It Is My Heart Singing

Cassatt String Quartet; Stephen Manes, piano

You know those placards you sometimes find conspicuously posted outside theaters and amusement park rides: warning, strobe lights in use. Perhaps this CD should caution its listeners about the vertigo effect induced by Tina Davidson’s music. Her minuscule melodies transform into never-ending expanses of blurry lines creating an exquisite tangle. These knotty vistas twirl and hover in space, keeping the listener three feet off the ground. The composer commands the rapturous experience like an expert snake charmer.

—RN