Fanfare reviews Jeux de Création on new Naxos CD....

A superb new Naxos release, Jeux de création, spotlights Anne-Sophie Bertrand, the French-born solo harpist of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. Bertrand commissioned Jeux de création from composer Geoffrey Gordon. The work’s title (also the title of the Naxos CD) refers to Gordon’s incorporation of thematic material from Debussy’s Jeux and Milhaud’s La création du monde. Gordon’s Jeux de création takes inspiration from the aesthetic sound world of the 1920s, as seen through the lens of the composer’s own contemporary language. The nine-minute piece incorporates extended techniques, including xylophonics, harmonics, palm clusters and flutter glissandi. Gordon conjures an inviting, dreamlike soundscape, one that complements in a most beguiling fashion the numerous Impressionist works on this recital. The recording, made at the Hessischer Rundfunk Sendesaal in Frankfurt, recreates an intimate concert hall perspective rich in color and detail. Anne-Sophie Bertrand’s Jeux de création is a captivating delight from start to finish, one that I recommend with the utmost enthusiasm.