<<  -- 4 --  Peter Dickinson    STYLE-MODULATION

By the seventh variation some of the references have been expanded and there's more information than before but the listener's associations are still being attractively exploited. That Vaughan Williams connection seems to remain and there's even some hymn-book harmony [listen -- track 8, 0:00-1:03].

The last variation is the longest and for some four minutes seems to be summing things up. Here's a curious passage where a violin throws a tantrum and the other players react [listen -- track 9, 1:49-2:41].

Towards the end things go quiet and the Bellagio Variations return spookily to some of the unanswered questions of earlier parts of the work. Again there's no doubt of the complete dedication of the players in the Kreutzer Quartet who understand the idiom completely. The CD is decently recorded too.

To explore this fascinating composer further see two all-Schwartz CDs -- Equinox on New World Records 8-52-2, which I reviewed here two years ago, and Dream Music, chamber works of Elliott Schwartz on Capstone CPS 8633.

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