CCMusic.com

Norwegian composer Marcus Paus has made a name for himself through highly successful film scores and operas. This is his debut solo release as a composer - an inviting chamber music presentation. The exquisite Four Mementor Mori for solo piano were written for an exhibition called Death Passages with paintings by the artist Christopher Radlund. The main work on the release is the Cello Sonata. Through the five movements Paus explores only a very limited group of motifs, from a variety of perspectives. Moving from somber sections to the outrageously wild virtuoso cello solo in the fourth movement this 34-minute long sonata is the composer's most serious attempt at what he calls 'a feeling of totality' within one work to date.