The aesthetic marriage of a composer facing death, Janus-like as ever, and a performer who was his frequent muse – the suites are dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich - yields music of uncommon contemplation.
Rarely have such superficially simple raw materials -- in this case three Russian folk melodies and the Byzantine chant for the dead from the Russian Orthodox liturgy -- provided such nourishing manna. The composer treads an historical path as a Moebius strip and in so doing takes both listener and performer on a spiritual pilgrimage.
Jason Calloway