Guitarist/composer Stanley Silverman (b1938) has had a remarkable career. A student of Milhaud and Leon Kirchner, he was highly in demand in new music circles for his ability to play the most difficult scores (he worked extensively with Boulez and Wuorinen, among others), and for several years he served as guitarist for the New York Philharmonic (you can hear him on Bernstein’s 1966 recording of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony). In addition to writing concert music, he’s composed extensively for theatre (both on and off Broadway), film and television. And all the while, he’s been involved in popular music, too.

Silverman’s exuberant eclecticism is evident in the two trios recorded here, both composed for the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. The First (1989), subtitled In Celebration, was commissioned in part to mark the 20th anniversary of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois. The recording here is from 1995 and was previously released on Arabesque. Although based on a 12 note row, Silverman’s writing often feels tonally rooted. The second movement (‘Kinematic’) is a series of dance episodes, starting with a bit that seems to pay homage to West Side Story, followed by a play on boogie-woogie and a lovely Gershwinesque section (starting at 1'24"). The third movement ‘Cantelina-Chaconne’ begins with a bluesy violin solo which segues to lovely, achingly wistful music with a distinct French accent, and the syncopated finale, ‘Montuno’, Silverman says was animated by the Latin dance music he heard on the streets of New York City.

Latin dance music plays a central role in the Second Trio (2011, rev 2017), as well. Silverman cautions that the work’s six movements ‘are not intended to “hang together”’, but I think they do, and I credit this to the composer’s experience in the theatre, for the trio has a daring but effective dramatic structure. It’s also full of fun – unexpectedly, perhaps, as it was composed to honour a friend who was a victim of the 9/11 attacks. The alternating styles of the third movement ‘Guajira y fuga’, for example, were inspired by the fact that a classical and a Latin music station were immediately adjacent on the NYC radio dial. The fourth movement is a Dowlandesque setting of ‘Fear no more the heat o’ the sun’ (from Shakespeare’s Cymbeline), sung here quite expressively by Sting, whose familiarly husky tone sounds strangely (and movingly) disembodied. The finale is a series of playful variations on a hit song by Paul Simon.

Although Jaime Laredo’s tone has lost some of its suavity since the earlier recording, both of the trio’s performances are eloquent and richly characterful. Sadly, the disc must also serve as a memorial to pianist Joseph Kalichstein, who died in 2022.