Album: Messaien/Saariaho, The Edge of Light - Gloria Cheng/Calder Quartet (Harmonia Mundi)

A third composer hovers, ghost-like, in pianist Cheng's beguiling recital with the Calder Quartet.

Listen to Messaien's glassy chords and Saariaho's cool rhapsodies and you can almost hear him. While the 1929 Preludes are a tribute to Messaien's mother and Saariaho's 2003 trio for piano, viola and cello, Je sens un deuxième coeur, a depiction of quickening in the womb, Debussy is the daddy. Exquisitely shaped playing and bold musicianship in a compelling, haunting disc.