John Mitchell’s music encompasses an interesting contradiction. Classical in implementation, it is romantic in temperament. The music is like the fiercely idealistic composer himself, who loves rock music and grand operatic gestures; yet he is a classically educated musician with highly efficient compositional skills. With the exception of the two more programmatic flute works on this album, his music is presented to us in concise formal structures, often with repeat signs, without descriptive titles. His music hews to clarity rather than excessive ostentation, his melodies are lean and simplified, his thematic development tight and controlled – the music develops its monothematic material expressively so that nothing is wasted. But the impulse is very romantic, straining the forms that contain it.

Mitchell’s sonatas have a tinge of Americana and a strong lyricism. The featured instruments play tunes that, were they sung instead of performed, might be Broadway hits in another context. The music is strongly diatonic and, like the chorus in an inspiring stage song, driven by melodic repetition. These melodies, as in the opening of the Horn Sonata, are made with whole notes tied together over long crescendos, or, as with the flute pieces, ever-dying away diminuendos. Grand pauses punctuate the yearning phrases, dramatic arias break away from the accompaniment, and brooding passion begins nearly every piece.