By LS88511
01-Oct-2011

Daniel Coombs, second part of review from AA  

Stacy Garrop’s Seven for piano trio is a similarly evocative work that takes its title from some quite unusual sources. Garrop references poet Anne Sexton’s “Seven Times”, a reflection on death and afterlife as well as on the ‘Borg’ from the Star Trek television show and movies(!) The piece is written in seven continuously-connected sections that utilize many nearly nightmarish effects including playing in the piano’s interior and the ensemble making sudden, frantic stops. Garrop is a professor of composition at Chicago’s Roosevelt University.

C’e la Luna Questa Sera? (“Is There a Moon Tonight?”) by Wisconsin-based Laura Elise Schwendinger is written in one continuous movement and is strangely, eerily beautiful. Inspired by the sights and feelings of the moon over Italy’s Lake Cuomo, this is an ethereal, almost impressionistic beauty of a piece. With well-placed tremolos and high unison string melodies against a piano that whispers, shimmers and even ‘threatens’ at some points, the work seems to ask and answer the question posed by its title. I liked this piece a great deal!

This is a marvelous program and the Lincoln Trio performs brilliantly. The group has performed all over the world including a recent four-city tour to Columbia and a tour in 2009 for the Abraham Lincoln bicentennial. They are wonderful musicians with a very clear and most gratifying commitment to contemporary music. I support, also, the concept behind this album, having done similar thematic programming myself. The truest test of all music is not in the awareness that it is written by a female composer – or any demographic – but in discovering that it is good music, deserving to be heard again and again. This disc is comprised of all great pieces that I strongly recommend!
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Strings Magazine
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MusicWeb International
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