It’s not every day that two composers collaborate on a piano cycle, but that’s indeed the case concerning this release’s title selection. Sinner, Don’t Let This Harvest Pass is based on the African American Spiritual of the same name. The Canadian/British composer Cassandra Miller composed its outer first and fourth sections, while her colleague and one-time teacher Michael Finnissy wrote the inner second and third. If you didn’t know that, you’d assume that a single composer was at work, for slow-moving chords in gently intricate rhythms dominate. Only the inner movements’ dissonant patches give Finnissy away, although don’t expect the ‘new complexity’ extremes characterising his large-scale piano epics such as English Country Tunes or The History of Photography in Sound.

One could imagine a wider berth of dynamics than Joseph Havlat conveys, yet his rhythmic precision and commitment to the material are never in doubt. He may not sing out Schumann’s Geistervariationen like others, but his attentive counterpoint heightens the music’s dissonant intensity, such as in Variation 1’s deft triplet inner voices and Var 3’s imitative phrases. Finnissy’s RS Geistervariationen starts with Schumann’s theme at a hypnotically slow tempo. The remaining movements often incorporate sections of Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Schumann for piano duet, yet are basically leisurely montages that veer between the Schumann/Brahms syntax and Finnissy’s atonal musings. Here Havlat’s dynamic range opens up, most noticeably in the declamatory gestures and subtle pedalling throughout Trope (b).

Finally, Miller’s Philip the Wanderer is a triptych that draws source material from Mandowa II, a recording by Mozambican musician Zhukake Masingi. All I can say is that the alluringly airy sounds of Masingi’s lamellophone hold more interest than Miller’s tedious bass-register piano rumblings in the first piece. Conversely, the second movement’s harmonically rich chordal masses have much more shape and direction, replete with a whistling component. The final movement evokes something of a lamellophone choir but largely features single lines. In fact, a single unaccompanied melodic line occupies the three-minute movement’s entire second half, gradually disappearing and ultimately disintegrating. Havlat’s control and concentration make every note count, and that’s no small achievement. Métier provides useful documentation, including extensive correspondence between Miller and Finnissy.