CARPENTER: Violin Sonata / String Quartet / Piano Quintet

Over the last decade the music of the Puerto Rican composer Roberto Sierra has become internationally admired, and this has led to prestigious commissions and performances around the world. Fandangos was heard at the BBC Proms in London and employs a harpsichord work attributed to Antonio Soler as a departure for a richly inventive orchestral fantasy. The dramatic Sinfonia No. 4 was described by ArtsNowNashville as 'a textbook example of how this composer breathes new life into old forms. The piece is basically a classic Germanic symphony imbued with Spanish sensibilities and reinvigorated with new harmonies and rhythms.' Robert Schumann is subtly evoked in Carnaval, five character pieces that explore mythical creatures, both menacing and serene.

HELPS: Shall We Dance / Piano Quartet / Postlude / Nocturne

2019 release. The exciting, genre-defying American composer Gregory Hutter wrote this sequence of choral music between 2009 and 2014- his intention being economic, direct, and tuneful music. The settings range from the English Renaissance to American poems of the early 20th century; from Shakespeare to Carl Sandburg and Sara Teasdale. Hutter approaches the texts with lyricism and fluidity, attentive to the poetrys moments of melancholy, beauty or bucolic energy. In harmonically rich settings he draws on polyphony, chromaticism and lullaby alike to communicate and bring the listener closer to the core of the texts.

Charles Wuorinen' staggeringly prolific output has been remarkably consistent yet tremendously varied.

Described by Choir and Organ Magazine as ' to enliven the programmes of choirs anywhere', the sacred choral works of American composer Carson Cooman have been widely performed and commissioned.

My symphonic suite Roundings was commissioned by the Amarillo Symphony to celebrate it's 75th anniversary. The suite was premiered movement-by-movement throughout the anniversary season, and it received it's first complete performance on 8th April, 2000, by the Amarillo Symphony under the baton of it's music director, James Setapen. The Prologue, "Hymn to the Earth" sets the stage for all that follows. A disarmingly simple piece, it consists entirely of slow chords which move in whole steps. These chords set up relationships which are explored in each of the following movements. Windmill depicts the motions of the wind, the wheel and pump which harness the wind, as well as a calling out for water. Oil Well has a main theme the shape of which constantly reaches for successively deeper pitches, mirroring the actions of an oil rig Sounds such as iron pipe and chains add to the description of drilling. The middle section suggests the upward flow of oil once the oil-bearing layer has been reached Locomotive commemorates the importance of the coming of the railroad to the establishment of a community in inland portions of the United States. The music describes the sound one hears at the depot as a passenger train approaches, comes to a halt, empties it's passengers and cargo, then departs, slipping into the distance. Lariat paints a picture of an old cow herder bragging of his skills with the rope to his younger colleagues, as fragments of cowboy songs, and eventually two complete songs, are sung around the campfire. Plow quotes an old Presbyterian hymn tune, entitled Dresden ("We plow the fields"). It also utilizes the celebrated Dresden Amen. The movement presents three statements of the hymn tune, each varied from the other. The second statement portrays the repetitive physical labor of plowing, and the final statement uses expanding and contracting instrumental voices, as well as the recorded sound of an old tractor, to illustrate the coming of mechanized farming. My Cello Sonata was written in 1996 and premiered on 14th March, 1997 by the Fischer Duo, for whose 25th wedding anniversary it was commissioned. It has subsequently been championed by the Lopez/Parr-Scanlin Duo, who performed it on a tour of the eastern U.S. before the present recording.

STRONG: Roi Arthur (Le) / Die Nacht

Paul Schoenfield' music attracts listeners with it's combination of exuberance and seriousness, familiarity and originality, lightness and depth, often with sly twists.

Robert Erickson was a formidable guiding spirit as composer and teacher, acting as a mentor for a whole generation of California-trained composers. He utilized many different styles and techniques in his music, from micro-tonality.

Acclaimed as �one of the best opera composers of the moment�, American composer-librettist Mark Adamo has also ventured into symphonic composition and other fields in each of which his theatrical sensitivity, political commitment and musical mastery are equally evident. The vivacity of his Overture to Lysistrata accentuates the play�s anti-war theme, while Alcott Music rethinks the music from his hit opera Little Women. Regina Coeli pays tribute to the Queen of Heaven and Late Victorians is dedicated both to the memory of those who have died and to those who have survived AIDS.

NANCARROW: Pieces for Small Orchestra / Tango? / String Quar

Award-winning composer and pianist Carter Pann is a genuine “musician’s musician”, writing for and working with internationally acclaimed orchestras and ensembles. Composed especially for Joel Hastings, The Piano’s 12 Sides is a remarkable cycle that takes us through song-like introspection, fearless virtuosity, timeless impressions of cosmic realms and dances both ebullient and macabre. The Bills owes its ragtime influence to Scott Joplin while acknowledging two great exponents of the genre. The composer describes The Cheese Grater as “an adrenaline driven, mean two-step”. Evocative of a smoky jazz club, Your Touch is the laid-back solo movement from Carter Pann’s GRAMMY®-nominated Piano Concerto (Naxos 8.559043).

To say that Daron Hagen is a remarkable musician,' wrote Ned Rorem in Opera News, 'is to underrate him. Daron is music.' Each of Hagen' piano trios has a particular significance.

Roberto Sierra was born in Puerto Rico and studied composition in Europe, notably with Gyorgy Ligeti in Hamburg, Germany. 'The three piano trios in this recording span seventeen years of my creative life,' he says.