To avoid the staid patterns of homophonic music, which he felt hindered his development of a fluid atonal style, George Benjamin has devised techniques that place independent voices in striking linear relationships, almost wholly divorced from notions of harmonic movement. The work that best represents Benjamin's advanced theories is Shadowlines (2001), a series of six highly complex canonic preludes for piano, dedicated to and premiered on this disc by Pierre-Laurent Aimard. The constant counterpoint is propulsive and ...
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To avoid the staid patterns of homophonic music, which he felt hindered his development of a fluid atonal style, George Benjamin has devised techniques that place independent voices in striking linear relationships, almost wholly divorced from notions of harmonic movement. The work that best represents Benjamin's advanced theories is Shadowlines (2001), a series of six highly complex canonic preludes for piano, dedicated to and premiered on this disc by Pierre-Laurent Aimard. The constant counterpoint is propulsive and flowing, though its imitative subjects are elaborately concealed and difficult to hear. The duet Viola, Viola (1997), energetically performed by Tabea Zimmermann and Antoine Tamestit, is also cast in a linear fashion, though the use of multi-stopped textures makes the lines seem densely woven and more harmonically layered than contrapuntal. Less coherently laid out are the Studies (3) for solo piano (1982-1985) and the student Piano Sonata (1979), which are performed here by the...
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