Traces (2006)

Augusta Read Thomas’s Traces, played by pianist Makiko Hirata with fizzy confidence, specified its influences, mixing particular jazz and classical composers.

Augusta Read Thomas’s Traces (2006), another solo piano work, imagines an intertwining of specific classical and jazz influences: “Like Astor Piazzolla Crossed With John Coltrane,” one descriptive subtitle reads. Others suggested hybrids of Chopin and Thelonious Monk, or Bach and bebop. Makiko Hirata’s performance highlighted the points of contact nicely, bringing out, for example, a Chopin-esque melody line that Ms. Thomas hid within Monk-like harmonies and rhythms, and letting a Bachian theme swing without straying into Swingle Singers territory.

Traces, by Augusta Read Thomas, is a series of stylistic fusions, suggesting what would happen if you crossed Scarlatti with Art Tatum, or Bach with BeBop. Briggs made a strong case for these imaginative, often thorny keyboard etudes, especially the austere beauty of Reverie (a supposed mesh of Schumann and George Crumb) and the intense, vibrant complexity of Impromptu (Stravinksy and Chopin meet Thelonius Monk). This was the first public performance anywhere of the complete Traces, composed in 2006.