHISON: Poe Songs;

CHEN: Echo

Marian Marsh, Paulina Stark, Martha Rowe, s; Herb Bielawa, Estela Olevsky, John Richey & Michael Zuraw, p; New England Reed Trio; Nancy Joy, hn, Fred Bugbee, vib; Paul Tsai, bar; Louisiana State University New Music Ensemble/ Dinos Constantinides-Capstone 8643 (Albany) 69 min

Songs of the Earth

HOFFMAN: Trio; Fantasia; Sonata; WALTH: Spring; A Musical Feast; OST: The Ride Home; PORTER: 3 Pieces; MEISNER: He Who Dwells,

Trio 1

Rhonda Gowen, cl; Kathleen Clothier-Angeroth, Britt Swenson, v; Julie Schwartz, Annette Wellin, p; Kari Swenson, Lois Swenson, s; Teri Fay Storhaug, Leslie Peterson, hn; Linda Schmidt, fl; Deirdre Fay, ob; Loran Eckroth, cl; Holly Holm, bn; Bismarck Mandan Civic Chorus/ Gary Walth; Steve Hillesland, vc-Meyer 108-53 minutes (PO Box 1738, Bismarck ND 58502)

MMC New Century, Volume VIII

RICHARDS: Prayer; MOGENSEN: Rendez-vous; LENTINI: Dreamscape; BLANK: Clarinet Concerto; Overture for a Happy Occasion Mariusz Pedziatek, ob; David Niethamer, cl; Cracow Philharmonic/ Jerzy Swoboda; Silesian Philharmonic/ Jerzy Swoboda, Joel Eric Suben MMC 2053 (Albany) 63 minutes

Since Edgard Varese's Ionisation (1933) the technical and expressive range of the percussion ensemble have increased exponentially. Percussion instruments can produce sounds that cover the continuum from pitch to noise, and composers have exploited this in pieces written for ensembles of percussionists. These ensembles flourish at colleges and universities, where large numbers of percussionists (as well as the instruments themselves) are available. The University of South Florida is one such place, and a close relationship has developed between the University's percussionists and its composers, resulting in this disc of highly listenable music, very well played. In addition to exploring the range of sound available to the percussion ensemble, all of these pieces explore the full orbit of the current accessibility trend-these pieces are all easy to follow, even when not exactly tuneful.

Two of the compositions, Black Magic Flute, by Paul Reller, and Mysterious Exit, by Howard Buss, use melodic material that sounds derived from other types of music, even when it's not. The pieces by Hilton Kean Jones (Timecraft), James Lewis (Dr Time), and Brian Benscoter (Salty Fish Flesh) use clearly recognizable rhythmic or contour motives to lay out their musical structures. The high point of the program is Robert Constable's Crackhead, for piano and percussion, an energetic and exciting essay in insistence. Corey Hart gives an excellent performance of the difficult piano part. Percussion music presents severe recording problems, but you would never know it from the fine sound on this disc.

The Kroumata Percussion Ensemble is always exciting to listen to, both for their playing and for their repertoire. On this disc, they have outdone themselves. This may be the best percussion ensemble disc I have ever heard. From beginning to end, the music (by John Cage, Ch'ien-Hoi Houng, Georg Katzer, Henrik Strindberg, and Sven-David Sandstrom) is expressive, exciting, and challenging. Virtually the entire range of percussion sound is heard on this disc. The sound is very good, with everything clear and present at all dynamic levels. Anyone with any interest in percussion will want this remarkable disc. NEXUS is one of the most famous percussion ensembles in the world-and one of the best. They perform every piece they play with commitment and style, even when the piece is not particularly interesting, as is the case with John Hawkins's Dance Variations, whose thematic substance doesn't have the pregnancy of good variation material, and the resulting piece is a bit obvious. In complete contrast to this are the complexities of James Tenney's Runes, whose wonders reveal themselves only gradually. The sounds Tenney uses are not especially "pretty", but they are compelling, and the composer uses them to create an exciting and expressive musical experience.

NEXUS member Bob Becker gives an excellent performances of the difficult and subtle solo part in Bruce Mather's Clos d'Audignac, a serene and deceptively simple sounding piece that grows with each repeated hearing. This well-played and recorded disc is well worth the price on the strength of the Tenney alone, and the Mather is a nice bonus.

Tampa's BONK Festival (if this disc is a representative sample) presents postmodernism with an edge, alongside full-blown modernism. Eric Lyon's Vectors V. Intuitions is an excellent exemplar of tongue-in-cheek kitchen sink eclecticism. I don't know if the occasional superfluous use of a drum set is supposed to suggest the rhythmic bankruptcy of rock music (it probably isn't), but it does. Some Good Old-Fashioned Electronic Music, by Festival Director Paul H Reller, is just that. This analog music has a tactile presence that computer music has yet to achieve. Robert Constable's music has a rhythmic complexity and drive unusual in today's compositions. His sixth Recursion is given a powerful performance by pianist Corey Jane Hart. Constable's Variation XVI is a sensuous and fascinating setting of a James Dickey poem for mezzosoprano and computer generated tape. Jean Crossman is excellent in the demanding mezzo part that requires versatility and keen musicianship. The combination of live and electronic music is an area of tremendous expressive potential, one that composers have only tentatively exploited. Phoenix Aeolis: ReVariations is the first piece that I have heard by David W Rogers, and he combines tape and acoustic sounds in telling and dramatic fashion. Paul Marquardt's PRODUCT makes innovative use of post-minimalist hocketing techniques and monorhythmic insistence in fresh and exciting ways. The composer and Drew S Krause (who perform together as the piano duo THUMP) give an electrifying performance. Krause's piece, Panic, for violin and tape, has two contrasting tempos that alternate abruptly. This rapid alternation, with the faster of the two tempos becoming more dominant over the course of the piece, is, in Krause's words, "meant to produce a jarring, disorienting effect for the listener and create a performance problem for the player."

Mark Applebaum, under the influence of Harry Partch and (more directly) instrument designer Tom Nunn, designs, builds, and plays his own instruments. He improvises pieces on instruments he calls the mousetrap, the minimouse, the duplex-mausphon, and the midimouse. Applebaum describes his creations: "The instruments consist of threaded rods, nails, wire strings stretched through a series of pulleys and turnbuckles, plastic combs, bronze braising rod blow-torched and twisted, doorstops, shoehorns, ratchets, steel wheels, springs, lead and PVC pipe, corrugated copper plumbing tube, Astroturf, parts from a Volvo gear-box, a metal Schwinn bicycle logo, and, indeed, a mousetrap." The sounds tend to be rather complex, evolving, and, very often, beautiful. The improvised pieces themselves generally center on one category or type of sound, like the delicate clusters of rustling wood sounds that make up Salmagundi. The wide dynamic range of this music is captured in Innova's excellent recording. Sound to revel in.

"Instead of a series of events, Eleanor Hovda presents us with an ever-present force: a sound that proceeds from its own unknown premises and continues in its own elusive way." So says annotator James Pritchett, and I cannot give a more apt description of this compelling and consistently satisfying music. The music is reminiscent of moment-forms in that there is no linear logic to the musical events. At the same time, Hovda's sound structures seem to be made of "moments" that extend beyond the temporal boundaries of the compositions. Hovda uses unusual instruments (the shenai, the waterphone, and the "innards" of a piano) and coaxes unusual sounds from traditional instruments (like the oboe and the guitar) to make her disorienting and haunting compositions. There are several fine pieces on this disc. Record of an Ocean Cliff is representative, with its noisy atmosphere and rippling surface, made by the unusual combination of oboe and electric guitar, both with their timbral capacities fully explored. The effect of this music is disconcerting, because the slow pace of the expansive events is belied by the sonic intensity of the instruments, colors and surface rhythms. The performers, Hovda (piano insides), Libby Van Cleve (double reeds), and Jack Vees (guitars and waterphone) are extraordinary in their expressive playing. This is an impressive disc, full of power and wonder.

The pieces on Lois Svard's tine disc ot recent American piano music were composed in very different ways, from divergent aesthetic points of view. But they have in common an attractive underlying serenity, which Svard sensitively communicates without compromising the individuality of the pieces. Elodie Lauten's Variations on the Orange Cycle consists of "phases" (movements) made of transcribed improvisations over a G fundamental-the phases are built on modal, chromatic, and polytonal treatments of the fundamental and its overtones. It is an attractive piece. Jerry Hunt's Trapani (stream) is serene in spite of its clangorous tremolos (Svard wears bells on her wrists to accentuate the tremolos). The harmonic material of this piece is a series of evolving chords that change at a slow, uneven pace. Haunting. Kyle Gann's Desert Sonata is by far the most traditional piece on the disc, owing to its rather conventional mode of discourse. The structure is inflected by Gann's unusual use of polyrhythms and multiple tempos, some derived from dance rhythms of Hopi ceremonial music. Gann achieves the spaciousness and ritual feeling of much recent music (including the other works on this disc) in sometimes uncertain combination with more traditional ways of moving sounds through time. In addition to Svard's excellent performances, the sound and notes make this an important release for fans of the piano and the inspiration it still gives composers.

Based on the evidence of the excellent Centaur disc, contemporary music is a vital, if not central, part of the music curriculum at the University of Utah. The music was written by faculty members or advanced students, and the professional-quality performances are by the University's new music ensemble (Canyonlands) and the Abramyan String Quartet, two of whose members are on the Utah faculty. The compositions are of very high quality in a wide variety of styles, resulting in a meaningful, exciting program. Mark Johnson's Nocturne is built around interesting, coherent harmonic structures and a strong sense of instrumental texture. That last can be said of most of the pieces here, a tribute to Canyonlands as a composer's laboratory. The three pieces by Stephen Roens are marked by a wide variety of expressive means and techniques, from the angular vocal lines and sparse accompaniment of Invocatio to the animated harmonies of Delicate Arch to the shifting densities of Time and Again. Drifting About, by Sho Yao, is a clear, listenable slow-fast-slow structure of linear growth and rhythmic drive. Henry Wolking's Reaching is made of lush textures and conjunct melodic lines, while the Bardol Saga of Tully Cathey is a danceless ballet reminiscent of Bartok and Copland, and Bruce Quaglia's Quartetto is a lyrical and sensitive composition. The recorded sound is warm and clear and the notes by Roger Miller informative.

180 Degrees from Normal is an outstanding disc, with fine performances by the Minnesota Contemporary Ensemble of good to very good music, assembled into a satisfying, coherent program. The variety of musical styles represented is very wide indeed. Astor Piazzolla's Four, for Tango is an attractive little dance, well-made and well-played. An unnamed ritual is evoked by the percussion outbursts and melismatic saxophone incantations of Paul Siskind's Rituale, while Black Rock, by Libby Larsen, moves inexorably from closely-argued, carefully-made counterpoint to sonic chaos. Sofia Gubaidulina's piano Chaconne is wildly eclectic but enjoyable, in contrast to the jazzy, entertaining, Black Page of Frank Zappa. Energetic monorhythmic counterpoint is the defining feature of Two Trumpets, by Allen Gleck. This exceptional disc closes with the eclectic and enigmatic Watch... Wait, by Tom Trenka, a collection of postmodernist instrumental gestures combined with electronic samples of found sounds, spoken words, and excerpts from Wozzeck in an appropriately theatrical conclusion to the program.

The Ives Ensemble is a Dutch group that performs "non-conducted 20th Century chamber music". The pieces on the current disc are all influenced by the late works of John Cage and Morton Feldman, in that they are color-oriented, non-tonal, and non-linear in their discourse. There is a wide range of this type of music, from the quietude of Ron Ford's Cross to the loudness and discontinuity of Richard Rijnvos's Gigue et Double. This is challenging and absorbing music, well-performed and recorded. Fans of this type of music, as well as those open to listening (and hearing) in new ways will find much to like here.

Voces Americanas is a beautiful disc. Every piece has magical moments. The range of compositions is impressive, from the "lyrical atonality/tonal populism" of Robert Rodriguez to the sound tapestries of Mario Lavista to the rhythmic intensity of Roberto Sierra to the modernist visions of Mario Davidovsky to the evocative imagery of Tania Leon-this is a splendid ride. All of the composers are of Hispanic heritage, and it is interesting to hear how, and to what extent, the music of Hispanic America (in the broadest sense) is reflected here. The Dallas-based Voices of Change ensemble plays this music with skill, expressiveness, and verve. CRI's sound is clear and warm, and the notes and presentation are, as usual, very good.

Philadelphia's Relache ensemble is highly accomplished, both technically and musically. They play together in impeccable ensemble and with a degree of commitment to music that is inspiring and challenging. And they sound great. That said, the music on Pick it up is of the post-minimalist variety that seems to be everywhere today. Most of the content of this kind of music can be apprehended on one or two attentive hearings, and it becomes background or pure escapism after that, if it is played or listened to at all. It often seems to me that current music that relies so much on some combination of pop influences and postminimalism represents a kind of surrenderthat many composers have given up on the idea of music as a living art. The rapproachment with entertainment techniques may have led to the unconscious acceptance of entertainment's values, the resigned feeling that music has lost its power to do more than entertain or distract from the vagaries of modern life. To paraphrase media critic John Leonard: Entertainment simplifies us while art complicates us. It is disappointing to see such talent, on the part of performers as well as composers, exerted in what is, I fear, a simplifying endeavor.

Urla Kahl is a talented and exciting horn player. This disc of pieces (most of them written for Kahl) by female composers shows off her wide technical and musical range. Ten minutes or so is a long time to listen to the timbre of an unaccompanied wind instrument, even when all the effects available today are employed. A few of the pieces on this disc fall victim to this problem, undermining otherwise good compositions. Violeta Dinescu avoids the problem in Es nimmt mich wunder, a study in economy of means and expressive compactness. Another highlight of this wellproduced disc is Emily Zobel's Flodigarry, a piece that exploits the horn's overtone structure and other acoustic possibilities, in a highly expressive structure.

Violeta Dinescu's music is colorful, dense, and challenging. Hers is a modernism with a touch of the mysterious-angular lines give way suddenly to impressionist clouds of sound. Tautropfen, for clarinet and piano, is a good example. The clarinet is clearly the lead instrument (at least for most of the piece), leaping across great slices of its range, covering the whole of its dynamic and timbral capabilities (including multiphonics), and giving the piece dramatic impetus for the piece. Meanwhile, the piano part supplies splashes of color, complementing or contrasting the clarinet music. The performances of this very difficult music are very good, which speaks well of the players, of course, but also of the composer and her music, as performers must find value in the compositions to give them the care they do here. Dinescu's fine music is slowly becoming available in this country on imported discs like this one. I hope soon to hear some of it in performance. Sanda Craciun (viola) and Aurelian Octav Popa (clarinet) are accomplished and serious musicians. They play very well together, with understanding and musicality. The selections on this program illustrate the variety and vitality of Romanian composition, from the modernist counterpoint of Dinescu's Euraculos to the rhythmic drive and quiet lyricism of De Doi, by Cornelia Tautu. There are pieces on this disc to suit virtually every taste, and devotees (and players) of the viola and the clarinet will enjoy the music and the performances.

The chamber music of Thomas Benjamin is genial and earnest, with a wide variety of textures and gestures, including some smart imitative counterpoint. The Recitativo/Allegro Barbaro, in particular, is an attractive piece, with some telling moments. The performances are quite good. The sound is a little unfocussed, causing the instruments to lack presence. There is also, on occasion, a great deal of background noise.

Genial, too, is the jazz and popular songinflected music of Dexter Morrill. Morrill's music, while firmly in the tonal camp, has a wider harmonic range than Benjamin's. The Capstone disc of Morrill's chamber music for strings reveals a composer of considerable versatility, as well as a student of string instrument playing. The compositions all use a wide variety of string techniques without ever resorting to exotic playing techniques. Of particular interest is the Second Quartet, a closely-argued and expansively fleshed-out piece where melody and elegant phrase structure carry the day. The Tremont Quartet gives a fine performance. The other compositions on the disc are also worth a listen, and the performances are good, too.

Around the World with Tsippi Fleischer is the title of a program of the Israeli composer's music, and it is apt in more than one sense. The performances were recorded in cities around the world, and the music is stylistically all over the map. This is a good thing in Fleischer's case, for the stylistic garb she dons in each work is appropriate, and each piece adheres to its own stylistic norms. This is no facile eclecticism-rather, it is evidence of a composer with a highly developed sense of musical situations and their expressive demands. The pieces on this disc cover the expressive territory from neo-classicism (In Chromatic Mood and the Fragments for woodwind trio) to diatonic folk-like song (The Clock Wants to Sleep) to electronic modernism (War). This is a fine disc, with exemplary performances and good sound.

Allen Brings's chamber music is an expression of late 20th Century romanticismsincere, honest, and tough-minded. His music relies on traditional materials in traditional forms, but there is something about it-a knowingness perhaps-that makes the overall effect more than backward-looking. It may be the particular kind of consciousness of the past that marks our own age, when composers can combine elements of several different eras. Does it work as art? Or nostalgia? I don't know yet, but honorable efforts like his (and his fine, understanding interpreters) make me believe the answer may yet be a positive one.

The first piece on Eve Beglarian's OO disc, No Man's Land, begins with seemingly random, metallic sounds. Before long, a funky groove kicks in (presumably a drum machine), the random sounds move to the background, and we are squarely in the world of "downtown" music. Kyle Gann (in the liner notes) describes the development of Beglarian's style: "first tonal, then rock-beat influenced, then performance-arty and audience-friendly"-an accurate description, but "rock-beat influenced" is a bit of an understatement: there are long stretches dominated by a pure rock beat. The sound here is excellent-clear and upfront. Fans of the downtown scene will love this disc; others may wonder what Gann is raving about. It is hard to imagine anyone (any ARG reader, at any rate) so isolated they would be surprised by anything here.

Sally Mosher's harpsichord music combines generally neo-baroque harmonic structures with Tin Pan Alley melodic turns to make a kind of music that is, frankly, quite puzzling-a kind of parlor-lounge music. The harpsichord orchestration is very heavy and on the ugly side. The two pieces for cello and synthesizer are more romantic and easier to listen to. Xin-Hua Ma plays the cello parts with flair. The sound is close and there are no liner notes.

Caroline Hartig is an outstanding clarinet player, with a creamy tone and supreme command of her instrument. These pieces by Libby Larsen, for clarinet solo or clarinet and other instruments, all incorporate elements from jazz, pop, or folk music. The stylistic elements are in the music's foreground most of the time, giving the program a light and very listenable quality. The most interesting piece here is Corker, with its interplay between the clarinet and a wide array of percussion instruments. In addition to Hartig, the other performers are very good in their own right. Robert Adney supplies suave accompaniment in Corker, and quality playing comes from David Harding (viola), Kevin Purrone (piano), and Christopher Kachian (guitar) in the other pieces. Innova's sound and notes are both quite good. Fans of the clarinet and of modern eclecticism will enjoy this release.

Pianist Hiroko Sakagami had a significant part of her musical training in Lucerne, and all of the music in this set was written by composers with a connection to the Swiss city. This set is part of a series of recordings of solo piano music Xaver Schnyder von Wartensee (1786-1868). On the evidence of the Lustiges Drey mal Drey oder neun Scherzi, Schnyder was a classicist living in the romantic era. These pieces are traditional in their ABA forms, their regular phrase structures, and their pleasant, diatonic melodies. Sakagami is at home in these pieces, even if her attacks are a bit heavy at times. Her reading of the rather Brahmsian preludes of Scriabin suffers from occasional muddiness in transitions. Sakagami has no trouble whatever with the 20th Century music on the program. All of the pieces have one or more characteristics of neo-classicism, and their inclusion on a program with Schnyder von Wartensee is appropriate. Of particular interest are the Varianten of Will Eisenmann and the Klangfiguren of Caspar Diethelm, though the other pieces have pleasures of their own. There are copious notes, and the recording is good, though the piano sometimes sounds a bit thin in the upper-middle register at high volume. Sakagami is a talented pianist who will be worth watching as she matures.

The Borealis Wind Quintet has a sound that is extraordinarily well blended. The woodwind quintet can be a difficult medium because of balancing problems. The Borealians seem to resolve these problems with ease and style. The compositions on this disc are all congenial and easy to listen to. Eric Ewazen's Roaring Fork Quintet is an example of lively neo-classicism, well-written for the instruments, while John Steinmetz's quintet is darker, with a wider range of color and harmony than the Ewazen. Finally, Miguel del Aguila's Second Quintet is a sometimes laconic, always listenable piece, with a lively Caribbean dance-influenced II and a dark, brooding III. Fans of the woodwind quintet will want to hear this disc.

Composers have become very comfortable with digital technology. Just over a decade or so, computer music seemed to be driven by the technology itself rather than by the aesthetic of the composer. That has changed. The music on this Consortium to Distribute Computer Music disc reveals composers who make the medium work for them the way an acoustic composer uses traditional instruments. Several of the compositions here use sounds that are similar to existing acoustic instruments, both Western and non-Western, to create a kind of digital proto-World Music. Stephen Montague's Silence: John, Yvar, and Tim, Richard Dal Farra's Tierra y Sol, and Frances White's Birdwing, for shakuhachi and computer music on tape, are vivid examples. The other two pieces on this disc, Jonty Harrison's Unsound Objects and In Emptiness, Over Emptiness, by Michael Matthews, are both well-made and enjoyable to listen to, and they both employ a wide range of sounds and expressive gestures. Good notes, outstanding sound.

Most of the pieces on the Capstone Illuminations disc are "pitch-centric", and some of them are unabashedly tonal. Herb Bielawa's Stone Settings are pleasing settings of poems by Ann Stone that do not immediately suggest musical rendering. The accompaniments are well suited to the vocal lines, which themselves are graceful and idiomatic. The reed trio Googleegoo, by Hayg Boyadjian, is meant to be light and happy, but at 11 minutes it exceeds the ability of its slight material to sustain interest. Charles Bestor's Of Times and Their Places is a craftsmanlike, if not especially memorable, group of settings of recent poetry. The Variations for piano four hands by John Richey employ a wider harmonic palette than the other pieces on this disc, though it is quite straightforward rhythmically and easy to follow. The horn and vibraphone accompaniment of Warner Hutchison's Poe-songs seems timbrally inappropriate for the texts, while the texts themselves are given a clear, consistent, and somewhat bland setting. This uneven disc closes with Ling Chao Chen's slight, colorful, Echo, for baritone and chamber ensemble. The performances are good, but the sound includes significantly more tape hiss than we are accustomed to in the CD era.

The music on Songs of the Earth, a collection of pieces by composers connected to central North Dakota, is earnest and straightforward. It is all pleasant to listen to and will offend no one. Most of it is neo-classical or neo-romantic and would be at home in the college recital hall. Gary Walth's pieces stand out for their melodic richness and singability. Donald Hoffman's three chamber works are marked by a strong sense of form and a wide variety of harmonic and contrapuntal techniques. The Ride Home, by Marion Ost, would make an attractive lyrical interlude on a horn recital, while Tom Porter's Three Pieces for woodwind quintet are well written and colorful. He Who Dwells, Trio 1, by Dee Meisner, is a simple and sincere psalm setting, notable for some good writing for the oboe.

MMC's ambitious New Century recording project continues with a program of diverse recent music given strong readings by European orchestras. Stephen Richards's Prayer combines Hebraic-sounding melodies with Western-style counterpoint to make a pleasant and positive listening experience. Mariusz Pedziatek gives a good performance of the expressive oboe part. Icelandic composer Eric Julius Mogensen builds a towering structure from apparently simple ideas in his Rendez-vous, a dark work of haunting power. While eschewing traditional development techniques, the piece moves to an inevitable conclusion through the reiteration and elaboration of readily identifiable musical elements. Rendez-vous is a piece that demands, and deserves, repeated hearings. Dreamscape, by James Lentini, is a brief fantasy for orchestra that achieves its considerable effect from an interplay of chamber-like textures and explosive full orchestra passages. As ARG's Mark Lehman points out in his fine liner notes, Allan Blank's Clarinet Concerto, while making considerable "demands on the soloist...is not really a showy work; it's much more concerned with subtleties of form and affect." The concerto covers a wide range of emotional and musical territory in its four movements, and soloist David Niethamer is more than equal to the technical and expressive challenges. Our Editor enclosed a note with this disc that said "anybody would like the Blank Overture", and a joyous and enjoyable piece it is. This is the best disc in the series.

HICKEN