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Joe Milica of Enjoythemusic.com

“The last work on the [Composers In The Loft] CD, Vivian Fung’s Miniatures, brings the sound of the clarinet to an otherwise piano-and-strings program.  Miniatures is a set of variations on an Uighur folksong — the Uighur people being of Western China, along the Silk Road.  The string quartet is almost always an accompaniment to the clarinet, though with ingenious rhythmic patterns and piquant harmonies, while the clarinet part is extremely virtuosic — splendidly played by John Bruce Yeh of the CSO.  Here too ‘bent’ notes are used, though now to imitate the sound of a folk instrument.  (The piece also calls for glissandos that suggest Gershwin as much as the Silk Road.)  The four short movements are titled ‘Floating’ (slow and serene), ‘Light and Playful’ (staccato syncopations in the clarinet, against a steady string pulse), ‘Improvisation-like’ (with cadenza-like passages for the clarinet), and a longer finale, ‘A Piacere,’ which means ‘at pleasure,’ i.e., allowing ad libs — although the program notes don’t specify whether this refers to the performance or to the composer’s own improvisations on the folksong.  In any case, the movement opens with the clarinet unaccompanied except for a few plucked-string interjections, then a final variation.  Miniatures would be a fabulous piece to open a program featuring the Brahms Clarinet Quintet — here’s wishing it a long life on the concert stage.”

“Although I found the Jalbert and Fung works the most musically rewarding — the ones I want most to hear repeatedly — the entire CD, a generous 78-and-a-half minutes, is a fitting tribute to an important organization for new chamber music.”