A couple of years ago, Navona released a 2-disc set of Australian composer Mark John McEncroe's music on a release titled Reflections and Recollections.  For this fourth volume, Musical Images for Piano (Navona 6391), McEncroe focuses on pieces specifically for piano (the earlier volume were orchestrations of some of his piano pieces).  Pianist Van-Anh Nguyen performs the eight works here.

This is a relatively laid-back collection of musical meditations often with simple harmony and a Satie-esque like laying out of simple melodic ideas.  Often times the music tends to have a 2-voice contrapuntal style that provides some interest though these ideas tend to shift rather quickly when they do appear.  "For Cecile" is perhaps one of the stronger pieces where the waltz rhythm and structure moves the melodic ideas into interesting harmonic territory.   The pieces are generally cast in a New Age-like classical style that can sometimes be a bit repetitive in its ideas from one work to the other.  Many have a stream-of-conscious feel which can give them a meandering quality that is enhanced when the harmony becomes more interesting.

Nguyen is quite adept at working her way through these different moments sometimes more impressionistic in sound, other times moving into darker realms.  Harmonic movement can be a bit strange from time to time which leaves some phrases hanging in the air like incomplete, or interrupted thoughts.  The pieces are thus like miniature rhapsodies whose titles provide one possible interpretive window for the listener to engage.

The current release provides fans of McEncroe's style a good hour of musical backdrops some of which work better than others.

Scenes from A Life (Navona 6386) is the title of the concluding work on this new release featuring music by composer Monika Gurak.  Most of the album focuses on music for piano, but opens with a rather delightful set of 15 Humoresques for vibraphone and piano.  The light nature of the pieces adds a whimsical opening to this album with a quality that is reminiscent perhaps of indie-comedy scoring.  These are each rather brief pieces that have just a hint of melodic material that gets introduced and quickly ends.  The vibraphone sometimes adds a jazzier quality to the music that flits along.  The piano adds a touch of the emotional, wistful quality as the pieces bubble along.

The remainder of the album features music for piano four-hands.  Romance Sonambulo would make for a nice little encore number with its engaging thematic writing, Spanish-inflected musical gestures and rhythms, and dramatic flair.  Gurak's music tends to have a real song-like sensibility which makes these pieces quite accessible.  A Story (2020) is a three-movement work that opens with a delicate introduction ("Awaiting") and then shifts into a more romantic ballad-like central movement that moves into a more exhilarating finale.  Her Polish heritage is hinted at a bit in "My Country" where the melodies and musical gestures flirt with folk-like styles.  But, the music is firmly in a modern romantic style, filled with lots of arpeggios and that keep the momentum flowing as the thematic material unfolds.  This is especially true in the title work that closes off the album.

Gurak's music draws the listener in to what amounts to a gorgeous, romantic musical journey.  Performances here by Emma Colette Moss and Scott Downing provide a touching interpretive approach.