Breaking Waves [CD]

Three works by three women composers from threedifferent countries, each piece with it's own originalidiom, are performed here by the OstrobothnianChamber Orchestra under the direction of it's dynamicconductor and artistic director Malin Broman. Threeworks that assuredly deserve a wider audience!The Sea Sketches by Welsh composer Grace Williamsopen the programme. Inspired by the beaches ofGlamorganshire and by it's seascape, this five-movementwork seems in constant motion and evolution. One canpractically taste the salt spray and feel the power of thewaves.The second work is Grazyna Bacewicz's Fourth StringQuartet, played here in an arrangement for stringorchestra. Bacewicz was an important figure on thePolish music scene in the mid-20th century, and herquartet is an approachable work - something that hasundoubtedly contributed to making it her best-knowncomposition - with influences of folk music and passageswhich, according to Malin Broman, can only bedescribed as heavenly.Vienna-born Johanna Muller-Hermann's String Quartet,also in an arrangement for string orchestra, concludesthe programme. Exciting, beautiful and powerful, thiswork with it's post-romantic language is a testimony tothe golden age of Vienna, when the music of Mahler,Strauss and her teacher Zemlinsky reigned supreme.