The Puerto Rican-born Roberto Sierra has integrated Caribbean influences and Euro-American modernism in his work, seemingly a tall order, and his music deserves wider exposure. The proportions may vary, and here the Puerto Rican rhythms are most evident in the Clarinet Sonata, whose difficult outer movements are dispatched with notable aplomb by clarinetist Moran Katz. The other two works, which here receive their recorded premieres, are quite unusual. Both consist of sequences of short movements that denote abstract ...
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The Puerto Rican-born Roberto Sierra has integrated Caribbean influences and Euro-American modernism in his work, seemingly a tall order, and his music deserves wider exposure. The proportions may vary, and here the Puerto Rican rhythms are most evident in the Clarinet Sonata, whose difficult outer movements are dispatched with notable aplomb by clarinetist Moran Katz. The other two works, which here receive their recorded premieres, are quite unusual. Both consist of sequences of short movements that denote abstract patterns, and both might be regarded as having visual inspiration, although Sierra suggests that the "object" in the Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto (Thirty-Three Ways to Look at the Same Object) is a six-note pattern. The semi-serial procedure is typical of Sierra's music, but it may incorporate passages with clear tonal centers, and listeners are never at a loss as to where they are. The 11 sections of Kandinsky each refer to specific paintings by that Russian abstract...
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