Arvo Fratres

Since the repertoire for cello octet is small and consists almost entirely of arrangements and new works, expect Four Winds, Conjunto Ibérico's 2002 release, to be somewhat eccentric and experimental. Leader Elias Arizcuren and his virtuoso cellists seek a happy medium between the intimacy and clarity of a much smaller chamber group, and the richness and power of a full string orchestra; but such a balance is hard to sustain, and their shifting back and forth feels unsteady. In Terry Riley's Requiem for Adam, the ensemble is pulled between extremes of symphonic density and chamber transparency, and this heavy arrangement seems only to distort the dynamics and textures of the original version for string quartet.

After the phenomenal success of their Saxofolk debut album, the members of the Berlage Saxophone Quartet now explore entirely different terrain. Five famous composers who found themselves at odds with the political circumstances of their times produced key works of great intensity viewed here from a completely new perspective in these virtuosic arrangements for four saxophones.

For his first concert work in three decades, film-composer James Horner (Titanic, Braveheart, Avatar) has written a crowd-pleasing double concerto for Norwegian violin- and cello-playing siblings Mari and Håkon Samuelsen. Lush, romantic, virtuosic, and coupled with haunting works by Arvo Pärt, Giovanni Sollima (with cellist Alisa Weilerstein) and Ludovico Einaudi, Pas de deux makes quite an impact.