Much of this charming chamber music by California octegenarian Lou Harrison requires its performers to fill in interpretive details, or it starts to meander. Maria Bachmann is an elegant soloist in the Suite for Violin and String Orchestra, with James Sedares conducting the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. But there are moments when she seems not entirely convinced by the music’s naive charms. Similarly, cellist Nina Flyer and pianist Josephine Gandolfi drift in and out of concentration in the Suite for Cello and Piano. In contrast, longtime Harrison advocate Michael Boriskin imbues the Three Waltzes for piano (a tribute to Virgil Thomson) and small dance pieces with color and vibrancy, and his enthusiasm never wavers. Likewise for harpist Dan Levitan, who gives a scintillating performance of the 1949 Suite for Cello and Harp. Harrison is an adept recycler of material, and we’ve heard this music elsewhere: string orchestra replaces gamelan from the 1974 Suite for Violin and American Gamelan, and the Western Dance for solo piano is revised from a Merce Cunningham collaboration. But Harrison’s reworkings, and these mainly fine performances, make the music fresh.
