Michael Jon Fink Celesta Fink - Cb0053 - Contemporary - by Cold Blue

Celesta is a suite of a dozen quietly transcendent, gem-like celesta solos—a ribbon of short pensive pieces performed by the composer. The individual pieces, ranging in length from under two minutes to just over six minutes, are notable for the beautifully simple ways in which they reveal themselves through repetition and elegantly fashioned variation. The composer notes that these works “project a lyrical world of quiet intensity, bathed in the glow of delicately ringing metal.” This collection of solos creates its own graceful musical arc, and it is certainly among the largest statements ever composed specifically for the celesta alone. (For this recording, one of Los Angeles’s finest five-octave Schiedmayer celestas was used.) A longtime proponent of expressive solo celesta music, Fink contributed Celesta Solo (1981) to the first Cold Blue anthology in the mid-1980s (which was reissued as a CD in the early 2000s), and his solo work For Celesta, performed by Bryan Pezzone, appeared on the 2001 Cold Blue CD titled I Hear It in the Rain (CB0004). [CD in 6-panel wallet]