Violent mood swings follow lyrical interludes, with the overall musical canvas punctuated by colorful gestures.
Using dynamic extremes from ppp to ffff, Mr. Boreyko effectively contrasted the soft, lyrical interludes with the violent eruptions.
Unsurprisingly, it is grandly operatic, full of soaring melodies, triumphant climaxes, lyrical interludes and rigorous contrapuntal writing.
Ms. Parnas negotiated this minefield with assurance and vigor, but she also seized the opportunities offered by this changeable score's lyrical interludes and fleeting touches of humor.
In the monumental 30-minute first movement, which alternates between tumultuous frenzy and lyrical interludes, Alkan requires the brave pianist to be both soloist and orchestra.
Passages that, in other recordings, seemed merely warm, here burst forth like Rachmaninoff, and lyrical interludes sang with a glittering urban melancholy, like a Rhapsody in Gray — all the while luxuriating in the ambiguous and intricate tonalities.
Recordings of church bells and Islamic calls to prayer were woven into a vibrant tapestry of urgent, sinister passages with insistent rhythms, lyrical interludes, raucous folk melodies and microtonal whispers.
The musical spotlight then shifted to Buenos Aires with "El Cerezo" ('The Cherry Tree"), by the Argentine composer Fernando Otero, which blended tango-infused lyrical interludes into a sometimes dissonant canvas.
It is cast in three colossal acts, each of a different character: a sequence of chorales with recitatives and lyrical interludes; a vast scherzo, lulling and brutal by turns; and a wrenching adagio finale, which resolves its contradictions in a state of blissful exhaustion.
