Reviews

• Were it not for the solidly non- and nearly atonal harmonic language, one could imagine Denisov's Peinture from 1970 as being a work by Debussy or Ravel, which, given the work's French title and the composer's involvement in the French language at the time, may not be an accident. Other parts of Peinture, particularly those in which the composer mobilizes a pointillistic shower of bell and vibraphone timbres, suggest a much more recent French composer, Pierre Boulez. Alban Berg also comes to mind here and there. And yet when this generally placid work reaches its climax, the listener can definitely sense the composer's Russian origins, particularly at the moment when, after a buildup of almost Shostakovian intensity, the low brass announce a dramatic theme over a timpani roll and chime....Strongly recommended.
  Royal S. Brown, Fanfare