ANDREA TARRODI (b.1981): 12 Pieces (January - December), Crystallites, Suite, YLVA SKOG (b.1963): 5 Moon Pieces, Winter Poem for Piano Four Hands, Staying in Tune for Piano Four Hands (Mats Widlund [four hands]).

Description: Attractive, tonal works with a ready popular appeal, full of nature imagery like our previous offerings by these composers (09T080 - Tarrodi), (05O090 -both) and 05S009 - Skog. Both composers have a fondness for repeated gestures, either as collage-like building blocks in their own right, or as accompaniment to flowing lyrical melodies. Tarrodi's Pieces are named for the months; descriptive character pieces suggesting the clear frosty air, ice crystals and winds of the early part of the year, the somnolent heat of the summer months, and the soft fading light and chilly breezes of the closing seasons. Sparkling cascades of repeated gestures characterize the fast movements; a rich, harmonically generous neo-Impressionism the slow ones. Crystallites is in much the same vein, comprising scintillating groups of repeating gestures beginning high in the piano and agglomerating into weightier material in the bass. The Suite consists of five Impressionistic miniatures suggesting gently lapping tides, chimes and still, serene contemplation. Skog's Moon Pieces depict aspects of the celestial satellite, from serene to slightly ominous, in brief neo-Romantic tone pictures. The piano duet Winter Poem sets a folky melody over a bass groove, while Staying in Tune is an appealing piece of Gershwinesque concert jazz, second cousin to I Got Rhythm. Ann-Sofi Klingberg (piano).