CARLOS MICHÁNS (b.1950): Piano Quintet, Dravidian Moods for Oboe and String Quartet (5 Movements on South Indian Themes), Divertimento for 8 Strings (Variations on a Tamil lyric).

Description: The 1994 quintet is an intense work of great energy - restlessly expressed in the outer movements and vigorous scherzo; pent-up and dangerously repressed in the 'static' slow movement. The freely dissonant vocabulary hints constantly at tonal centers, and incorporates elements of dodecaphony. The composer has extensively visited South India and has studied, and transcribed into western notation, the Karnatic folk music of the region. This immersion in the local culture is expressed in the works inspired by South Indian and Tamil themes as a strong sense of atmosphere, rather than an attempt to imitate Indian music. The harmonies are western, and although two movements of Dravidian Moods quote folk themes, the long, ornamented melodic lines evoke the free, linear structures of Indian music rather than sounding like it. The Divertimento is likewise a western traveler's view of India. It begins with a muted, mysterious evocation of the East, in dense, saturated colors, followed by a lively, celebratory dance, a nocturnal slow movement and a folk-dance finale that suggests something Bartók might have done with Indian material. Utrecht String Quartet, Ruysdael Quartet (Divertimento), Pauline Oostenrijk (oboe), Severin von Eckardstein (piano).