'Life', for bass-baritone and five instruments, is a chamber opera for single singer. Built around a brief, dense montage of texts drawn fromm Macbeth, it is indeed a highly theatrical work. 'The girl with silver hands' is an instrumental suite (with the addition of a trio for the final number). The piece concludes with a vocal trio, more definitely tonal, whose panting rhythmic recitation seems incesantly to defer an expected resolution. Like a continuous breath that never comes to an end... 'Wanderlied' was born of an old fascination for Schumann's 'Dichertliebe', his cycle of songs on a poet's love. The final piece on the CD, 'Praise of Secrecy', is a duo for piano and violin. Here once more we find ourselves in a post-Romantic climate of tension and anxiety where two instruments sing alongside one another.
