DAVID DEBOOR CANFIELD (b.1950): Violin Sonata No. 1 (Andrés Cárdenes [violin], David Brunell [piano]), Maesta for Violin, Viola and Double Bass (Roger Frisch [violin], Paul Murphy [viola], William Schrickel [bass]), Bassoon Sonata (Catherine Marchese [bassoon], Nino Cocchiarella [piano]), Horn Sonata (Mitch Serslev [horn], Cocchiarella [piano]), Trombone Sonata (Carl Lenthe [trombone], Kimberly Carballo [piano]), Bug 'n' Bear Suite for Brass Quintet (James Klages, Kimberly Stephans [trumpets], Patrick Burke [horn], Christopher Dearth [trombone], Paul Hartin [tuba]).

Description: The violin sonata from the late 1970s is a bold, three-movement work in a very Romantic mold, very strongly tonal. By the unusually scored string trio (with contrabass), Maesta, 10 years later, a more astringent harmonic language had emerged, though the work is still very much in a tonal idiom, with echoes of Bartók and Stravinsky. The bassoon sonata is similarly Romantic in spirit, an easy-going lyrical work with sections of vigorous virtuosity in the outer movements. The brass quintet Bug 'n Bear is a lighthearted portrait of the composer and his wife, a lively and entertaining work with some jazzy inflections and quotations from Canfield himself and other music appropriate to the occasion. The horn sonata dates from 2000, and by this time the composer's familiar idiom has become noticeably more tonally free and ambiguous, though remaining firmly within the accessible and communicative idiom he established early in his career. The recent trombone sonata has a certain assertive toughness, and quotes a hymn tune which is used with some programmatic intent, assailed by dissonances in the third movement, before a lively, virtuosic rondo brings proceedings to a close.