At 75, the American composer, conductor, and scholar Gunther Schuller is one of the world's most hyperactive musicians. These three chamber music works show him at the peak of his creative activity. Written for the unusual combination of bassoon, string quartet, and piano, the Sextet (1986) starts in a dark, tense mood "à la Schnittke", to end with a light, vivacious, jazzy toccata. In between, the instrumental timbres intertwine to create a densely chromatic harmonic texture of great effect, somewhat reminiscent of Schoenberg, and the bassoon finds space in the slow movement to sing a lament-like melody. Surprisingly--as the guitar isn't exactly the best-suited instrument for this kind of exercise--the same taste for full-bodied sonorities and complex polyphony is at work in the Fantasy-Suite for solo guitar (1994), where Schuller cleverly quotes the Forlane from Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin for piano. The composer's perfectly idiomatic writing, combined with David Starobin's astonishing virtuosity, make this work into a little masterpiece. Finally, the Duologue for violin and piano (1981) displays a tasty blend of Szymanowskian refinement and voluptuousness with humorous, motoric drive. A short conversation between the composer and David Starobin completes this important release, which is as well recorded as it is authoritatively performed.

--Luca Sabbatini