…into all crevices of my world

It’s been imprisoned, dropped, burned, buried, drowned, and force-fed. Needless to say, the piano has had a pretty rough life. But now in the 21st century, it seems composers are letting up a bit, allowing the instrument a little breathing room to recuperate from its decidedly tumultuous past. The ten piano compositions featured on Jeri-Mae G. Astolfi’s latest CD, Mélange, reinforce the trend of strictly keeping the fingers right where they belong: on the keyboard. But not all of the music sits up straight with its hands folded. Take Craig Weston’s …into all crevices of my world, with its timbre-bending digital accompaniment. After the opening gesture floats in your ears, lush reminisces of Debussy are soon dashed by odd bell-like tinkles that echo the piano, only in a slightly different tuning. At first I thought it might simply be a prepared piano piece, but then an eerie veil crept in, an impossible sustain hovering over repeated piano gestures. Weston’s piece is about establishing a vivid atmosphere, not virtuosic flash, although there is a little bit of that too in the music’s final climax.

—RN