Audiophile Audition

ELENA RUEHR: LIFT – Chamber Music by Elena Ruehr: Lift; Second Violin Sonata; Klein Suite; Adrienne and Amy; Prelude Variations; The Scarlatti Effect — Irina Muresanu, violin/ Jennifer Kloetzel, cello/Sarah Bob, piano/ Ethan Eilner, viola — Avie AV2319, 67:31 [Distr. by Allegro] ****:

This collection of recent (1997 to 2012) chamber music by Elena Ruehr is a glorious-sounding and exquisitely performed disc. The reproduction is a perfect combination of detail and reverberation that is mesmerizing. As I mentioned in a previous review of an orchestral disc of music by this Guggenheim fellow, the music here is full of resplendent melodies that she describes as “the most complex and human of musical experiences.” Her background as a dancer provides her music with a rhythmic pulse, yet there’s depth here. “The idea is that the surface be simple, the structure complex,” she explains. READ MORE

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