Although Croatian composer
Igor Lesnik has yet to make a splash in the United States, his accessible and highly entertaining music for percussion ensemble has a chance of catching on, if his growing acceptance in Western Europe is any indication.
Lesnik's style is idiosyncratic and iconoclastic -- often similar in its jazz-rock flavor and occasional silliness to
Frank Zappa's music; and, just as often, it is as technically demanding as Christopher Rouse's celebrated percussion music for virtuosos. Taken at face value, Dwarfs (2003), Chamade Suite (1993), and the
Lesnik/Cibulka collaboration the Concerto for percussion and percussion (2002), are instant crowd-pleasers with an extroverted character; these works offer bright displays of various mallet instruments and impressively vigorous drumming. However,
Lesnik's Hommage à Ball (1995) is a bit more arcane and perhaps less immediately appealing for its experimental nature. This setting of Hugo Ball's 1916 Dadaist sound-poem "Six Poems of Voices and Sounds" may annoy the less adventurous listener if the verbalizations are not taken in a spirit of fun. The Jeunesses Musicales Croatia, also known as biNg bang, was founded by
Lesnik, and this talented group delivers his music with special authority, enthusiasm, and panache. Equilibrium's sound quality is fine.