John Winiarz’s SOUNDBOOK is a collection of music for piano solo and eclectic chamber ensembles covering the period of 1974-2018. The album exhibits both researched exploration and whimsical playfulness. With remarkable performances by Canadian pianists Yolanda Bellomia, Bruce Mather, Pamela Reimer, Philippe Prud’homme and Louis Dominique Roy, the five keyboard pieces trace how the composer’s roots in impressionism and expressionism have deepened and broadened over a period of 44 years. The care the composer takes with harmonic sonorities and varied textures are sensitively revealed, with the most recent piece, Sauter Fields, mixing 1/16th of tone microtonal piano sounds with a stream of electroacoustic sonic fields. The three colourful chamber works give testimony to the affection Winiarz holds for composers as far apart as Mozart (here dressed up in a quasi-pop group instrumentation) and Piazzolla (who appears to be flirting with Puccini’s Madama Butterfly). The core members of Montreal’s Ensemble Transmission beautifully interpret all. A welcoming feast for the ears!
