Alexis Descharmes (cello) Aeon AECD 1089

Swiss composer Klaus Huber (born 1924) has a fondness for sounds that are ethereal and unorthodox. The Purcell- derived plaintive descents that open the four-cello version of Ein Hauch von Unzeit VIII (1972), a “lament on the loss of musical reflection” (here evocatively multi-tracked by Alexis Descharmes) develop almost floating relationships that are thoroughly modern. Lazarus (1978) subtitled “crumbs” for cello and piano, has pianist Sébastien Vichard working directly on the piano’s strings. The brief Rauhe Pinselspitze (The Hard Tip of the Paintbrush, 1992) pits cello pizzicato against a Korean drum, the buk (played by Jean-Baptiste Leclère), . . . . ruhe sanft . . . (in memoriam John Cage) (1992) features four cellos over a background of the sounds of breathing and the name John. The early (1954) Partita for cello and harpsichord is like the work of a different, altogether more conventional composer. See descharmes.com