THE CD:
THE PERFORMER: Andrew Russo doing the music of John Corigliano
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Andrew Russo, who made a memorable debut with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra in February, has a new recording of the piano music of John Corigliano, who has gotten some play in Charleston.

In the 1990's, flutist James Galway played his "Pied Piper Fantasy" and classical guitarist Sharon Isbin played his "Troubadors" with the orchestra. Those pieces are populist landmarks, kaleidoscopic and engaging. Russo's album of Corigliano’s piano music features some more serious fare, though there is nothing remotely dry or off-putting in it, even if one piece seems scary (more on that in a bit).

The crowd pleaser here is the Sonata for Violin and Piano, the early work that launched Corigliano's career in the 1960s. Violinist Corey Cerovsek, who also appeared with the WVSO this season, joins Russo. Together, they bring an old-style magnetism to the music. Their timbres are abundant and multi-hued; textures are clean and vibrant. The music of the three fast movements -- think jubilant, rhythmic energy -- is vivacious while the lyricism in the slow one is downright attractive.

Russo offers penetrating accounts of the "Etude Fantasy," five pieces reminiscent of the serious work of Copland with a Rachmaninov chaser, and the "Fantasia on an Ostinato." The Fantasia uses a fragment of the slow movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony to spin a minimalist web. Russo's performance is haunting, intense and luminous.

For the apparently scary, the pianist Steven Heyman joins Russo on "Chiaroscuro," a piece for two pianos tuned a quarter step apart. Tuning two pianos in quartertones breaks the half step intervals to yield 24 steps in an octave -- spread over the two instruments. The notion is over 100 years old, so don't get dragged down by a notion of "new music is scary."

In Corigliano's piece, the effect yields a jangling world of sound, but you don't really notice the odd tunings in the short opening piece, which is a kind of fanfare that sets up the odd sounds. The middle movement reveals a melody that descends through the 24-note scale, to surprising effect, although with a slight giggle quotient. The finale is a brilliant Bartokian fantasia on the "Old One-Hundredth Psalm Tune." In the capable hands of Russo and Heyman, it sounds clangorous and exhilarating and ultimately, if clandestinely, beautiful.

--- By David Williams