ATLI HEIMIR SVEINSSON (b.1938): Piano Trios Nos. 1, 2 & 3 "Mysteries".

Description: These trios are the product of an unusual imagination, a compositional style in which a pluralistic approach to technique (perhaps derived from his teacher, B.A. Zimmermann) rubs shoulders with a concern with traditional forms, and an expressive, neo-romantic soundworld. At first impression the works suggest complex modernism and atonality, but lush tonal harmonies, and formal devices of the Baroque and Classical periods - canonic imitation, scherzo- and melodic slow movements, variation forms and the like - soon make themselves apparent. Lively dancing scherzi, oddly reminiscent of orgiastic dancing passages in Messiaen, are a recurring, attractive feature of this music. Sveinsson expands his timbral palette through some economical use of prepared techniques for the piano and some extended playing methods; there are also some limited passages employing quarter-tones. A preoccupation with the changing quality of individual tones as they die away becomes a part of the textural vocabulary, but is never dwelt upon at length as an end in itself. Hyperion Trio.