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The label note writer tells us ‘Moto Perpetuo’ represents the classical landscape as a whole. He/she continues:
These compositions are bound by the cello’s simultaneous steadfastness and adaptability as well as the composers’ shared ability to seize and control the instruments’ expressive timbre and range. The nine works enable Marinescu to prove the cello’s ability to connect the slow and brooding with the meditative and joyous — and beyond.

You should decide. Each of these composers can undeniably point to an impressive musical portfolio. Furthermore Navona Records draws attention to its digital inclusion of study notes, scores, video and extended liner notes for those ‘wot want them’.

Personally I find the programme a curious one with the individual composers appearing awkwardly side by side. However Marinescu has performed as a widely praised guest throughout Bohemia, the Balkans, Russia and North America and he appears to have the measure of each work on offer here.

Arthur Gottschalk was born in California and raised in the Northeastern United States. He attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor as a student in Pre-Med, but after two years he switched to the study of music, receiving a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Composition, a Master of Arts degree in Music Composition and his Doctorate in Music Composition, studying with William Bolcom, Ross Lee Finney, and Leslie Bassett. He is currently a Professor in Music Theory and Composition at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, and chaired the department until 2010.

The Gottschalk Sonata ‘In Memoriam’ for cello and piano has a troubled opening movement followed by a consoling central movement: here pianist Janet Ahlquist comes to the fore. The final movement is shot through with ‘pain’.