D.D. Jackson – Poetry Project
D.D. Jackson; various  artists and vocalists
Independent (ddjackson.bandcamp.com)

D.D. Jackson is a JUNO and Emmy winning composer, producer and jazz pianist. In the spring of 2021, eminent Canadian poet George Elliott Clarke commissioned Jackson to set music to one of his poems. This initial collaboration snowballed into The Poetry Project, an album of 13 songs mostly arranged for piano and voice with small ensembles of varying instruments. The last song in the set, Daedalus’ Lament (Giovanna Riccio) is performed by D.D. Jackson and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra via Musiversal. 

In addition to Clarke and Riccio, The Poetry Project features poems by Canadian writers Ayesha Chatterjee, Luciano Iacobelli, Irving Layton, Micheline Maylor, Bruce Meyer, Al Moritz, Libby Scheier, Choucri Paul Zemokhol and Chinese poet Xiaoyuan Yin. The performers on the album include many well-known names, including Laila Biali, Dean Bowman, Yoon Sun Choi, Ethan Cronin, Sammy Jackson, John Lindsay-Botten and Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez.   

The Poetry Project includes a variety of themes. For example, I call (Zemokhol) is about the poet rediscovering his mother’s Egypt. Daylight Shooting in little Italy (Iacobelli) is about an incident Iacobelli and his family witnessed. On Silence (Chatterjee) is a layered and imaged interpretation of silence and how in its stillness we can truly hear. Self-Composed (Clarke) is a song from a father to his daughter and 2641 Fuller Terrace (also by Clarke) is an homage to guitarist Gilbert Daye. 

For all of the intensity of the words chosen for The Poetry Project, Jackson writes surprisingly dynamic and rhythmic music with both fluid and, at times, challenging vocal lines that sway in all of the right places. Kudos to him for transforming sometimes long pages of poetry with its own rhythmical pacing into song length material that has retained the writers’ intentions and emotions.

Song of Songs
Anastasia Minster; Canadian Studio Symphony Orchestra; Felipe Tellez
Independent (anastasiaminster.com)

The title of this disc Song of Songs by Anastasia Minster may suggest it contains works based on The Song of Songs, that biblical book sometimes attributed (albeit erroneously) to King Solomon, legendary for his superlative wisdom and extraordinary wealth. But don’t let that distract you for it does – in a not-so-oblique way – reference themes of love, the heart and soul and metaphor of its biblical namesake. 

Moreover, what the recording is may also not be everyone’s idea of an orchestral one – although it is quite extraordinary. Survey the performance of pianist and vocalist Minster, and you will discover someone incapable of being temperamentally innocuous, bland or emotionally disengaged from the black-velvet-dark content. With her silvery timbre – lustrous in the high notes and like molten lava in the lower ones – Minster rises to the challenge; nay she bursts through the glass ceiling of this impassioned, shadowy repertoire.

In the artistic execution – vocal and orchestral – and in the warmth and detail of its recording, the disc is flawless. I do miss printed lyrics and believe (too punctilious a demand on my part perhaps) that every vocal disc ought to come with a booklet of texts. In her defense, I have to say that this gorgeously poetic disc may be a worthy exception. Minster is an uber-articulate vocalist and it is not particularly difficult to follow these contemporary art songs without the guide of printed lyrics.

Benedict Sheehan – Akahist
Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Artefact Ensemble; Novus NY
Bright Shiny Things (BSTC-0210 brightshiny.ninja/akathist)

Benedict Sheehan’s epic oratorio came to be as a poignant reminder of the dark days of the Stalinist purges. The language of this work has at its heart Akathist: Glory to God for All Things, an Eastern Orthodox service in plainchant, as a hymn of thanksgiving. However, the musical topography traversed by Sheehan’s work references all of fallen humanity – from the earliest times to that of our day. 

The sweeping chorales on two discs centre on the theology of Ecclesia (the community of the church) and Sapientia (holy wisdom) and appear to proffer the blinding light of God’s invisible spiritual wisdom emanating from the Heavens as a salve to heal the grief of the evils on earth. 

Melding liturgical songs (antiphons, responsories, sequences and hymns) sung by the glorious voices of several soloists and choral groups, accompanied by an instrumental ensemble into a modern-day symphonia harmoniae caelestium revelationum (a symphony of heavenly revelations) Sheehan has created a harmonious combination of different musical sounds, woven into the divine cosmic harmony. 

In fact Sheehan has created a powerful metaphor that unites the physical and the spiritual realms that brings both participant and listener into a closer – mystical – relationship with the divine. The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, the Trinity Youth Chorus, combined with the voices of the Artefact Ensemble and the Downtown Voices, together with instrumental ensemble NOVUS NY bring the spontaneity of Akathist to life.

Zibuokle Martinaityte – Aletheia: Choral Works
Latvian Radio Choir; Sigvards Klava
Ondine ODE 1447-2 (ondine.net/index.php?lid=en&cid=2.2&oid=7307)

On Aletheia, celebrated Lithuanian composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė has used the wordless language of the heart to drive the emotional spirituality of these four outstanding choral works. Using thrillingly sensuous music of bright acoustic colours and resonant fades, she has created a vocabulary defined by note durations, attack and intensities through throat-singing, drones and other vocal devices. In fact, she has brought new meaning and beauty to the mystique of spiritual music. 

In the titular first work on this disc Martinaitytė evokes the horrors of the Russian invasion of Lithuania, a personal trauma that was triggered by the more recent Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ululations is a work similar to Aletheia. Although it is not born of the despair and trauma of the latter work, it is born of an elemental, “ululating” wail. 

Chant des Voyelles employs voices to mimic the curves of sculptures by the cubist sculptor Jacques Lipchitz. And although The Blue of Distance has no particular setting, this sweeping Whitmanesque piece completes the exquisite cycle of mystical chorales vividly interpreted by the Latvian Radio Choir conducted by Sigvards Kļava.

Scherzi Forastieri
Flute Alors!
ATMA ACD2  2818 (atmaclassique.com/en/product/scherzi-forastieri)

Speaking as a former recorder player, I can say, with good authority, that it can be a frustrating instrument: limits to timbre and dynamics can quickly outweigh the joys of how easy it is to make your first decent sounds. The Montreal-based recorder quartet Flûte Alors! is a shining example of the other side of this coin, revealing for years now how astonishing this instrument can be when it’s well played. 

Although known for its eclectic repertoire, the latest offering from the quartet focuses solely on Italian music of the early Baroque. The title is taken from a collection of canzoni written in 1611 by Giovanni Cangiasi and translates roughly as “pleasantries of a foreigner.” Of the 18 tracks on this CD, ten are by Cangiasi and they really are very cheerful and inventive. Like most music from this period, the curiosity for modern ears lies in all the ways in which the conventions of the high baroque have not yet been formed: vestiges of renaissance harmonies and dance forms present themselves again and again. 

I particularly liked the “clucking hens” of Cangiasi’s La Furugada and the athletic and sinuous theme of Nicolò Corradini’s La Bizzarra; both of these feature that light-speed tonguing only possible on the recorder. Execution throughout is spectacular: virtuosic and tasteful ornaments, spot-on tuning, infallible passage work. Yes, the colours are limited but the group has selected interesting and varied music and as far as taking the listener back in time, it is thoroughly and delightfully convincing.

More Bach, Please!
Concerto Italiano; Rinaldo Alessandrini
Naïve OP8454 (arkivmusic.com/products/more-bach-please)

Over the years, composers and performers as diverse as Anton Webern, Procol Harem and the Modern Jazz Quartet have all drawn inspiration from the music of J.S Bach. The Rome-based Baroque ensemble Concerto Italiano directed by Rinaldo Alessandri is the latest ensemble to refashion the music of the Leipzig cantor in this intriguing Naïve label recording titled More Bach, Please!. The aim of the endeavour was to create three new works based upon pre-existing material by Bach with Alessandrini drawing from a number of sources.

The Ouverture in the French Style BWV831 for solo keyboard was originally published in 1735 as the second half of the Clavier-Übung (paired with the Italian Concerto). Here, the appeal is three-fold. Not only are Alessandrini’s arrangements meticulously constructed but the movements were thoughtfully chosen. Furthermore, the playing itself is stylish and elegant with the ten-member ensemble producing a warmly cohesive sound in which violinist Boris Begelman and violist Ettore Belli deliver particularly polished performances.

The Partita for flute, strings and continuo and the eight-movement Ouverture in G Major for strings and continuo utilize various sources including those from the Violin Sonata BWV1016, the keyboard Partitas BWV825 and 828 and the Ouverture BWV820. Again, the ensemble performs with a solid conviction with flutist Laura Pontecorvo’s sensitive and controlled tone melding perfectly with the string ensemble.

How could Bach not have approved of these arrangements? He himself frequently transcribed and reused his own music (and that of others). With modern technology AI can undoubtedly produce a competent refashioning of a composer’s work, but there is still ample room for the human touch and creativity, as this recording so admirably demonstrates.

Schumann: Carnaval and Kinderszenen
Edna Stern
Orchid Classics ORC100338 (edna-stern.com/recordings)

The Young Schumann
Charles Owen
Avie Records AV2647 (avie-records.com/releases/the-young-schumann-carnaval-op-9-•-papillons-op-2-•-intermezzi-op-4-•-abegg-variations-op-1)

The evergreen Carnaval is the main work on two new recordings of music for solo piano by Robert Schumann. There is an exciting sense of youthful impetuousness in Edna Stern’s recording, with fast movements taken very quickly and slower movements treated flexibly, with a generous use of rubato throughout. The quirkiness of Schumann’s language is brought to the fore as Stern emphasizes Schumann’s many sudden accents and contrasts of dynamics. Listen to the sense of improvisation in the Valse noble and the breathtaking abandon Stern brings to the infamously difficult Paganini. The final pages of the closing March are truly thrilling. This is high-octane playing, capturing a sense of live performance on the wing in a warmly recorded acoustic.  

In comparison, Charles Owen’s performance prizes sensitivity of phrasing and clarity of texture over sheer visceral excitement. Accents and inner voices are less prominent, and tempos are less extreme. This is a carefully considered performance, though this serious-mindedness doesn’t always translate into the same thrill of excitement that Stern produces. Owen fills out his album with Schumann’s first two published works, the Abegg Variations, Op.1 and Papillons, Op.2. I find Papillons, in particular, a much fresher performance, with light textures and dancing rhythms that emphasize this music’s roots in the ballroom. Owen also includes the rarely heard Intermezzi, Op.4, in a committed performance that makes one wish these six pieces were heard more often. The confident swagger of the first piece, the syncopated playfulness of the second, and the varied moods of the fifth are all vintage Schumann. The clarity of the recorded sound complements Owen’s overall textural precision and beauty of tone.

Stern’s coupling is the popular and often-recorded Kinderszenen, Op.15. These “Scenes from Childhood” can sound overly precious in the wrong hands, but Stern manages an appealing freshness and innocent charm. There is originality too, in Stern’s own composition which ends her recording. The title, To-nal or not-to-nal, refers to the pull in contemporary writing between tonal and atonal harmonies. In five short sections inspired by literary quotations (Schumann, too, took much inspiration from the literature of his time), Stern’s work is a constantly shifting kaleidoscope of textures and colours. 

Lovers of Schumann’s piano music will enjoy the contrasting approaches Stern and Owen bring to these inspired works.

Chamber Works by Frederick Block
ARC Ensemble
Chandos CHAN 20358 (shop.rcmusic.com/products/chamber-works-by-frederick-block)

After fleeing from Europe to New York City in 1940, Vienna-born Friedrich Bloch (1899-1945) resumed composing as “Frederick Block.” In the few remaining years before his death from cancer, Block busily composed many works, including three symphonies, his seventh opera and the brief, five-movement Suite, Op.73 for clarinet and piano (1944) in which jaunty playfulness alternates with wistful lyricism. 

Far more substantial are three works dating from 1928-1930, filled with the lush songfulness of Viennese late-Romanticism. In the Piano Quintet, Op.19, two buoyant movements, with melodies resembling those of Erich Korngold, frame a nostalgia-perfumed slow movement. The sweet, slightly decadent sentimentality of a fin-de-siècle Viennese ballroom permeates the four lively movements of Block’s String Quartet, Op.23.

Echoes of Korngold re-emerge in the opening Andante of Block’s Piano Trio No.2, Op.26, followed by a sprightly scherzo marked Molto vivace, a ruminative Adagio and the cheerful Vivace-Tango, not only pre-dating but also, for me, more entertaining than anything by Astor Piazzolla.

This is the latest in the Music in Exile series curated by Simon Wynberg, artistic director of Toronto’s ARC Ensemble, devoted to unheralded composers displaced or suppressed by war or dictatorship. Wynberg discovered Block’s compositions while exploring archives at the New York Public Library. Thanks to him, and the ensemble’s fine musicians – violinists Erika Raum and Marie Bérard, violist Steven Dann, cellist Thomas Wiebe, clarinetist Joaquin Valdepeñas and pianist Kevin Ahfat – the music of yet another deserving composer lives again.

Works for Piano and Orchestra – Prokofiev; Rimsky-Korsakov; Tsfasman
Zlata Chochieva; BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; Karl-Heinz Steffens
Naïve V8448 (zlatachochieva.com/music)

Recordings of two of the three composers (certainly not these compositions, though), may be abundant and varied. They may be performed with attention to historical practices or conceived as a series of romantic flights. But what strikes you through her performances of Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev, Tsfasman is that Zlata Chochieva doesn’t impose doctrinaire impulses on these three orchestral works but explores – with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Karl-Heinz Steffans – a range of expressive and rhythmic nuances. 

Her playing is absorbing and sensitive, full of insightful phrasing, reflective subtlety and joie de vivre. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Piano Concerto in C-sharp Minor, Op.30: Note that the choice of this work (not operatic extracts from Scheherazade) puts a spotlight on the composer’s genius for infusing his works with primary instrumental colours, and progressive harmonies, particularly in the third, Allegro movement.

Prokofiev, on the other hand, was a genius of the piano, but his concertos – among the most inventive ever written –  are rarely performed. This Piano Concerto No.2 in G Minor, Op.16 is a case in point. It begins as an almost backward-looking composition but the performer in him soon takes over and by the time we get to the Finale - Allegro tempestoso movement we are presented with the composer’s barnstorming prowess. 

Tsfasman’s Jazz Suite is a glowing echo of his idol, Gershwin. Consummate performances by pianist and orchestra bring an alluring dénouement to this programme.

Two Orchestras, One Symphony: Jacques Hetu – Symphony No.5
National Arts Centre Orchestra Canada; Orchestre Symphonique du Québec; Toronto Mendelssohn Choir; Alexander Shelley
Analekta AN2 8890 (nac-cna.ca/en/orchestra/recordings/hetu-5)

The combined forces of two orchestras and a symphonic choir, all under the superb leadership of conductor Alexander Shelley, came together in March, 2024 for this magnificent recording of Jacques Hétu’s bold work. Indeed, it was a work the composer was never to hear in performance, as he passed away three weeks before its premiere in February, 2010.  

This recording is a reminder of Hétu’s skill and significance as one of Canada’s finest composers. Having studied as a young man with Clermont Pépin and Jean-Papineau Couture in Canada and Lukas Foss at Tanglewood, he went to Paris in 1961, won the Prix D’Europe and furthered his studies with Henri Dutilleux and Olivier Messiaen. 

Paris is the subject of the fifth symphony, with programmatic titles depicting pre-World War II, the Invasion, the Occupation and, finally, a complex and glorious choral finale to the text of Liberté by Paul Elouard (brilliantly set previously by Francis Poulenc in his cantata Figure humaine). Hétu’s setting is defiant and harmonically thrilling. The whole symphony packs an emotional punch and possesses an anti-totalitarian message that’s important to hear at this particular time. 

The performance is sincere and committed, with some fine wind and brass solo work. The choir’s sound is full and strong. The recording was the culmination of a number of live performances during an extensive tour through Ontario and Québec. It is a tribute to the close association that the NACO had with the composer over many years, having premiered his third symphony in 1971 (under Mario Bernardi’s direction) and taken it on a tour of Europe in 1990. Alexander Shelley continues to develop important large-scale projects at the National Arts Centre for which we can be grateful and proud. 

Three of Twelve and Another
Graham Flett
Redshift Records (redshiftmusicsociety.bandcamp.com/album/three-of-twelve-and-another)

Ontario composer Graham Flett’s album of two electric guitar works has an intriguing backstory. The composer writes, “One summer I happened upon an old 12-string guitar that was extremely but very intriguingly out-of-tune. Hearing it made me consider how an ensemble of such out-of-tune guitars might sound.” Inspired by that untuned chance encounter Flett began to explore four separate, yet related guitar tunings of the conventional 6-string electric guitar. In the final score he meticulously stipulates the tuning of each of the 24 strings of the four guitars, their web of interrelationships taking into consideration string harmonics and other acoustic phenomena. 

There’s also poetry. Flett took inspiration from W.H. Auden’s Twelve Songs. Thus, the three movements of his Music for Four Retuned Electric Guitars are tagged with Auden’s poetic phrases characterising each movement: the silent statue; the smokeless hill; the hot sun. Stillness, heat and perhaps negative space are being evoked.

The second work Unadorned, for solo electric guitar, is no less complex sounding. Here Flett explores a continuous series of three-note chords employing many harmonic groupings. The use of messa di voce - a musical swell here applied to a guitar note or chord - removes the initial attack of the plucked guitar strings, leaving puffs of sonic clouds to linger, gently pulse or grate against each other. It’s an album signature. 

Spain-based guitarist Elliot Simpson, who took on the considerable task of retuning and then multi-tracking the guitars, renders these enigmatic, challenging works with commitment, elegant musicianship and attention to detail.

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Imagine Many Guitars
Tim Brady; Instruments of Happiness; Bronwyn Thies-Thompson; Janelle Lucyk; Sarah Albu; Marie-Annick Beliveau
Redshift Records TK550 (redshiftmusicsociety.bandcamp.com/album/imagine-many-guitars)

Imagine Many Guitars is real; a well-thought out and brilliantly performed electric guitar recording by Montreal-based Tim Brady, who composed, played and recorded all the guitar lines, which he multi-tracks in the four compositions here.

The opening 25-minuteThis one is broken in pieces: Symphony #11 (2019-2024) is held together by Brady’s eight electric guitars (with effects pedals), and overdubbed sopranos Bronwyn Thies-Thompson, Janelle Lucyk, Sarah Albu and Marie-Annick Béliveau singing texts taken from the late Ian Ferrier’s book Coming & Going (2015). This very symphonic music with classical and contemporary overtones features guitar effect backdrops to guitar grooves alternating with vocals – suspenseful a cappella singing and moving spoken lines. Guitar strums and held notes add an echo effect to high sung notes.

Slow, Simple (2022) for 20 electric guitars is not really simple sonically but is easy-listening! The tempo is slow, with Brady’s low held chords opening and the guitars build as the chords slowing change with simultaneous descending lead lines, held notes, strumming, single note atonal lines and held note effects.  

Five Times: four guitars (2022), a shorter five-movement change of pace, features a more open and playful style and a rocking lead guitar in Everywhere, and more atonal experimental lines resembling playing at home sounds in Alone.  

The earlier four-part work (very) Short Pieces for (jazz) Guitar (1979) shows off a jazzier side of Brady’s playing with clean lines, rhythmic strums and accents.

Brady is amazing and inspirational throughout Imagine Many Guitars.

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Rebecca Bruton – a roof or mirror, blossom, madder, cracks; Jason Doell - together
Quatuor Bozzini; junctQin keyboard collective
Collection Quatuor Bozzini CQB 2433-2 (collectionqb.bandcamp.com/album/rebecca-bruton-jason-doell-a-root-or-mirror-blossom-madder-cracks-together)

Montreal’s internationally renowned contemporary string quartet Quatuor Bozzini is known for championing composers. On this album of two new works, they join forces with Toronto’s junctQín keyboard collective, a trio of expert advocates of the rare art of six-hand piano playing. 

Toronto composer Jason Doell in his performance notes reflects on his work together in poetic terms. It’s “a work born of strange conversation caught in webs that cling to beliefs still continuously being spun….” Early in together a mysterious ppp drone appears. Unlike most drones however, it continuously and very slowly, drifts down in pitch by a disciplined half-tone. While the string quartet skilfully tunes to the shifting drone, the piano cannot. For much of the work’s 20 minutes therefore Doell creates the perception of a transient out-of-tune-ness in the slowly flowing texture as the two sonic components drift apart. The consequent tension is finally relieved by a complex tonal quasi-resolution at the work’s close. 

Alberta composer Rebecca Bruton’s eight-part The Faerie Ribbon consists of four initial movements each with its own magical subtitle, each mirrored by its own alter-version. The string quartet textures are punctuated by deep sustained piano chords, contrasted in two sections by voices singing consonant harmonies. What to make of the title? Faeries in folklore are anthropomorphic liminal creatures associated with nature and magic. In some myths they haunt specific locations and dangerously lead travelers astray. Could Bruton - and Doell - be evoking the power of music to catch us unaware, acting as a transformative agent of the musical medium and listeners alike?

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Butterfly Lightning Shakes the Earth
India Gailey; Symphony Nova Scotia; Karl Herzer
Redshift Records TK552 (redshiftmusicsociety.bandcamp.com/album/butterfly-lightning-shakes-the-earth)

Cellist India Gailey’s latest album continues her dedication to the fusion of natural and supernatural worlds, depicting powerful images of our changing environment while revealing early influences of her Buddhist lineage.

Opening with three miniatures, Mountainweeps (originally written for cellist Arlen Hluska for Instagram posts needing to be around 1 min each), Gailey uses her vast range of minimalist colours to paint the scene of melting glaciers and the migration of creatures following the disappearing ice. With the use of fleeting harmonics, the composer sets the scene for frigid temperatures, and the flowing arpeggiated passages describe fleeing plants and animals. 

This short set aptly sets the stage for Gailey’s first symphonic composition Butterfly Lightening Shakes the Earth, a concerto for cello and orchestra composed during a Banff Residency and premiered with Symphony Nova Scotia under the baton of Karl Hirzer. The first movement, SKY, beginning with heavenly high notes on the cello paired with fluttering harmonics and high triangle chimes throughout the orchestra, is textural while supporting the melody of the cello. The second movement, GOLDEN, blends the double basses and lowest reeds to bring a dark and mysterious element behind the gorgeous melody in the cello, morphing into tonal shifts and scattered drums like oncoming rain and a sudden storm, leading to the third movement, JOINING, where we hear a rainstorm beautifully rendered throughout the orchestra. The heavens seem to break open with a string quartet of almost plaintive chant which quickly grows throughout the ensemble, when the cello bursts into the group with a storm of its own. The sound of birds ebbs and swells again to end in a majestic firestorm of cello pyrotechnics and a mountain of sound. It’s worth a trip over to YouTube to see the capture of this performance as the storm effects are wonderous to watch, and Gailey’s playing is exact and clear while maintaining a natural and relaxed delivery. The future looks very bright for this exceptional artist.

Awake and Dreaming – Music of Alice Ping Yee Ho
Katherine Dowling
Independent (katherinedowling.com)

In her first solo album, pianist Katherine Dowling presents music by Chinese-Canadian composer Alice Ping Yee Ho. Colourful and dynamic, Ho’s writing makes impressive use of the piano’s resources, including some imaginative strumming and plucking of strings, and Dowling relishes the significant technical and interpretive demands of these works with assurance. Dowling has a keen ear for texture and colour, but also an impassioned – even impulsive – sense of forward momentum and line.  

Inspired by Dali, the album’s opening work, Aeon (2012), provides a good sense of Ho’s piano writing as a dramatic and resonant slow introduction leads into a brilliant and driving toccata. Dowling’s characterization of the non-stop passagework is impressive. The most recent work on the album, There is no night without a dawning (2023) was commissioned by Dowling herself for this recording. An elegiac, meditative beginning works up to an agitated climax featuring ringing chords and trills. The album’s emotional high point is The Weeping Woman (2022), inspired by a series of portraits by Picasso. Dowling movingly captures the work’s depiction of the suffering of war, ranging from hushed mystery to searing intensity. Lighter, more playful moods are explored in shorter works such as the scherzo-like Fire of Imagination (1991) and Cyclone (1994), a repeated-note toccata.   

Recorded at the Polaris Centre in Calgary in a resonant but detailed acoustic, Katherine Dowling’s portrait of Ho is an impressive achievement. Her extensive experience with and commitment to contemporary music results in authoritative interpretations, underlining both the drama and the atmosphere of Ho’s piano writing. Highly recommended for anyone interested in contemporary piano music, and the chance to hear music by one of Canada’s most acclaimed composers in compelling and virtuosic performances.

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