Luca Quintavalle - Musicke: The Art of Muses, harpsichord music by contemporary female Composers (2022)

A transcontinental exhibition of modern female composers writing for the harpsichord in a dazzling array of styles, featuring many first recordings.
Ursula Mamlok’s Three Bagatelles are miniatures characterized by a free application of serial technique, courting expressionist parallels with rhetorical, concentrated gestures. In Tumbáo, Tania Leon uses a string bass pattern from her native Cuba without being confined to a specifically Latin style in its development. Graciane Finzi’s Espressivo evokes Romanticism (the period when the harpsichord almost disappeared from view) and could even be heard as an evocation of Chopin, but for a complementary tape part featuring a second, detuned harpsichord.
Karola Obermüller composed the Suite des femmages as a set of tributes to both the composer Ruth Crawford Seeger and Obermüller's own mother, Barbara, and they are accordingly imbued with a ferocity and a bracing power which reflects her admiration for both the women and their accomplishments. Errolyn Wallen dedicated Louis’ Loop to her infant godson, and there is a playful quality to the juxtaposition of frenetic activity with oases of peace, where echoes of the past resurface poetically and sometimes with subtle irony.
Tracklist
[02:07] 01. Luca Quintavalle - Fire Waltz - Homage to Béla Bartók
[00:45] 02. Luca Quintavalle - Three Bagatelles: I. Grazioso
[01:06] 03. Luca Quintavalle - Three Bagatelles: II. Very Calm
[01:18] 04. Luca Quintavalle - Three Bagatelles: III. Playful
[02:48] 05. Luca Quintavalle - Tumbáo
[07:49] 06. Luca Quintavalle - Espressivo
[03:00] 07. Luca Quintavalle - Suite des Femmages: I. Tolling
[00:43] 08. Luca Quintavalle - Suite des Femmages: II. Thundering
[01:14] 09. Luca Quintavalle - Suite des Femmages: III. Piercing
[01:22] 10. Luca Quintavalle - Suite des Femmages: IV. Fast
[04:23] 11. Luca Quintavalle - Louis' Loop
[13:26] 12. Luca Quintavalle - Mira
[07:13] 13. Luca Quintavalle - Impressions
[16:14] 14. Luca Quintavalle - Ritorno Perpetuo
[13:19] 15. Luca Quintavalle - Moebius-Ring