VASILIJE MOKRANJAC (1923-1984): String Quartet in D Minor, Violin Sonata in G Minor, Old Song in G Sharp Minor for Violin and Piano, Dance in E Minor for Violin and Piano.

Description: Veteran collectors will remember this Serbian composer from various LP labels from the former Yugoslavia (five symphonies among others). The two main works are early, from 1949 and 1952 respectively, when Mokranjac was firmly in conservative national-romantic mode and both are dark even when not agitated (the andante sostenuto slow movement of the quartet is like Expressionism on quaaludes); scarcely do the clouds part in either work but, then, life wasn’t easy in a newly Communist country still torn apart by war and ethnic hatreds. Thomas Christian Ensemble, Evgeni Sinaisky (piano).