Three Nocturnes was commissioned by the Verdehr Trio and Michigan State University. The title refers to the various evocations of night in the work; only the third could be called a nocturne in the legitimate historical sense.

The first features a busy, arpeggiated violin part and a soaring, long-breathed melody in the clarinet, perhaps reminiscent of Rachmaninoff’s seemingly endless melodies. The violin assumes the melodic role in the second, at least until the clarinet joins in imitation. T...