Thomas - Amalgam for Solo Piano - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

It is clear, in all Thomas' works, that she has been listening to jazz for over 40 years. She is not a composer of what is sometimes referred to as InchcrossoverInch jazz/classical pieces; rather, there is a deeply integrated, digested and well-heard sensibility related to jazz harmonies, flexibility, spontaneity, rhythm and flow in her music of the past 30 years. Thomas said of the work Although highly notated, precise, carefully structured, soundly proportioned, and while the pianist is elegantly working from a nuanced, very specific text, I like my music to have the feeling that it is organically being self-propelled - on the spot. As if we listeners are overhearing a spontaneous captured improvisation. The title's word InchilluminationInch has many meanings related to this music, including radiance, lighting hues, decoration, ornament, embellishment and elucidation. Throughout the dramatic crescendo of increasing virtuosity, speed and volume, musical connections are orbital. Layers of bells are added and a chain-link of transformations, variations and outgrowths unfolds. Sounds crossfertilize and establish organic relationships which, in turn, create new intersections and fulcrum points. The music starts very modestly and, as the inner-life of the sounds percolate and bloom, Bell Illuminations develops into a vivid, plentiful adventure. Commissioned by and dedicated with admiration and gratitude to Daniel Pesca

Grammy Award winner Jason Vieaux joins forces with the esteemed Escher Quartet to produce a recording with some new and old works with dance themes in common. These three works may share elements of dance-inspired music, and contain actual allusions to specific dances in the titles (or expressive markings) of certain movements, but that is where the similarities end. These guitar quintets, all from very different periods, couldn't be any more different from each other in style, timbre, texture and dynamics. They show the musical range and flexibility of the guitar within a more traditional chamber music group setting.

Thomas Tellefsen D.a. - Complete Works for Piano Solo [COMPACT DISCS] date 05/31/2011