He and Ms. Han thought it would be interesting to offer a strand of programming each season that explored a particular instrumental sonority.

The best songs were those in which the content of the instrumental music captured your interest as much as the instrumental sonorities and the singing of the familiar tunes.

Even so, some fetching instrumental sonorities and the blend of women's voices and orchestral sounds gave pleasure of a tonally centered sort not generally associated with this composer.

Mr. Rush displayed a sure ear for vivid instrumental sonorities, although the lack of vortex was sometimes unsettling.

Nor were they necessarily concerned with individual instrumental sonorities or even aware of idiomatic instrumental capabilities.

Energy levels sagged in the slow movement, but the players met the piece's biggest challenge of fusing the vastly different instrumental sonorities into a coherent sound world.

A busy cadenza, brilliantly played by Mr. Ma, interrupts; Mr. Albert's love of ringing instrumental sonority marks the last minutes of the concerto.

Bancroft's enigmatic compositions largely eschew tradition and draw their structures and spectacular effectiveness from juxtaposition of thematic material and instrumental sonorities.

Still, at this point in one's experience of the project, the "new" instrumental sonorities dominate the impression left by the performances.

Here is music by a formidably intellectual composer who also has an arresting capacity for drama and a command of instrumental sonority.