<541> Vol.1

If you wait at Grand Central Station long enough, they say, the whole world will pass before your eyes. Likewise, if you hang out at Stanford University you will hear the next generation of composers from all over the world coming to sharpen their compositional swords before spreading out and dominating the field for the foreseeable future.

The 14 trainees on these discs all studied recently under the New Complexisist grandmaster Brian Ferneyhough. But — as is the mark of a great teacher — it doesn’t show. Like their guru, the head, heart and ears are all well connected in these pieces and the all-star cast of performers doesn’t hurt that one bit: the California EAR Unit, Stanford Chamber Strings, Sirius, the Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, and the rest of the team make this music sound like a walk in the proverbial park.

The longest journey begins with a single step or, in this case, two CDs. If you want to catch up with the trends before they happen, check out <541> Volume 1. And like any good encyclopedia it will be updated annually.