ENRIQUE SANTOS (b.1930): Piano Trio No. 1, Violin Sonata No. 2, Viola Sonata No. 2, Cello Sonata No. 2.

Catalogue Number: 11M086
Label: Urtext
Reference: JBCC 191
Format: CD
Price: $13.98
Description: These works are all firmly tonal, in a readily accessible, somewhat unadventurous mid-20th-century idiom. All are conventional three-movement medium-tempo/slow/fast structures, with simple, affecting songlike slow movements as the emotional heart of each piece. Lively finales - rondo-form seems to be a favorite - bring Shostakovich strongly to mind; the tautly argued first movements also suggest Prokofiev - the cello sonata in particular seems indebted to the Russian composer's influence. Formally, classical models - Beethoven, Schumann - are very much in evidence, and in their avoidance of anything that might have been considered modernistic a half-century or more ago, these pieces are satisfyingly solid additions to the literature, finely crafted and eloquently expressive. Ensemble Quercus.