Michael Boriskin and cellist Dorothy Lawson perform Irwin Bazelon’s “Alliances …” for cello & piano on a disc of the composer’s music.
“Alliances … Cello and Piano” is an extended work at seventeen minutes. It stresses the differences in sound of the two instrument, and portrays them as equal characters in a musical drama where they are both protagonists and antagonists. The two instruments’ parts designed to create the impression of separate musical personalities. Neither ever “accompanies” the other; usually they either go their own way (and each receives an equally important solo section) or interact with each other.