PIERRE JALBERT (b.1967): Icefield Sonnets, SEBASTIAN CURRIER (b.1959): Next Atlantis, PAUL MORAVEC (b.1957): Anniversary Dances, LOWELL LIEBERMANN (b.1961): String Quartet No. 3, Op. 102 "To the Victims of War".

Description: Currier's piece is about the possibility of the total submergence of New Orleans, and consists of electronically manipulated water sounds, with which the quartet enters into a dialogue. The sampled water noises are transformed into rhythmic and even melodic material; the instrumental contribution, tonal and insistent, has a minimalistic, obsessive and melancholy quality. Jalbert's sonnets were inspired by the poetry of Anthony Hawley (unfortunately not given in the booklet) on the subject of northern-ness and winter. The pieces are studies in atmospheric sonority and vivid sonic imagery. The first is static, frozen; the second, harsh and driven; the third, glacial and slow-moving, in long sustained lines. Moravec's Dances suggest the spirit of various dances without simply imitating them - rhythmically unstable and in constant flux, they would be difficult to dance to! The language is one of highly chromatic tonality, and the piece exudes vitality and a lively sense of the unexpected. Liebermann's quartet shares both inspiration and not a little of its musical language with Shostakovich's post-war requiem in quartet form, the Eighth. Like the Russian master's work, Liebermann's is impassioned, vehement and deeply tragic in tone. Ying Quartet.