The Devil in the Flesh

Album review

The richly chromatic harmonies and vaporous melodic shapes in Jay Reise's piano music may well bring Alexander Scriabin to mind, but so, too, do the strikingly complex cross-rhythms and frenzied passage work on display in the Sonata Rhythmikosmos (1993, revised 2001) and the Pictures (6) from The Devil in the Flesh (1998-2001). Reise could not have chosen a better exemplar than Scriabin for his depiction of eroticism and madness in Pictures (6), yet the Russian composer's influence is most telling in the Sonata. Reise's study of overlapping rhythms is philosophically linked to cycles in nature and the movements of the spheres, and hearkens back to the mystical aspirations of Scriabin's late works. This music is ideally suited to the virtuosic skills and explosive dynamics of Marc-André Hamelin, who approaches Reise's keyboard works with a thorough appreciation of his expressive intentions and technical demands. A softer tone is established in the pensive Yellowstone Rhythms for bassoon and piano (1994), a lyrical work played with art song simplicity by bassoonist Charles Ullery and Hamelin. Satori for soprano and piano (1995) turns inward as a quiet meditation on the teachings of mystical monk Damien Kongressi. Soprano Jody Karin Applebaum and Hamelin deliver this mysterious work with austerity and extreme control. Albany's recording is fine.

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