Intimate Demands Music by Igor Krivokapic, heard by PATRIC STANDFORD DSS    DSS 200867

Born in 1965, the Slovenian composer Igor Krivokapic left his native country when in his mid twenties to continue studies as a brass player in Boston where he took a master's degree in tuba playing and was encouraged in his enthusiasm for composition -- 'the only as yet untroubled love of my life'.

Returning to Ljubljana he was rapidly recognised as an acknowledged brass authority and produced major compositions, like his 1st Symphony which involved the services of the Central Band of the Czech Army. However, the composer represented on this disc is one dealing with the more intimate demands of chamber music -- a cello sonata, a flute sonata and a trio for flute, cello and harp -- whilst not entirely abandoning the brass by including a short quintet for trumpets and trombones.

In general the music can be either neurotically hyperactive

or at its more contemplative has an attractive though vague aimlessness that soon becomes tedious.

Each piece has three movements in similar formats, and when arriving at the title piece, the trio called Autumnal Narratives, the impression is of having been there several times already, and nothing very much new is being said. There is also a relatively limited use of the instrumental potential, both in colour and technique.

For a composer so familiar with the world of instrumental brass music, the quintet (two trumpets and three trombones) is disappointing. Its material is pedestrian -- the music never really takes flight -- and the colour is limited and grey.

The accompanying bi-lingual booklet is uncomfortably coloured but informative, although the tracks are not separately timed. In all, not the best introduction to an unfamiliar composer.

IGOR KRIVOKAPIC

BRASS

SLOVENIA

Record Box is Music & Vision's regular series of shorter CD reviews