Because Karen Amrhein composes in a straightforward and unpretentious manner with an aim toward practicality and intelligibility, many of her chamber pieces resemble Hindemith's Gebrauchsmusik in their directness, yet often seem epigrammatic in their conciseness. On her 2003 album Still Life, Amrhein's lean, utilitarian style is best represented by her numerous short sonatas for solo instruments and piano, which are compact essays for equal partners, as indicated in the titles (Trumpet and Piano Sonata, Violin and Piano Sonata, etc.) However, Amrhein reveals a more relaxed, neo-Romantic side in Event Horizon for clarinet and chamber orchestra, and in the Hamilton Street Concerto for guitar and orchestra; lushly interpreted by clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, guitarist Oscar López Plaza, and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kirk Trevor, these pieces are expansive and substantial works, and quite accessible in their open tonality and vibrant color. The String Quartet No. 1, rather dryly played by violinists Nicholas Currie and Asako Kuboki, violist Catherine Frey, and cellist Todd Thiel, is an extremely concentrated work that makes its points simply, without extraneous effects or showiness. The Missa humanis, sung by the SRSO's chorus, is the most assertively modernist work on the program, and may remind some listeners of Charles Ives' audacious choral music in its pugnacious rhythms and harmonic complexity. MMC's sound quality is generally fine, though slightly uneven due to the different venues. ~ Blair Sanderson, Rovi
