PASCAL DUSAPIN (b.1955): Trio Rombach for Piano Trio, OLIVIER MESSIAEN (1908-1992): Quatuor pour la fin du temps.

Description: Dusapin's trio includes elements of the microtonal inflections familiar from the composer's other works, notably in the form of quarter-tone trills which 'contaminate' the otherwise lucid and open textures of the work, but for the most part it occupies an harmonic and melodic realm that is recognisably modal. This lends a curiously archaic air to this unmistakably modern music, with its percussive clusters and occasionally frenetic, Xenakis-like activity. The presence of the piano (conventionally tuned), an instrument not much used by Dusapin, provides a stabilizing component in terms of microtonal harmonic structures, and here one notes the repeated gestures in narrow pitch ranges giving an oddly vocal, speech-like texture to the material. Trio Élégiaque, Jean-Philippe Vivier (clarinet).