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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.

This promotes the notion that all of Moto Perpetuo is well and good. 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.
One assumes the capable additional musicians were drawn (in 2012) from an area served by the sizeable recording venue: Philadelphia’s Rose Recital Hall in Fisher Bennet Hall.

Andrew March was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire and studied composition with Jeremy Dale Roberts at the Royal College of Music, London, gaining BMus Hons in 1996. His three movement work for solo cello begins with a ruminative opening followed by a periodically interrupted moto perpetuo. Finally March comes into his own with a reflective movement of considerable substance.

Listen — Andrew March: To Reflect in a Quiet Spot
(track 3, 5:34-6:29) © 2013 Navona Records LLC
Greg Bartholomew studied piano at Cornish College of the Arts and trombone at John Muir Elementary School before earning degrees from the College of William & Mary in Virginia and the University of Washington. His melodious Idyll, a duo with flute titled Beneath the Apple Tree has distinct echoes of Aaron Copland.

Alan Beeler is represented with three seperate works: a four movement ‘Dance Suite’ (tracks 5-8), a four movement work based on Italian tempo expressions (tracks 9-12) and Variations on Re-Do-Mi. Through Beeler’s tracks 5-12, no movement last over two minutes. The Variations are spun out to an impressive three and a half minutes.

Beeler completed his graduate study in theory and composition at Washington University receiving an MA and PhD. He studied composition with Robert Wykes, Robert Baker, and Harold Blumenfeld, theory with Leigh Gerdine, and musicology with Lincoln Bunce Spiess and Paul Amadeus Pisk.
Later he taught music theory, composition and oboe at Washington University and Eastern Kentucky University, where he was Professor of Music Theory and Composition. His many compositions include works for solo piano, chorus, chamber ensemble, string orchestra, full orchestra, and voice.
Bill Sherrill, born in Alabama, is a record producer and arranger, famous for his association with country artists, notably Tammy Wynette and George Jones. Sherrill and business partner Glenn Sutton are regarded as the defining influences of the countrypolitan sound, a smooth amalgamation of pop and country music popular in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s.

Sherrill’s Divertimento for Strings is a notably satisfying piece of easy quintet writing — ideal as a encore to some weightier ensemble item.
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’.

Listen — Arthur Gottschalk: RJ (In Memoriam)
(track 17, 1:57-2:51) © 2013 Navona Records LLC :
Nicholas Ascioti, born in Syracuse, New York, attended the College of St Rose in Albany, New York, where he graduated in composition and conducting. Subsequently the College of Saint Rose has performed his music and sponsored an entire evening of his works.
Listen — Nicholas Ascioti: Adirondack Meditation
(track 18, 4:31-5:52) © 2013 Navona Records LLC :
He earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in composition from Bennington College in Vermont. Many of his works, such as the Credo song cycle for voice and guitar, Four Memories (for piano and chamber orchestra) and String Quartet No 2 have been premiered at Bennington College.
Ascioti’s six minute trio Adirondack Meditation is presumably inspired by the ecologically rich mountainous area in upstate New York and it conjures up that pleasing land ideally.