ROBERT NASVELD (b.1955): Traumblätter for Piano Four Hands (Wyneke Jordans, Leo van Doeselaar), 3 Songs for Baritone and Piano (Mattijs van de Woerd [baritone], David Bollen [piano]), 3 Pieces for Piano (Pascal Meyer), Frozen blues for Piano (Robert Nasveld), Hanging around for Piano Trio (Osiris Trio), 6 Cavafy Songs for Baritone and 15 Instrumentalists (Olle Persson [baritone], Ensemble Insomnio; Ulrich Pöhl).

Description: This 'composer portrait' suggests the work of a musician thoroughly versed in a wide range of styles (as one might expect of a composer with careers as producer for Netherlands Radio, responsible for much innovative programming, and as pianist) whose natural inclination is toward expressive romanticism. The eight evocative character-pieces that make up the Schumann-inspired Traumblätter cover a wide range of pianistic territory, though with a firm grounding in tonality and an appropriately Romantic expressive impulse. In several of the piano pieces and accompaniments, economical and ingenious modifications of the instrument's tone and resonance are employed as coloristic elements within a thoroughly accessible vocabulary. The piano trio is lively, with playful interchanges between the instruments that 'hang around' deliberately limited basic material like quick-witted banter between friends, though lading to an unexpectedly pensive, sad conclusion. The sensual Cavafy songs (set in English translation) evoke an appropriately richly textured ensemble accompaniment, in warm, dark colors and lush lyricism. French-English texts.