I’m amazed, but then not really surprised, at a wonderful collection like this with the absence of any 12-tone or serial music. [From the editor: Piotr Grella- Mozejko's Organigami (Music for Aysha) is written in twelve-tone technique from start to end.] It just shows how far music has come in 30 years. I’m not lamenting that for I feel that our post-modern era is a good and welcome change. That said, I need to point out that I’m not so sure there’s any quickie definition of what “post-modernism” means. To me it is a mix of do whatever you want to do, with possibilities for neo-this, neo-that, collage, superimpositions, quoting, recalling or paraphrasing earlier music, and an open-ended return or re-thinking of tonality. The works here on Devil’s Dance certainly bear out various of these traits.

What is not vague or indefinable here is the terrific playing of the Warszynski Trio. I first heard the trio live a few years ago on the October Revolution series put on by ECCS in a concert featuring, I believe, most of the works here. At that time talk of a CD was in progress. I’m so pleased that it has finally materialized because of the quality of the playing, performances and compositions. Tatiana’s warm tone coupled with her attention to the details needed to play and understand contemporary music is very refreshing. Ever since I heard the complaint in university about the Hindemith instrumental sonatas being more difficult for the pianist than the soloist reminds me that even here Mikolaj’s piano playing is stellar. That’s a lot of notes to learn! Very impressive and I just want to be sure he’s singled out as a co-partner and not just the supporting role.

Going in order compositionally, the CD’s title track is Ron Hannah’s witty Devil’s Dance for violin and piano. It is an ABA in form and tempi (F-S-F) and its rhythmic bounce makes for a great beginning. It tells me that this CD is going to be fun, peppery, tuneful and not afraid to look back from where we came or forward to wherever it is we are headed.

Monte Keene Pishny-Floyd’s short violin solo Gavotte and Musette continues the fun by recalling the older dances particularly in rhythm, but also in that special drone quality of the musette. Is the musette a kind of proto-minimalist music? I think so. To my knowledge Pishny-Floyd never succumbed to hyper complex, avant-garde or other experimentalisms, but remained true to a traditional, tonally-based sound world. Over the years he’s perfected that into an always user-friendly, and I say that with all intended flattery, and communicative style.

Thom Golub’s piece brings up my major caveat with this CD. No, his music is fine. But there are no explanatory notes for the works themselves, only short bios on the composers. So you may see me stretching here to make a connection or “guess” as to the meaning of something herein. Case in point is Thom’s chromatic pan asia (note: lower case is his) fifth movement of this quasi six-movement “suite.” I played it a few times and just don’t get the idea of the title. Notes would help here particularly as this movement is the longest of the set by a factor of two. His Shostakovich movement (4th) is a no-brainer and the reference to the great Russian is unmistakable right from its first bar. I love miniatures as these; they make their point and never outstay their welcome.

With Jacek Sobieraj’s Les imponderables for violin and piano there is a marvellous merging, allow me to say, slithering feel to this neat work as it effortlessly slides into and out a Bach groove. A Quote, perhaps. Program notes again. OK, I admit it. I do not know every work of the master. Jacek’s slow introduction, mostly for solo violin leads one to expect a meditative work. I mention it as an ‘introduction” because it seems to set-up what follows, but actually it’s about a third of the work so it can rightly be the first section of this 3-part work. Regardless, this eventually shifts to the faster, louder, rhythmically stricter middle section. A more moderate and very effectively done contrapuntal interplay between the two instruments concludes the work, coming to rest as it does in the minor key.

The two longest, single movement works follow next. Erin Rogers’s solo violin work, The Shape of Things, is a brilliant tour de force of a display piece, virtuosic, yet gripping, and not in the least virtuosic for just the sake of showiness. I do feel that flavour of 12-tone music here, even though I don’t think the work actually is composed that way. But it shares with it the highly disjunct melodic writing and that peculiar nervousness that characterizes so much 12-tone music. Along with my Microduet No. 8 it is the most “retro” modern of the works here. It is also strategically placed in the album tracks to provide a stark contrast to the more tonal works. Tension in the raw and I like it.

Scott Edward Godin’s 3a for the full trio highlights one of the strong points of Tatiana and Joanna’s technique: their effortlessness in grabbing all those high notes, sustaining them and making a smooth blend between themselves. Without a score, I can’t tell “who’s on first”, but that’s a tribute to the effective writing for the two violins. Their intermingling so high in the range create a very beautiful, call it nocturnal, ambience. The piano compliments the texture with sparse, arabesque-type figurations. A short, but well-prepared climax occurs around the 2/3rds mark to remind us that this is not a static work and that a forward, albeit slow, momentum is very much in the picture here.

I hope Grella-Mozejko doesn’t mind that I found the first movement of his three-movement Organigami reminiscent of Messiaen’s Quatuor. The modal usage and the unison lines took me straight to the Danse de la fureur. I think that post-modern paraphrase/borrowing notion is here. Don’t get me wrong, though, Like Golub’s Shostakovich movement and Jacek’s Bach innuendos, it’s not the whole piece. The paraphrase, reminiscence, or however you want to term it, is interwoven into a distinctly new piece. When it’s done skilfully as here, we can do no more than say “go for it.” No one accused Schubert’s Great C Major Symphony finale for “recalling” the Ode to Joy. If I’m really off base here I plead mea culpa without those program liner notes. Piotr’s second movement lives up to its title/tempo indication. This central movement eloquently breathes mystery, delicateness and hesitation, to which I’d also add a haunting and plaintive lyricism. The Quasi Swing finale finds jazz references mainly in the walking bass line of the piano. However, this walking bass gradually progresses into the treble only to start over twice more, each time with differing surroundings. The violin part is super-saturated with trills. All this abandon culminates into a big accelerando to the finish.

Stephen Chatman’s In Memoriam Harry Adaskin is in the main a penetrating elegy for prepared piano and violin. The piano is prepared in such a way as to have it sound like deep bells or tuned gongs reminiscent of the gamelan. Tatiana really gets to present her warm, lyrical playing with a sumptuous, meandering melodic line. The middle section features some repetition in the piano part while still maintaining the lyricism in the violin. This then merges into a highly tonal section recalling the early 19th century – a quote, perhaps. Without a specific frame of reference it’s a little too gentile for me, yet soon enough the texture weaves back to the introductory colours.

The four-movement Conspectus for two violins and piano by George Andrix has a certain neo-conservatism about it, even in its titles: Prelude, Fugue, Interlude and Toccata. I state this as a positive trait. By themselves the four movements go their own ways, but I never felt this spoiled any sense of unity within the work as a whole. The prelude uses minimalist gestures in a sprightly tempo, while the Fugue has a strong jazz-inflected subject. No improvising, but the swing’s the thing. (Hope that doesn’t sound too corny, George.) Seriously, I love the result. The Interlude features delicately nuanced melodic lines in the two violins, not strictly contrapuntal, but each in their own direction yet still woven together. The Toccata has echoes of J. S. Bach wandering in and out of George’s highly active counterpoint (sorry J.S. if I couldn’t name this one either). Late Baroque echoes or not, it’s a neat capstone finale to show off both the talents of the performers and the composer.

The final work on the CD is my own Microduet No. 8 (Armistice Music) for violin and tam tam. CoI (conflict of interest) prevents me from too much commentary or appraisal. Suffice it to say that Grella-Mozejko’s quasi aleatoric tam-tam part is carried out in such a way that as Hannah’s Devil’ s Dance said of this CD: “Listen to me,” the final music here says: “Stay tuned for more” from these fine performers. Great disc everyone. Thanks from all of us.

Michael S. Horwood