<<  -- 2 --  Patric Standford    VARIED INFLUENCES

Two of the other three pieces may be more familiar -- Petroushskates, a lovely homage to Stravinsky by Joan Tower with, in this version, an added percussion part by Allen Otte, and Michael Torke's July for saxophone quartet played (as is the Goldstein piece) superbly by the Aurelia Quartet.

Lu Pei's Song of Consonance, a substantial 17' piece, is his reaction to the 9/11 tragedy in New York and is a musical account of his dreams of peace. It is a work of both energy and tenderness, and brings together East and West in its fascinating instrumentation, the p'i-p'a and erh-hu (plucked and bowed strings respectively) from China and our familiar piano trio. It is a sound world of vigour [listen -- track 15, 0:00-1:42] with curious echoes of Messiaen in an extraordinary context [listen -- track 16, 0:00-1:16] and peacefulness in which the players are required to sing too, joining an ancient Chinese melody [listen -- track 16, 1:57-3:42]. A captivating piece on a equally enthralling CD, the only downside being its complete lack of tracking information -- Lu Pei is divided into ten unnamed tracks, but finding that out is guesswork!

For help listening to the sound extracts here, please refer to our questions & answers page.