Recently released on 3 cds,played by the composer, the work takes three
hours.  Richard Dyer's favorable review in the Boston Globe was enough
motivation to buy it, especially when I noticed that the Virgin Superstore
was selling it for the price of one cd.

It is wonderful music, the long time base allowing Violette to try an
enormous variety of textures and styles.  It is reminiscent in its way
of Messiaen, particularly in that composer's Twenty Views of the Infant
Jesus.  But as the pianist Janice Weber notes, it is Messiaen with edges
and teeth- I am paraphrasing.  I don't hear it as a sonata, it is just
a huge  and very varied stretch of fine music.  Unlike his First Sonata,
included on this cd, it is tonal and very listenable, but challenging
for all that- no new age piffle here!!  Parts of it verge on minimalism,
but it is a kind of maximinimalism.  try it- you might like it.

Bernard Chasan