GERALD RESCH (b.1975): Cantus firmus - Symphony for Orchestra and Choir ad lib. (Chorus sine nomine), CHRISTIAN MUTHSPIEL (b.1962): Pas de deux concertant - Concerto for Violin, Percussion and Orchestra (Benjamin Schmid [violin], Emiko Uchiyama [percussion]), IVÁN ERÖD (b.1936): Clarinet Concerto, Op. 88 (Sharon Kam [clarinet]).

Description: Muthspiel's concerto is an exhilaratingly virtuosic dialogue between two equal soloists. Violin and percussion vie with each other to provide rhythmic impetus, while weaving intricate embellishments of musical argument around one another. Initially an improvisatory cadenza, and harmonically abstract, the music acquires harmonic richness and a strong element of tonal progression when the orchestra enters, which is maintained thereafter. Resch's work, a three-movement symphony, employs classical structures - passacaglia, sonata, lyrical slow movement, scherzo - in a substantial work that dovetails together and superimposes romantic-sounding motifs and fragments in a tautly organized construction rich in harmony and orchestral texture based on a constantly present (but often obscured or varied) underlying theme. Eröd's concerto is the most conventional work here, with a rhapsodic first movement, elegiac slow movement and lively, rather neoclassical rondo-finale incorporating an energetic csárdás. The music is very tonal, frequently reminiscent of Bartók in its tonality and gesture. Lower Austrian Tonkünstler Orchestra; Andrés Orozco-Estrada. Preiser SACD hybrid