JOHANNA DODERER (b.1969): Mattsee for String Quartet, Wutmarsch and Heidekrautwalzer for Accordion and String Quartet, Tango for Piano Duo, Cello, Accordion and String Quartet, Break on Through for Cello and Accordion, Like the Sun and Traisental-Ländler for Piano Duo, Die Farbe Rot for Accordion.

Description: We've previously offered Doderer's immensely impressive neo-romantic Second Symphony (11R008) and her fine, emotionally gripping Piano Trios (11Q085); now this 'composer portrait' drawn from recordings made at last year's Kulturfest Traisental further confirms the composer's ability to elicit powerful emotional responses in music of wide-ranging but always directly communicative, tonality-based styles for a variety of small ensembles. The string quartet Mattsee is, like the symphony referenced above, a depiction of a stunning piece of landscape, and like the orchestral work, it is rich and dramatic, rugged and large-scale; nothing pretty or picture-postcardish here. The works for piano duo are very post-minimalist, but with quicksilver changes of mood and, in the case of Traisental-Ländler (based on a drinking song from the region), no shortage of dissonance until the final romantic harmonisation of the simple tune. Fury March has the energy of rock music, and this goes further in the extended fantasia based on The Doors' Jim Morrison's song 'Break on Through', a sophisticated and dense web of ideas, leaving aside its ingenious treatment of its unusual source material (with which you don't need to be familiar in order to enjoy the piece). 'The Colour Red' is a serious, powerful and dramatic work based on one of the many paintings of Christ carrying the Cross in Italian post-Renaissance art. It is a ferociously virtuosic accordion solo with passages that you'd swear were played on full organ. 'Heather Waltz' is a vigorous, outdoorsy specimen of the genre inspired by walks in the Vienna woods, and the fiery and uproarious Tango rivals Piazzolla for physicality and excitement. Auner Quartet, Duo Arcord, Ferhan & Ferzan Onder (piano duo).