Earl Kim was a master craftsman and an unabashed romantic. Borrowing from both Western and Eastern traditions, his music is unique, beautifully made and instantly appealing. His Violin Concerto, written for Itzhak Perlman in 1979, is rigorous in its underlying structure yet extra-ordinarily touching at the same time. Dialogues, a much earlier concertante piece, juxtaposes lyrical passages with menacing images that embody the insecurity and horror of the composer’s own wartime experiences. Kim’s evocative setting of Rilke’s poem about love and war, Cornet, was something of a departure from his work up to that point, which had been influenced by the texts of Samuel Beckett. Working with the dreamlike lyricism of Rilke’s text results in a yet more immediate and direct expression, steeped in drama and informed by the horror and waste of war.