Teirstein, A: Open Strings (Naxos Audio CD)

• Andy Teirstein’s background in movement theater (he spent one winter in Mexico performing as a musical clown) have given him an inimical perspective on the dramatic possibilities of composition.

• The works heard here translate theatrical physicality into a variety of musical impulses, drawing inspiration from Balkan, Gypsy and Jewish influences, the music of Bartók and Schoenberg, and setting the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish and Robert Service.

• The results juxtapose folk and new-music styles in a series of compelling and highly satisfying scenarios.