Brian Zeger is one of the nation’s best known accompanists and chamber musicians. He is also the artistic director of the vocal arts department at Julliard. This whole album is devoted to music that is reflective, pensive, melancholic; at times, sad and captivating throughout. The ” Vocalise ” (1999) by Philip Lasser was written in homage to Rachmaninov and is quite reminscent of the piece of the same title. The version heard here later became the center movement of Lasser’s symphony, “Circle of Dreams”. Lasser’s ” Berceuse Fantasque ” is a lullaby, representing a song sung to a child and the dreams encountered by the child as well as the singer. The result is almost psychological, alternating between the peaceful and the restless, much as dreams do.

The selections from ” Day Music ” and ” Night Music ” by Ned Rorem are well chosen. Some are plaintive, subdued and tranquil; others, highly energetic and virtuostic show pieces. Highlights include the very French sounding ” Extreme Leisure ” and the ” Billet doux “, Rorem having a near life long affinity for and expertise in French music. The ‘driving’ side of the Rorem selections is typified by ” Gnats ” and ” Bats “, both propelled forward by some very edgy, jazz-like rhythms. The Peter Lieberson ” Elegy ” (1990) is characterized by a haunting melody in the upper register and some dark, sad arpeggiations in the piano. The melody and its fragments give way to a waltz-like coda that practically dissolves and ebbs away. ” Autumn Music ” (2007) by Russell Platt, is comprised of the last two movements of a sonata written for Almond and Zeger. Basically, this is a fantasia and chaconne and the entire piece is somewhat subdued, mysterious and a bit unsettling.