And now for something completely, but completely, different. British composer Gavin Bryars describes in his liner notes for this CD, discussing Glen Gould's concept of 'Radio as Music' with Spanish sculptor Juan Munoz. In 1992 they collaborated on a series of 'radio pieces' that eventually became 'A Man In A Room, Gambling.' The purpose was to create music out of monologues formatted as 5-minute radio segments, tied together with precise conventions such as the introduction and closing for the segments, and identical tempos for the accompanying music.

The pieces quickly take on the familiar, comforting, disembodied daydreaming associated with listening to a daily radio program while bemused with your personal thoughts. The music propels the monologues forward with sad inevitability as the narrator describes how to manipulate and cheat at cards ("…we prefer to call them artifices"). One need not actually follow the lectures or understand gambling. The modulation of the voice itself becomes part of the music and ones attention turns on and off, at times accepting the sardonic humor intrinsic to the text, at times bemusedly wandering.

The whole thing succeeds brilliantly and has become one of my most played 'mood' discs. The supporting pieces are all instrumental and move forward, like Gambling, in a sighing, oblique manner. Bryars is one of my favorite modern composers and a true original.

- Russell Novak

- Russell Novak

The standard repertoire is well known. It is a bit obvious to recommend Rubenstein playing Chopin, and though I will eventually survey the best performances of well-known compositions, for the present I have a yen to focus on new music. There is that reason and the fact that I am a sucker for large, expansive, empty-landscaped, mystical, lonely, and spiritual 20th Century classical composition.

Kancheli (1935 - ) is one of the best in that regard. Here is Rostropovich speaking of Kancheli and his composition "Simi": "In Georgian 'Simi' means string. A trembling string. A string of the soul. And since we are speaking about one string that may break, it is a very personal, sacred, organic piece.

"Olivier Messiaen revealed for me the endlessness of time. The same is true for Giya Kancheli. One should play his music as slowly as humanly possible. For only then does the music flood into the river-bed and fulfill it's impact. The pauses in Kancheli's music are not defined; their length is up to the performer… I love this composer for his idiosyncrasy and independence. His natural element is the deepest sorrow."

Rostropovich plays superbly and sensitively on this CD, judging those pauses with perfection, carrying a reoccurring melody (at 6:29 into the piece that sounds for all the world like a fragment of the popular song "I'll Be Seeing You") so slowly, one is amazed it doesn't fall apart.

"Magnum Ignotum" begins with Gregorian-like chanting. The wind instruments gradually interweave themselves, then taped polyphonic Gurian song enters as the piece builds to a climax. Finally, a Russian hymn quietly brings the piece to silence - one of the major tools in Kancheli's mystic arsenal.

Sound is excellent, as all the ECM recordings are: large, reverberant, with well judged tonal balance. It's audiophile quality and a trance-inducing experience.

- Russell Novak

This is 20th Century music with a long line of development throughout the piece. If one is looking for quick resolution of simple melodies, go elsewhere. It is intensely contemplative, slightly dissonant in passages, compelling on re-hearing for the accumulating intelligence of the composer’s vision.

Messiaen was a devout Catholic who sought to capture the Christian vision in music. He used birds and bird song as intermediaries to heaven – an imperfect vision of God on earth. In this, his last work, Messiaen uses bird song, specifically the Lyrebird to summarize all that has gone before in his devotional compositions, in 11 illuminations or visions of increasing clarity, climaxing in a mesmerizing “Christ, Light Of Paradise.”

Messiaen writes: “After death, in the necessary stage of purification that precedes the final vision of God, one no longer remembers the joys and grief’s of present life. One only remembers one’s good and bad deeds. I will then be deeply upset by all the wrong I have done. But I will also rejoice in all the good I may have done, and that memory will gradually and at last enable me to perceive the invisible.”

There are two major recordings of this work. The Antoni Wit recording on Jade will appeal to audiophiles. It is live, in fact the premiere recording of the work, well balanced orchestrally, and captures the hall’s sound. There is barely anything to criticize in the performance and it in fact communicates the wonderment of discovery. Yet, lovers of tight ensembles and fine shadings of small details may prefer the Myung-Whun Chung DG studio session. The DG sound is good, but not quite up to their latest recordings.

- Russell Novak

OK, enough hyperbole. These are beautiful ensemble performances, expertly arranged by Carlos Franzetti and superbly recorded by Chesky. It is the Chesky release of greatest artistic merit and certainly the most romantic. Other Latin American forms and rhythms are here also and the music is presented with a formal salon style atmosphere, large spacious and reverberant, dreamy and spontaneous.

All the performers expertly solo, but none are featured. If there is one unifying sound, it is the piano and acoustic bass, captured with just the right amount of bloom to give a lilt to the proceedings. They appear and disappear throughout the CD in-between the other soloists to unify your memories. If you remember the girl, at odd moments, through half closed eyes, this is your CD.