KAREN WALWYN (b.197?): Two movements from Reflections on 9/11, KEVIN MALONE (b.1958): Sudden Memorials, HENRY COWELL (1897-1965): The Tides of Manaunaun, Fabric, Aeolian Harp, SCOTT JOPLIN (1868-1917): Solace, DAVID DEL TREDICI (b.1937): Missing Towers.

Description: This CD is conceived as a "virtual" 9/11 memorial recital, with a carefully planned program that works very well for the purpose. Its centerpiece, and by far the largest complete work here, is Malone's ambitious half-hour Sudden Memorials, a powerful and unusual tribute to the victims of 9/11, and specifically those of the crash in Shanksville, PA. Malone visited the site and was struck by a huge and growing makeshift memorial to which people of every kind were adding objects of significance to honor the heroes of flight 93, from carefully crafted tributes to spontaneous symbols, expressions of solidarity and emotional gestures. Malone, a self-confessed polystylist, responded to this kaleidoscopic outpouring of grief and resilience with its musical equivalent; a sequence of cascading images in a multiplicity of styles - all approachable, some very much so. Raw outpourings of dissonant rage (not much of this; the emphasis is more on the diversity of the tributes than a "Dies irae" type of response to the event) punctuate entirely tonal episodes of sentimental, naive song, an extrovert jazz-rock sequence, sonorous, tonally ambiguous reflections, a delicate "music box" with a suggestion of the Dies irae, a kind of hymn tune in various guises, and several outpourings of neo-romantic passion. If this polystylistic mosaic has a direct antecedent, it might be found in Rzewski's output - one work in particular - though without the unifying musical theme. Two movements of Walwyn's emotionally powerful, full-bloodedly neo-romantic suite are included; if this prompts anyone to investigate the composer’s recording of all 7, so much the better. Likewise, the increasingly anguished double canon of del Tredici's twin towers movement from Gotham Glory. The Cowell and Joplin are obviously not related to 9/11, but in mood they fit in perfectly, and since there can especially be no such thing as too much Cowell, they are welcome here. Adam Swayne (piano).