Review of LNT129: fire dressed in black - silvina milstein: chamber works
Stephen Pettitt, Sunday Times
Silvina Milstein’s music is many-layered and complex, but alluring – its colours multifarious, its ideas built from rich melodic and harmonic palettes … fire dressed in black (2002), a setting of a mystical-erotic text by St John of the Cross, the ‘sensuous fractal’ (Milstein’s words) of the concerto grosso-like tigres azules (2003), the poetic fluidity of of lavender light (1997) and the evocative decadence of cristales y susurros (2005), are all beautifully brought in Lontano’s clean, incisive, but naturally phrased readings. Balding’s aptly dramatic playing of two solo violin works inspired by Borges and Shakespeare is brilliant.