JOSÉ LUIS GRECO (b.1953): Dark Love for Violin and Piano, Nila for Cello and Piano , Southern Comfort for Viola and Piano, Wonderland for String Trio.

Description: The six pieces in the Dark Love cycle are contrasting fantasias evoking different moods; lushly sensuous, passionate, melancholy, euphoric... throughout, despite the composer's tonal idiom, there is a certain tension, a sense of chromatic unease. This is even more apparent in the cello sonata, in which a quasi-impressionistic evocation of a day in rural Connecticut is inflected with shadows. The viola sonata is more relaxed and easy-going, an instantly likable and attractive work with a few playful surprises along the way. Wonderland refers to the Alice books, and contrasts a sense of freedom and strangeness with wistful, somber lyrical material. Fatum String Trio, Ilona Timchenko (piano).