Elena Ruehr: Winter Night [CD]

A proliferation of programmatic music infuses Winter Night, composer Elena Ruehr's seventh release on AVIE, the result of a particularly close collaboration with the international members of the Boston Trio - violinist Irina Muresanu and cellist Mihai Marica, both Romanians, and Korean pianist Heng-Jin Park -who are joined by native New Yorker violist Marcus Thompson in Elena's piano quartet. Emotions, energy and the natural world abound in the world premiere recordings of the album's four works. The title track, Elena's Piano Trio No. 3, is a four-movement narrative that is by turns lyrical, graceful and melodic. The joyful Piano Trio No. 4, subtitled 'Ski, Kayak, Bike', recalls childhood sports enjoyed with her father, the work's dedicatee. The three movements of Piano Trio No. 5, 'Troubled Times', confront emotional responses to challenging personal circumstances, yet also seem especially appropriate now given the state of the world's current events. Piano Quartet No. 2, 'Maple', is an homage to an ancient tree that has stood the tests of time, much like the Stradivarius instruments that were made using the beautiful, dense wood. Elena's music appropriately references composers working at the same time as the famed luthier, Bach, Pachelbel and Vivaldi.