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This enterprising program of new piano works is a mélange indeed, including Andrian Pertrout’s expressive ‘Song of Augmentation’, based on augmented chords and Golden Mean proportions; John Blair’s ‘Parallax’, improvised at the piano in a recital, then transcribed by popular demand; Edward Knight’s cool, abstract Prelude and Toccata, written when he was 20; Pui-shan Cheung’s ‘Lotus Pond’, a musical manifestation of Zen; Paul Dickenson’s stinging, virtuosic Suite of Piano, which concludes with a diabolical fugue; Daniel Adam’s ‘Between Stillness and Motion’, a study in extreme contrasts written in 2004 for the pianist here, Jeri-Mae G. Astolfi; Craig Weston’s sensuous ‘Into All Crevices of My World’, evoking a William Carlos Williams poem; and Arthur Gottschalk’s 12-tone but weirdly charming ‘Fakebook 1’-riffs on Erroll Garner, Thelonius Monk and George Shearing. The loveliest music is John C. Ross’s simple, lyrical Prelude and Caprice, full of fluid rhythm and seductive harmony. The program cleverly concludes with Phillip Schroeder’s ‘Wrap It Up’, a mischievous “ender” written for Astolfi. (Schroeder also produced and engineered the excellent recording). The notes don’t mention it, but the Adams and Weston pieces have quavery, surreal sounds that are surely electronic.

Unlike many contemporary piano music programs that perpetrate dreary, interchangeable specimens of academicism expressionism, this one is adventurous and varied. The Canadian pianist Jeri-Mae G. Astolfi plays with wit and panache, her readings greatly enhanced by the gorgeous sound (especially in the Pertout and Ross pieces) of a Bösendorfer recorded at Henderson State University in Arkansas, obviously a superior venue. This is one of Capstone’s best modern piano releases.

– SULLIVAN