Games of the Night Wind is a record of nocturnally inspired piano music played by Christina Petrowska Quilico.  Much of the record is taken up by twelve nocturnes from Ontario composer David Jaeger.  They are interspersed with pieces in similar mood by Polish composers Alexandre Tansman and Henryk Górecki and there is also a solitary piece by Tōru Takemitsu.

The Jaeger pieces were each inspired by a different piece of poetry dealing with some aspect of nocturnal experience.  What they have in common is an abstracted, dreamy quality.  Some are darker than others, some gentler and more lyrical and they are all interesting.  Listening I was reminded of a comment of Brian Current’s to the effect that sometimes listening for things like melody, harmony and rhythm is less useful than listening for texture and I think that’s true of these pieces.  They are all deeply textured but in different ways.  They are played with great sensitivity.

The works by the other composers are complementary.  All are similarly “of the night” and none of them are stylistically jarring so the entire album flows without breaking the predominant mood and it’s worth listening to right through end to end.

It was recorded in 2023 at Imagine Sound Studio in Toronto and it’s nicely balanced with the distinctive sounds of the piano clearly there; at least on the hi-res digital version I listened to.  It’s due for (digital only) release on May 10th in MP3 and FLAC (CD quality and 96kHz/24 bit) formats.  In common with other Navona releases there’s no booklet as such but the record has its own set of web pages.

Catalogue information: Navona records NV6630