SOFIA GUBAIDULINA (b.1931): String Trio, GIYA KANCHELI (b.1935): Time... and again, Rag-gidon-time, ALEXANDER KNAIFEL (b.1945): E.F. and three visiting cards of the poet, OLEG PAIBERDIN (b.1971): Organum A-nn-A.

Description: Gubaidulina's trio is spare and gestural - based on various interpretations of 'three' (including very likely the 'three-in-one-ness' of the Holy Trinity). The work is a compendium of textural and dynamic effects, with highly stylized ecstatic dances and abbreviated col legno and harmonic sounds of the utmost fragility. The Paiberdin is a modern take on mediæval organum, adding texture and density to drone-like chant motifs resulting in something not unlike some works of Pärt. Kancheli's Time is more straightforwardly tonal, with something of 'new simplicity' and reminiscences of Eastern and archaic melodies, while the other little encore-like work gradually deconstructs the idea of a Rag into its most basic components. Knaifel's ethereally subtle piece consists of musical images as delicate and fragile as the evocative, haunting symbols in the unpublished Tyutchev poems on which it is based (which the composer reads by way of a preface - texts and translations included). 2 CDs for the price of 1. Goeyvaerts String Trio.