Many Streams, One River (Volume 1)

Gary Eskow (b1951) was a new name when I chanced upon this album released by Navona late last year. Many composers combine their activities with other careers (not always within music), whether academic, performing or writing; Eskow does some writing on music but first and foremost describes himself as ‘a fan’, and there is something of an engaging sense of discovery in all the works collected here, several (but not all – dates for most are not provided) of recent provenance.

A fine example of that – and, to my ears, the finest music featured – is the string quartet Remo’s Revenge (2013 or thereabouts). This work came about after Eskow had sought out and talked music with the excellent American composer Fred Lerdahl – ‘one of America’s great secret treasures’ in Jed Distler’s opinion (I do not disagree) – whose music Bridge Records has championed frequently (2/12US, 11/17US, 6/24). Eskow was fired by that conversation to compose this quartet though it quickly, and compellingly, moves off in its own direction and is splendidly performed by the Beo Quartet. The aphoristic piano suite The Gallery Wall (c2018) is a set of brief reflections on music, delicately played by Christopher Johnson, by other composers Eskow has studied.

Johnson is the accompanist to László Mezo˝ in the cello-and-piano suite Undertow, which also starts with a (slightly ponderous) tribute piece, to the jazz pianist Bill Evans. The suite takes off, however, in the second movement, ‘Steps of the Alhambra’, a reimagining of Tárrega’s Recuerdos de la Alhambra. Bach and Eric Clapton hover behind the remaining two movements.

The song set Dispatch from the Killing Floor (2000 01) is the gravest item featured, arising from a composition exercise set by Richard Danielpour, in which – as in the wind trio Microscope (1995) – one senses Eskow still feeling his way. Neither piece quite catches the assurance of the cabaret song ‘Lillet Aperitif’, composed for the late Liliane Montevecchi (1932-2018), or the piano set (Christopher Johnson again) Two Blues and a Berceuse. This is an entertaining portrait album of a little-known composer who knows what he is doing.

Guy Rickards, Gramophone Magazine
February 2026