DAVID PHILIP HEFTI (b.1975): Gegenklang for Cello and Orchestra (Thomas Grossenbacher [cello], Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich; David Zinman), Klangbogen for Orchestra (Lucerne Symphony Orchestra; Michael Sanderling), Bergwärts for Soprano, Flute, Violin, Cello and Piano (Ensemble Amaltea), Guggisber-Variationen (String Quartet No. 2) (Amar Quartet), Poème lunaire for Viola and Piano (Michel Rouilly [viola], Bettina Sutter [piano]).

Description: The cello concerto consists of an active first movement, full of febrile energy, which accumulates throughout a continuous accelerando that encompasses the entire movement; and a contrasting, static slow movement in which microtones emerge to enrich the harmony and timbre, a technique that the composer uses elsewhere, including in Klangbogen, which consists of an accumulating series of sound fields, initially somewhat consonant and chordal, latterly of far greater density due to the proliferation of micro-intervals and multiphonics. The quartet consists of variations on a melancholy Swiss folksong (heard almost unadorned at first), rendered into the composer's typical shimmering dissonances, microtones and extended playing techniques. The other chamber works also intensify and distort the basically atonal, though not especially dissonant, vocabulary through the incorporation of micro-intervals and advanced instrumental techniques (and singing techniques in the case of the vocally challenging Bergwärts).