Review: A Musician’s Portrait, as Both Composer and Pianist

At the start of “Cineshape 2,” Williams naturally emphasizes variations among the many devices, just like the distinction between volatility from the viola and held notes on the cello. But gently melded collectively by the piano — Williams’s use of that simply dominant instrument tends to be unusually restrained — they mix increasingly.

“Bells and Whistles” featured Otto, the violinist, and Campbell, the cellist, making ricocheting and tapping sounds, and whistling slides up the fingerboard. At the piano, Williams generally reached into the instrument and manipulated the strings as she performed, giving notes a metallic halo or, conversely, a curt percussiveness. A swath of the piece has a waltzing beat, although the group later enters a piece of machine-like fever earlier than an ethereal ending.

“Richter Textures” (2011), with seven sections that circulate collectively, originated as a nod to work by Gerhard Richter. The textures are kaleidoscopically shifting: You can hear the luminous smoothness of coloured glass; the gritty lushness of sandpaper; the chilly slipperiness of ice; slicing; brushiness; murmuring, after which snapping. At one level, the primary violin and cello share a broodingly dissonant elegy out of one thing by Shostakovich. There are moments of agitation, however they cross again into uneasy calm.

The Miller Theater commissioned “Tangled Madrigal,” which had its premiere on Thursday and, impressed by a madrigal by Nicola Vicentino (1511-76), will pair nicely with the medieval transcriptions which are in JACK’s repertory alongside its up to date specialties.

The piece begins spidery and insubstantial, with a way of sketchiness or of fragments slowly reconstituting, after which it whispers of the undulating arpeggios of the prelude to Bach’s first cello suite. Williams by no means immediately quotes her Vicentino supply, however combining the elegant formality of vintage kinds with a up to date sound world, she maintains her attribute, difficult stability between sobriety and mischievousness — a critical enjoyable that’s all her personal.

Composer Portraits: Amy Williams

Performed on Thursday on the Miller Theater at Columbia University, Manhattan.