LASSE THORESEN (b.1949): Invocation of Pristine Light, Op. 52/1, Invocation of Rising Air, Op. 52/2, ANNA THORVALDSDOTTIR (b.1977): Scape, BENT SORENSEN (b.1958): from 12 Nocturnes: No. 1 - Mignon - Und die Sonne geht Unter, No. 3 - Nachtlicher Fluss and No. 7 - Mitternacht mit Mignon, KAIJA SAARIAHO (b.1952): Prelude, RAMINTA ŠERKŠNYTĖ (b.1975): Fantasia, PĒTERIS VASKS (b.1946): Music for a Summer Evening.

Catalogue Number: 12X048
Label: Sono Luminus
Reference: DSL-92251
Format: CD
Price: $16.98
Description: A most appealing recital of rarities by composers of the North, each in their own way evoking the stirring landscapes, unearthly light, and mythologies of the northern lands. Even the two pieces that aren’t explicitly nature music suggest shimmering light and endless vistas. Saariaho has written very little for the piano, but this stunning, virtuosic prelude with its scintillating tintinnabulations over granitic bass gestures evokes the luminous world that we have come to associate with the composer. Šerkšnytė's Fantasia (the longest work here, and the only one - just - not written this century) constantly flirts with tonality and combines Impressionism, romanticism, and "new simplicity". The Vasks is warm and consonant, grandly swelling to a full-blown, exultant celebration of the summer air in between drowsy, tender opening and closing episodes. The three of Sørensen's 12 Nocturnes are entirely without the composer’s sometimes unorthodox sonic effects, and inhabit a world of chromatic romanticism. Thoresen's Invocations are very Impressionistic, with dazzling pianistic textures sparkling in the luminous heights of the piano's highest register, over a light-drenched undulating landscape. Þorvaldsdóttir employs a wide range of remarkable sonoristic extended techniques (the only composer here to do so) in her typically awe-inspiring Scape, combining a sense of vast scale with a photographically rendered precision of natural details and textures. Ieva Jokubaviciute (piano).