This CD presents the premiere studio recordings of six recent chamber works from Martin Bresnick, "a major voice" with "a catalog of vibrant, varied and respected works" (The New York Times).

The attractively delicate Josephine The Singer (2011, for violin) is also based on a Kafka story, his last written work “Josephine the Singer or the Mouse People.” Bresnick comments that this short story is a “prescient mediation both on divas and art, but also what might be the future of the Jews as a persecuted minority in Europe.”

Australian violinist Sarita Kwok...makes a remarkable first impression with Bresnick's unaccompanied Josephine the Singer, inspired by Kafka's absurd tale of a mouse whose squeaking mysteriously moves the passions of her tiny audience. (WQXR)

Josephine the Singer for solo violin begins with striking high harmonics (gorgeously executed by Sarita Kwok) that soon settle into passages in double-stops and arpeggios which Janá∂ek might have recognised as his own. (Gramophone)