With a background in European classical music and more than two decades as a fixture on the New York downtown scene, Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier is ideally qualified to employ Stravinsky's infamous The Rite of Spring as a springboard to improvised extrapolations.

The fact that Stravinsky's estate only allows such investigations based on the composer's own version for two pianos means that, for this date, she's called upon the talents of Cory Smythe, another classically trained pianist with improvisatory chops honed through work with the likes of Anthony Braxton and Tyshawn Sorey.

The duo's lengthy interpretation is a dense tour-de-force replete with four-handed fulsomeness. Throughout, the maestro's melodic statements serve as gateways to microtonal digressions that both echo and anticipate key thematic developments, creating a thrilling dramatic tension accentuated by rapid flurries, intricate scurries and prancing dances. That's a convincing prelude to Courvoisier's aptly named 30-minute piece ‘Spectre d’un songe’ (or ‘Ghost of a Dream’), which proposes elaborations on moods evoked by The Rite of Spring. Its opening, harp-like rumbles from deep within the guts of the piano signal a more experimental response, yet it succeeds admirably in retaining the original's dreamy, mythical atmosphere.