2019 First Quarter Report: The Albums

Although my posts up until now have been mired - delightfully so - in the glories of 2018, I have been keeping up. The following is quick rundown of some of the things that have compelled repeated listening. Before reading, however, I urge you to follow the playlists below, which will allow you to keep up throughout the year. Apologies to users of Apple Music, a service I hear more good things about these days than in the past. If there is a clamor to repeat these playlists there, I will certainly consider re-subscribing.

Of Note In 2019

Of Note In 2019 (Classical)

Of Note In 2019 (Electronic)

Of Note In 2019 (Hip Hop, R&B & Reggae)

Of Note In 2019 (Jazz, Latin & Global)

Of Note In 2019 (Rock, Folk, Etc.)

Of Note In 2019 (Out Of The Past)

So what have I been listening to? Read on to find out!

Classical

Bearthoven - Scott Wollschleger: American Dream When Soft Aberration, the first portrait album of music by Wollschleger came out in 2017, I called it one of the best classical albums of the year, noting his exceptional command of structure and orchestration and hearing a composer “planting his flag at a thrilling elevation.” Well, Wollschleger has climbed yet higher on American Dream, establishing an even more distinctive musical voice, which is evident from the first notes of Gas Station Canon Song, the solo piano piece that opens the album. Played with exquisite attention to dynamics by Karl Larson, it’s a brief assay into the mysterious that feels particularly American, like a soundtrack to the classic Michael Lesy book Wisconsin Death Trip.

It slides effortlessly into the main event, the 35-minute title work, which finds Larson and his Bearthoven colleagues Pat Swoboda (bass), and Matt Evans (percussion) executing Wollschleger’s uneasy, synthetic vision with the fierce concentration of a great rock band. I say “synthetic” due to the way he combines the instruments to produce intriguing new sonorities. It’s all so effective not only due to Wollschleger’s sonic and melodic invention but because of his single-minded focus on creating an emotional landscape. As a view of the American Dream, or what remains of it, it is unsparing, a direct reflection of our times. We See Things That Are Not There closes the album on a more hopeful, placid note, Wollschleger using repeating cells like a more chill Julius Eastman. The sense of disquiet lingers, though, as it will even when this brilliant album comes to an end.

Melia Watras - Schumann Resonances Besides having a burnished tone and monster technique, violist Watras has a gift for contextualizing the music of the past. In this case, she turns her attention to Schumann’s Opus 113, the Märchenbilder sonata, surrounding a wonderful performance of it with five world premieres, including three of her own compositions. The first is the title track, which literally resonates with Schumann’s harmonic material and introduces some imaginative sounds from within the piano, played here and throughout with a sparkling touch by Winston Choi. The next premiere is Porch Music by Cuong Vu, a well-known trumpeter deeply steeped in a vein of Americana after a long tenure with Pat Metheny. It’s a reflective, inward-facing piece with some of Harry Partch’s whimsy spicing it up - and Vu’s horn adding sonic variety.

Watras’ other compositions, the five-movement Source for viola, violin (Michael Jinsoo Lim) and percussion (Matthew Kocmieroski) and Berceuse With A Singer In London for viola and voice (Galia Arad) put her increasing confidence as a writer on full display. While very personal works, I have hopes for a life for them in the concert hall beyond her own recordings and performances. Tertium Quid, a 2015 work in three movements by Richard Karpen played by Watras, Lim and Choi, deconstructs the Märchenbilder even more radically than Watras’ opening piece. By breaking down and reassembling Schumann’s range of pitches, he arrives at a dark and dramatic place, a very 21st-century take on the idea of a fairy tale. Poor asylum-bound Schumann might have found some acknowledgment in its intensity. That’s mere speculation, but there’s no question that with Schumann Resonances, Watras continues to prove herself a curator, performer, and composer of unique abilities.

Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir - Vernacular If you think the name is Icelandic, you are correct, but you might not guess that this supremely skilled cellist has spent most of her life elsewhere, including NYC, where she has been enmeshed in the new music scene for quite some time. This is her first solo album and she has curated five pieces by composers who share Icelandic roots but have also had cosmopolitan careers, whether in Estonia, the UK, Italy or NYC. Even so, this album fits right in with recent releases by Nordic Affect and Daniel Bjarnason in its approach, with a combination of sounds that range from exploratory to organic. And it's all created by Thorsteindóttir's cello, save some field recordings on Purídur Jónsdóttir's 48 Images of the Moon. There's a meditative quality to Vernacular overall, and I imagine the experience of close listening it encourages - to the bow swiping the strings in Halldór Smárason's O, for example - will change the way I hear the cello, especially in concert. The recording, produced by Dan Merceruio for Sono Luminus, could not be better, giving a presence even to the air in Thorsteinsdóttir's cello. Just one of many dimensions to this remarkable debut.

Unheard-of Ensemble - Dialogues This group based its core of clarinet (Ford Fourqurean), violin (Mateus Souza), cello (So Sugiyama) and piano (Daniel Anastasio) on Messiaen’s Quartet For The End Of Time. Besides being an extremely versatile combination of instruments, it’s also a wonderful way to honor the legacy of that work, which was, after all, created in a concentration camp. They also are dedicated to performing new music by living composers, which I’m sure the master would have appreciated as well. So, all but one of the works are new commissions and present an excellent overview of their taste and virtuosity. My favorite piece is probably the witty Family Picnic 2008 by saxophonist Erin Rogers, which was "Inspired by the generosity of large banks" and features the sardonic use of what sounds like voiceovers from advertising and news. But Christopher Stark, Reiko Füting, Michael Lanci, Nathan Hudson, and Nickitas Demos all contribute original and involving pieces to the album, with everything from climate change to Renaissance music to a short story (also included here) providing inspiration. Dialogues, which also contains the first recording of Tonia Ko’s scintillating Hum Phenomenon (2008), is a fantastic debut by a group that has been doing more than its part to inject vitality into the new music scene for the last few years. The only question it raises is "What took so long?"

Nicholas Phillips - Shift So much can go wrong when an artist takes what could be seen as a polemical approach to assembling an album. Fortunately, that's not the case here. As Phillips, an enormously talented pianist, points out in his liner notes, this album's title refers to the "exciting - and long overdue - shift in recent years with regard to more diverse and inclusive concert programming." By assembling eight world premiere recordings of recent pieces by women, Phillips is doing his part to contribute to that shift, even if he risks what could be seen as a sort of "eat your broccoli" approach to musical health. But this album is too good to be seen as just good for you. First, there is the recording, which is close and warm, without overdoing either quality. Then, there's Phillips' playing, with its virtuosic command of even the densest writing and remarkable dynamic control. Finally, there are the pieces themselves, ranging from the lovely Ballade by Sarah Kirkland Snider (2000) to the mysterious Aghavni (2009), a major work by Mary Kouyoumdjian, which draws on the experience of the Armenian genocide. Having these pieces, and the others Phillips has so carefully selected, anthologized in such perfect performances makes Shift not only a public service but a wonderful listening experience.

Louis Karchin - Dark Mountains/Distant Lights Considering the "shift" described by Phillips, does the world actually need another collection of modernist chamber works by a white male composer in his 60s who has spent most of his career in academia? The only answer I will give to that is to say that as much as I demand more diverse voices in programming, isn't reducing people to their demographic part of the problem? Either way, this music is exquisite and deserves to be heard. Dark Mountains presents premiere recordings of seven chamber works written by Karchin between 2004 and 2017, in stunning sound and in brilliant performances by Jacqueline Leclair (oboe), Miranda Cuckson (violin), and Steven Beck (piano). Reading his liner notes is also worth the price of admission as he eloquently describes the two ends of his process, from being inspired by poetry or other artworks to collaborating closely with musicians to realize the sounds he's hearing in his head. And now that he's put these alternately tart and rhapsodic pieces out into the world, they are available to inspire others.

Greg Chudzik - Solo Works, Vol. 2 Many is the time I have watched Chudzik and his double bass on stage with the Talea Ensemble, each time becoming more impressed by his rock-solid musicianship and his deep engagement with the works being played. But that is only a tiny slice of his interests and his accomplishments, as demonstrated by this second volume of solo work, four pieces for bass, sometimes with electronics, that show a great deal of imagination and invention. And not just in the way he structures his compositions but also in the broad perspective he has toward the sonic possibilities of his instrument. I hope other composers hear this and grow the repertoire further.

Electronic

Elsa Hewitt - Citrus Paradisi Hewitt’s career has so far been marked by charm and delight, whether in her winsome melodies and tactile electronic textures or in the handmade packaging for her cassettes. Her latest does nothing to change that, but I am happy to report a growing sense of extroversion, with her voice occasionally higher in the mix and even some pronounced beats on a few tracks. With each release, Hewitt's unique, self-made universe expands a little, which only means there is more room for you in one of my favorite sonic spaces. Join me.

Hip Hop & R&B

Solange - When I Get Home If I were seeking Sly Stone analogs for the two most recent Solange albums, 2016’s A Seat At The Table would be Stand! and this would be There’s A Riot Goin’ On. Where the former was quite explicit in its agenda, sharing trenchant lessons passed on from one generation to another, this one luxuriates in moods and grooves, with Solange reveling in her creamy soprano. Also like the Sly classic, this one features intricate drum programming and a seamless texture that will have you playing it on repeat. And while I love everything about Riot, I'm not sorry When I Get Home lacks the sense of dissolution and isolation that emanated from the studio as Sly burrowed deeper and deeper into his psyche. But this is very much an auteurist move, with Solange writing or co-writing and producing every track but one. She may not sell as many records as that other Knowles but I know which one moves me.

C-Bo - Animal It’s not so much that this rapper has learned many new tricks over his 25 year career, it’s that he’s so goddamned good at the old ones. He chews up the mic like the bone of a $65 T-bone steak, wringing every tasty morsel out of his grimy imagination. The beats vary from super-funky to lush to purely functional, but C-Bo never slips. Gangsta rap this filthy may be a niche market these days, but that’s never going to stop me from enjoying a great record.

Rock & Folk

Michael Chapman - True North The metaphors about the qualities imparted by age - when applied to fine whiskey, for example - seem to write themselves when listening to Chapman’s latest classic. Sure, his voice is bone dry, but that’s just part of the flavor profile for this rich dram of song, distilled down over more than 50 years as a recording artist. Wisdom and wit are both in abundant supply whether the songs are new or old. The musical setting is rich as well, with sensitive accompaniment by the likes of Steve Gunn (guitars), Bridget St. John (vocals), Sarah Smout (cello), and the great BJ Cole (pedal steel). With True North and his prior album 50, Chapman is firmly in one of the finest late-career renaissances in recent memory.

Jane Church - Calimocho Molotov! I wish the future archivists the best of luck with this band. First, there’s the name, which refers neither to a member of the group or a house of worship, but rather an early demo by Sparks before they were called Sparks. Then there’s the fact that I bought a version of this album on cassette at a gig last year - and it only has three songs in common with this one! A few of those missing songs are available on singles but the rest will remain to be discovered by future generations happy to find some new chips from the master’s workbench.

And, make no mistake, Matt Stevenson, the chief songwriter and singer in Jane Church, is a master of his craft, expertly constructing one wistful and memorable tune after another. He deals in a brand of bittersweet that brings home the fact that each day you live creates a trail of memories you’re constantly managing whether you realize it or not - no matter how old you are. If that all sounds heavy, fear not: every song on this album is driven by a tight, swinging rhythm section, indelible melodic touches, and a rich overlay of guitars and keyboards. When do I pre-order the box set?

Tiny Ruins - Olympic Girls File under “not so very tiny” as Hollie Fullbrook’s project goes widescreen, adding exquisite production touches to her songs while never losing focus. Her limber voice, drenched with feeling, and her intricate fingerpicked guitar are still the foundation for the extraordinarily well-crafted songs. So much so, in fact, that it’s easy to see several of them as new classics, combining words and melodies in a fashion that grabs a firm hold on the hem of Nick Drake’s garment, to mention just one source of inspiration. Take Sparklers, for example, which is introduced by a warm blanket of acoustic guitar before Fullbrook enters with “I write your name in cursive on the air...” sung like a melodic sigh. You may need to catch your breath before she continues. And are you just imagining those drums, so tightly enmeshed as they are with her picking? The chorus, referring to the titular fireworks, refers to “no lasting magic,” but the song will stay with you for days, as will this wonderful album.

Frankie & The Witch Fingers - Zam Like Jane Church, this Los Angeles quartet is on Greenway Records, which is quickly cornering the market in great rock & roll. Led by Dylan Sizemore, FWF specializes in overdriven but tightly structured mini-epics driven by the manic but precise drumming of Glenn Brigman. Sizemore’s voice may at first strike you as thin and not up the task of keeping up with the assault of the guitars (and the horns, keyboards, and a kitchen sink or three) but you’ll soon find yourself hanging on every word - when you’re not shouting along, of course. The songs are rich with dynamics and densely structured segments and one of their signature moves is to hit a new level of intensity just when you think the energy has topped out. Thrills me every time and I can’t wait to see them live. I also note that this is their fifth album, and I look forward to catching up.

Hand Habits - Placeholder Since their last album, 2017’s Wildly Idle, Meg Duffy has undergone changes in their life - that pronoun, for example - that no doubt inform the deep well of feeling here. But you need not know a thing about their personal life to find your way into these songs. Also, in those three years, Duffy obviously expanded their craft as a writer, guitarist, and singer, and there’s a sense of rightness here - even a kind of serenity - that is nothing but beguiling. While I hope to get to one of their upcoming concerts, I can just as easily imagine finding fulfillment by laying back in a grassy field and watching the clouds float by as I listen. Placeholder is simply - or maybe not so simply - a lovely album.

Cass McCombs - Tip Of The Sphere I’ve known the name for years, but it wasn’t until the recent Mojo feature on McCombs that I felt the push of passionate advocacy it can take to get you to listen. It turns out that the article’s description of his music, and McComb’s own words were spot on in making me think I would love this. I feel like I’m passing the test without studying as I still haven’t backtracked through his catalog, but this is a just really great folk-rock album, easily one of the best of the year. All the guitar hypnotism, song-craft, and harmony vocals the term “folk-rock” might bring to mind are here - in abundance. I’ve noted those more expert in McCombs’ music saying this is his finest album, but if his older work is even a fraction as good I have some incredible listening ahead. If you’re a laggard like me, start here.

Julia Jacklin - Crushing Right from the start, with the grave Body, Jacklin’s second album puts her at the front rank of songwriters. Gone are the explicit nods to 1950s balladry and 1960s British folk that defined her debut. Song after song startles with arresting images, white-hot emotions, and committed performances. Read more about this deep work of art in my article for Rock & Roll Globe.

Sunwatchers - Illegal Moves This acid-drenched jazz-rock-freakout band is almost moving too fast to keep up with, following up last year's tumultuous II with this even harder-edged effort. And if you have any questions about what these master instrumentalists have on their minds, just check out the hilarious cover, which just may bring down the wrath of Kraft Foods, should they ever see it!


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Record Roundup: One Day In 2018

Coming very soon: 2019 First Quarter Report: The Concerts

Record Roundup: Strings And Things

Before microscopy was invented to reveal the little hooks on horsehair, generations of instrument makers and musicians knew that if you dragged a collection of the hairs across a length of dried gut, you got a wondrous sound. Or an awful one, depending on which part of the learning curve the player currently occupied. Now we have all the science we need to explain the interaction between fingers or bow, strings, wood, and acoustic chamber, but that doesn't change the ability of the sounds of stringed instruments to move us in body, mind, and spirit. Here are some of the best practitioners of the art, circa 2017. 

Melia Watras - 26 Once upon a time "classical" music was not only popular culture, it was also family culture. Mother taught you piano so you could accompany her violin; father's baritone sounded fine alongside sister's cello, especially after a few brandies; and you might meet your future husband across the spinet during a parlor duet. This is the world violist Melia Watras would call us back to, if in a thoroughly 21st Century fashion, on her latest album for Sono Luminus. The number 26 refers the total amount of strings on the instruments used by Watras's collaborators, who include her husband, Michael Jinsoo Lim and her treacher, Atal Arad. See what I mean - a family affair. Another participant is Garth Knox, who plays Viola D'Amore alongside Watras on his composition, Stranger, which ups the string count a fair bit. 

But Watras is the main focus, and she really is a remarkable musician. The sheer tone of her playing, often a honeyed ribbon of sound, is so rich that 26 never feels spare even when she is playing solo, as on a number of pieces here, including her own Sonata, 20 enthralling minutes of melody and rhythm that has the spontaneity of an improvisation. But the album opens with Tocattina A La Turk, a viola duet written by Arad that is pure charm. Yes, there's a reference to Brubeck's Blue Rondo, which is slightly ironic as Arad's own inventions reference his Turkish heritage, but it's all in good humor. The Knox piece is based on a 17th Century Irish folk song, with all the haunted melody you could imagine, amplified beautifully by the resonating strings on Knox's antique instrument. Liquid Voices, a duet for Watras and Lim, has a visual flair that allows you to picture the sounds of the violas intertwining in the room. Those are just some of the more notable tracks, but overall this is a more consistent album than her last, Ispirare, which was quite fine. 

26 is wonderfully recorded, with a full sound that feels very natural and neither too close not too distant. So, an exemplary musical experience awaits you, with additional inspiration to be found in Watras's entrepreneurial spirit. She's not waiting for new viola music - she's commissioning it, or writing it herself. Artists in any medium could learn from her energetic example. Long may she reign!

Rupert Boyd & Laura Metcalf - Boyd Meets Girl Speaking of family affairs, here we have the charming couple of Boyd and Metcalf, who have converted their happy marriage into the unusual musical pairing of cello and guitar. Either through their own arrangements (Bach, Fauré, Pärt, de Falla, Piazzola, etc.), or some applied research (works by Jaime Zenamon, Ross Edwards, and Radames Gnattáli, all composers unknown to me), the duo has managed to assemble a varied and highly satisfying collection. 

Like their recent solo albums, Boyd's Fantasias and Metcalf's First Day - both standouts of 2015 and 2016 respectively - Boyd Meets Girl doesn't so much as challenge the listener as elevate any environment in which it is played. It is not a knock at all to report that I put it on during a sun-dappled country dinner and found the experience wholeheartedly improved - and my companions curious about what I was playing and wanting to hear it again. And that was even before we heard the ingenious and sparkling arrangement of John Bettis and Steve Porcaro's Human Nature, a massive hit for Michael Jackson. It really works - but don't take my word for it; go listen to the whole album. The only doubt in my mind about Boyd Meets Girl is whether they can find enough material to come up with a sequel. They may have to take a leaf from Melia Watras's book and do some commissioning and composing themselves!

Sebastien Llinares - Erik Satie I believe that Satie's spikier, more satirical side deserves more play, so I am grateful to Llinares for looking beyond the greatest hits somewhat when choosing pieces to arrange for guitar. Yes, you get all the wonderful Gymnopedies and Gnossiennes you want, but he also takes on Parade, a six-part suite written for a ballet Satie concocted with Picasso and Cocteau, which is rather ambitious. It makes for a very satisfying, well-balanced album. It certainly helps that Llinares's technique and musical approach are flawless, with no pandering to the sentimental, and the neutral acoustic of the recording serves both well. I have A LOT of Satie records and this is a more than welcome additions to my collection. 

Cornelius Dufallo - Journaling 2 One way I track new releases in the tsunami of classical music is by following composers I love - on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc. So, when Missy Mazzoli, for example, has a new piece on an album where she is not the primary artist, I'll at least know about it enough to check it out. That's how I got to this Cornelius Dufallo album, a haunting collection of music for violin and electronics. I was certainly aware of Dufallo, as a member of the string quartet Ethel and as a composer of soundtracks and other pieces. But if Journaling 2 didn't include Mazzoli's Dissolve, O My Heart, then it likely would have passed me by. I'm really glad it didn't, however, because this powerful, intense, and dazzling display by Dufallo is a high water mark for his career and one of the essential new music releases of the year. 

Journaling 2 opens with Kinan Azmeh's fiery How Many Would It Take?, which draws on Azmeh's Syrian ancestry and throws Dufallo's violin into dark waters infested not by sharks but pulsing electronics. It stirs up an amount of atmosphere that belies its brief duration, leading us neatly into Guy Barash's Talkback II, an update on post-war angularity for furiously bowed and plucked violin and interactive digital processing. Mazzoli's piece is gorgeous - full of dark lamentations and Dowland-esque yearning - and would make a nice complement to Garth Knox's piece on the Watras album. 

Lats' aadah by Raven Chacon is even more haunted, pushing Dufallo's violin into stressed harmonics and overtones reminiscent of Morricone's Harmonica theme from Once Upon A Time In The West. Tusch by Armando Bayolo starts off like another jagged overdubbed duet with echoes of Bach, but soon goes into hyperspace with drones and swooping electronic treatments. The album finishes with Dufallo's own composition, Reverie, which, although inspired by an "electronic structure" created by John King, almost has the feel of a series of variations on all that has gone before. Encompassing technology, harmonics, searing melodic passages, extended techniques, and more, it's flashy in all the right ways. In other words, a perfect ending to a mesmerizing album that finds Dufallo shining a brilliant spotlight on 21st century violin music. 

Yaron Deutsch - Pierluigi Billone: Sgorgo Y, N & Oo I've been a fan of Billone's sometimes baffling music for a while so when I noticed this playing on Eule Chris's Spotify account I got excited - a sensation that only increased once I listened. These three works for solo electric guitar give you the sensation of being the instrument. Billone exploits the resonance and sustain of the guitar to the fullest and Deutsch executes every twang and thrum with perfection. It's almost as if Billone asked himself, "If a guitar could dream, what would that sound like?" Or maybe he was an electric guitar in a former life. It's hard to fully describe what's happening in this music so I will just say that fans of Hendrix, Noveller, Luciano Berio, and Jimmy Page's Kenneth Anger soundtracks need to get up on this - STAT. There's another recent Billone release on Kairos but I confess I haven't gotten to it yet - perhaps you'll hear more later.

Del Sol String Quartet - Terry Riley: Dark Queen Mantra Color me embarrassed for continuing to think of Terry Riley as the "In C guy" for all these years. While that landmark work deserves its iconic status, based on this excellent - and addictive - new album (coming out on August 25th), I clearly have some catching up to do. But let's deal with the matter at hand. The title piece was commissioned by the Del Sol in 2015 to celebrate Riley's 80th birthday. It was also an opportunity for them to work with Riley's son Gyan, a shapeshifting and exceptionally skilled guitarist. The three movement work is stylish, substantial and deeply involving. Incorporating melodies inspired by Riley's time in Spain, the intertwining of the five instruments is consistently dazzling and really goes through the roof when Gyan cranks up the distortion in the last movement, furiously chording and playing stinging leads as the strings tag along for the ride. I hear echoes of Scott Johnson's remarkable soundtrack for Paul Schrader's Patty Hearst but this simply brilliant piece more than stands on its own. 

The middle work on the album is the five-movement Mas Lugares by the late bassist/composer Stefan Scodanibbio, a lovely fantasia on themes by Monteverdi. You can hear tendrils of the source material processed through Scodanibbio's thoroughly modern harmonic sensibility in a very effective manner. The piece is dedicated to Luciano Berio, who was also very good at this sort of thing, and the work of both composers is a reminder of a plainchant austerity that meshes so well with 20th and 21st Century music. Riley's The Wheel & Mythic Birds Waltz, an episodic movement full of variety, energy and color, caps off a truly fantastic album. Take my word and pre-order the thing!

This is just the string-driven tip of the iceberg of "classical and composed" music I've been listening to this year. Follow this playlist to find some other things that have caught my ear in 2017 -  and please tell me what I'm missing.

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Record Roundup: Classical Composure
Record Roundup: Composed, Commemorated and Beyond
Best Of 2016: Classical

Best Of 15: Classical & Composed

The preceding 12 months brought the all the usual thinkpieces about the death of classical music, the decline of CD sales, the struggle to fill concert halls, etc. But for us listeners, there was plenty of sounds to surprise and delight. I'm probably only scratching the surface but here goes...

New (Mostly) Music, New Recordings

After the triumph of Become Ocean in 2014, no one would have looked askance if John Luther Adams had decided to take a year off. But the man has a work ethic so there were actually not one but two fascinating new releases in 2015. The Wind In High Places is an exquisite collection featuring three works for strings. The title work, played to perfection by the JACK Quartet, is an ethereal work that asks the players to keep their hands off the fretboards and play only open strings and harmonics. But knowing those technical details is not necessary to enjoy the airy tangles of harmonies woven together by Adams. The second piece, Canticles Of The Sky, was composed for 48 cellos and sounds like a ribbon of pure sound. You might find yourself breathing differently as you listen. The album closes with Dream of the Canyon Wren, also played by the JACK, a series of descending glissandos with some of the puckish wit of Harry Partch. The album is Adams in his prime, which means essential listening.

Ilimaq: Under the Ice, an electro-acoustic collaboration with Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, is a little bit more of a specialty item. Five movements of spacy sounds, pounding tom-toms, and subtle clatters and clangs, without much structure that I can find, make for a piece I don't listen to often. But if the mood is right, there's nothing else like it. As with The Wind In High Places, the recording is a masterpiece in its own right, finely detailed, sonically rich, and involving.

Like Adams' music, the pieces on Clockworking by the Icelandic chamber ensemble Nordic Affect also seem in touch with the natural and physical world. From Beacon To Beacon, by Hafdís Bjarnadóttir, even features the sound of pounding surf or blowing winds among its spiky explorations. Special notice should be taken, here and elsewhere, of the sparkling harpsichord of Guðrún Óskarsdóttir. The six works were commissioned from five local composers (all women, I might add), including superstar Anna Thorvaldsdottir. But while Thorvaldsdottir is the most well-known, I will now be keeping an ear out for the others, especially Maria Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, who wrote the instantly likable opening and closing tracks. If there was ever a new music song of the summer, 2015 would belong to Sigfúsdóttir's Clockworking. Another beautiful recording from Sono Luminus, too.

On the darker end of the spectrum, we have The Soul is the Arena, three stunning works by Mario Diaz de Leon, including Luciform for flute and electronics performed by the great Claire Chase and the title track for bass clarinet and electronics, brilliantly played by Joshua Rubin. Both those works were previously released, however, the former on Chase's Density and the latter on Rubin's There Never Is No Light. So the only new work is the brooding and suspenseful Portals Before Dawn, played here by the International Contemporary Ensemble. It is a gorgeous and sophisticated work, signifying new levels of dynamic flexibility on the part of Diaz de Leon, so get to it whether or not you've already heard those other pieces. 

Speaking of dark, it gets none more black than Jóhann Jóhannsson's soundtrack to the fatalistic thriller Sicario. This is literally the sound of dread and it has to be heard to be believed. For such a small country, Iceland sure knows how to crank out great composers. Hint: it probably starts in the schools.

If you're feeling tense after Sicario, get some rest with Max Richter's Sleep, eight hours of music precision-tooled to lull you to sleep and keep you there. However, I've listened to the shorter version, From Sleep, and you might want to stay awake. It's quite beautiful, Eno ambiance crossed with hushed minimalism. 

When violinist Sarah Plum couldn't find a piece to pair with Sidney Corbett's beautiful, exploratory Yael from 2011 she simply commissioned another violin concerto by Christopher Adler and released them under the name Music For A New Century. There's a lot of variety of moods between Corbett's Yael and Adler's spiky and mysterious Violin Concerto, and Plum's committed and engaging playing makes a more than convincing case for both pieces.

Time Travelers

Three excellent collections compiled music across centuries, some of it newly composed for the occasion. Viola virtuoso Melia Watras assembled Ispirare around the music of George Rochberg and Luciano Berio, putting them in dialog with more recent work by Atar Arad and Shulamit Ran. The Rochberg was a bit stodgy but her performances of the Berio and Ran works were revelatory - get to them so they can get to you.

Orli Shaham explored the songlike piano music of Brahms through some of the music (Schubert, Schumann, Chopin) that he was listening to and newly commissioned works influenced by him. Shaham's stylish and assured playing wove a very satisfying tapestry on Brahms Inspired and it's a great entrée into his keyboard music.  

If there is a choir around that's better than the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart conducted by Marcus Creed, I will personally sing hallelujah in front of a packed house at Carnegie Hall. Their album Italia was an ear-opening traversal through about 100 years of Italian choral music, including works by Verdi, Pizzetti, Scelsi, Nono, and Petrassi. Their recording of Scelsi's TKRDG is likely definitive, hopefully bringing this extraordinary music to a wider audience. 

Old Music, New Recordings

Marcus Creed also shone leading Denmark's DR VokalEnsemblet on L'amour et la foi, a stunning collection of Messiaen's choral music. The perfect introduction to this corner of the master's music.

Also on the choral tip is Salvatore Mundi: The Purcell Legacy, a dreamy compilation of English church music composed by Purcell and in his wake (by Blow, Boyce, Jackson, Handel, etc.) and performed with utmost naturalism by St. Salvator's Chapel Choir with the expert assistance of the Fitzwilliam Quartet. 

I have found, more often than not, that a composer's recording is not the definitive one. This is proved once again by Sir Simon Rattle's new live recording of Witold Lutoslawski's Concerto For Piano And Orchestra with the Berliner Philharmoniker. While the soloist, Krystian Zimerman, is the same as Lutoslawski's own performance from the eighties, this is an altogether more crisp and coherent version of a landmark work of 20th-century modernism. Essential.

Returning from the improvisatory adventures of Silfra, and the ambition of commissioning 27 new pieces, Hilary Hahn came home to Mozart in a new recording of his Violin Concerto No. 5. Paavo Järvi and The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen are the perfect partners in this lyrical and unsentimental performance. It wasn't a warhorse when Mozart wrote it, after all, so there's no reason to play it like one. Belgian composer Henri Vieuxtemps was born about 30 years after Mozart died and is in no way his equal. Hahn takes his stormy Violin Concerto No. 4 at face value, playing it as well as it can be played, but it is filler nonetheless.

Speaking of a return, soprano Renee Fleming has been in the "crossover classical" trenches for a while now so it's nice to see her tackle something meatier: Alban Berg's Lyric Suite, performed here with the Emerson Quartet. The Emerson is really the star in the Berg, as Fleming only appears in an alternate version of the last of six movements. But what a glorious sound they make together! Fleming's lush voice blends perfectly with the strings, fitting Berg's conception of a mini-opera to a T. Fortunately, we get more of this divine combination in a set of five songs by Egon Wellesz, a Berg contemporary who is much less well known. His settings of Sonnets From The Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning are intimate and romantic while still feeling modern. I will be investigating his work further based on this. From the well-designed cover featuring a Klimt painting to the starry participants, this is a release that acknowledges no twilight of the record industry - and why should it?

New Music, Old Recording

Kudos to Wergo for reissuing the out-of-print Nonesuch recording of Morton Subotnick's The Wild Beasts (1978). This work is wild indeed, with Subotnick exploring the more comical side of the trombone alongside his signature electronics. Also included is After The Butterfly (1979), with Mario Guarneri as the adventurous trumpet soloist playing Subotnick's witty score with aplomb. If a butterfly is being described it is a rather bumptious and quirky creature. As the cover says, these are "Landmark Recordings" and it is good to have them readily available again.

Sample the works mentioned with this handy playlist - then follow through with the complete recordings of anything that catches your ear.

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The Inspired Viola Of Melia Watras

Earlier this year, I reviewed Orli Shaham's Brahms Inspired, which featured new compositions alongside the works by old Johannes that sparked their creation. This may be an idea whose time has come as we now have Ispirare by violist Melia Watras, which features two newer works and the pieces that inspired them, plus a bonus Watras was inspired to record because of the inspiration of one of the new composers. Got that?

To quote Julian Craster, the composer from The Red Shoes, "Nothing matters but the music!" - so let's get on with it. The first piece is George Rochberg's 1979 Sonata, performed here with accompaniment from pianist Winston Choi. Rochberg was an American Serialist who famously rejected that controversial form in the 1960's and turned to a sort of mid-century neo-romanticism. In practice, at least in the Sonata, that ends up sounding a bit like 1950's Shostakovich, with sharp dance rhythms and broad melodic statements. While it is not a particularly memorable piece, it's a perfectly pleasant and honest listening experience. 

What really shines in the Rochberg is the performance and the recording. Ispirare is on the Sono Luminus label, which first came to my attention with In The Light Of Air, a staggering album of Anna Thorvaldsdottir's work performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble. [I should review it, but in case I don't have time here's the rub: GET IT.] Like that record, Ispirare is distinguished by a stunning recording, which translates in this case to a real sense of the personality of not only Watras' playing but of her instrument itself. In short, you can hear the wood, in all its depth and humanity. This is something richer than "perfect sound" and on a good system it's astonishing. 

Of course, you can only pay attention to the sound because Watras and Choi are such consummate musicians. It's a shame Rochberg didn't live to hear their performance - I doubt it can be bettered. Speaking of Choi, thanks to the liner notes I will now be seeking out his release of Elliott Carter's complete piano music. However, he is absent on the Rochberg-inspired Caprice Four (George) by Atar Arad, a composer who also taught Watras. 

This short piece, from 2003, is one of a series of a dozen caprices Arad composed as "thank you notes" to composers he admired. While he quotes from Rochberg, the mood of his work is entirely different, with an elegiac and mournful turn and much less adhesion to conventional form. Arad also makes good use of the edges of the Viola's sound and Watras brings his music to life with ease.

No disrespect intended, but both Rochberg and Arad are quickly forgotten when the plainchant opening of Luciano Berio's Black is the color... cuts into the atmosphere like an ancient scimitar. This is just a small part of Berio's Folk Songs project but it may be the most essential. Unlike Rochberg, Berio never tied himself to any movement whatsoever, confidently pursuing his interests wherever they led him. 

A quick survey of recordings of the Folk Songs finds a lot of issues, either with the sonics or the vocal approach. Watras has not only Sono Luminus on her side but also singer Galia Arad (yes, Atal's daughter...small world). Galia has established herself not only as a singer with a tone both lush and direct, but also as an accomplished songwriter. This gives her the freedom to settle into the structure of Berio's conception without concern about "classical" vocal style. She is understated but strong, more than a match for the searing, soaring playing by Watras. It's less than three minutes long but you will beg for hours. 

Berio's song was the choice of Shulamit Ran, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer with roots in Israel. In tribute she came up with Perfect Storm, a 10 minute long solo viola piece that should be quickly taken up by players on the hunt for such repertoire. It feels like an expansion of the slight brutality of the Berio, very song-like and in no way polite. There's an emotional savagery to it that is very satisfying. This world premiere recording sets a high bar but I am hopeful that Perfect Storm will find its place in the culture. 

As mentioned above, Watras was so enamored of Ran's choice that she picked another Berio piece to end the album. Titled Naturale (su melodie siciliane), it is a continuation of his work with folk idioms, although with a southern Italian flair as opposed to the Appalachian bent of Black is the color...  Naturale, at 20 minutes the most substantial piece on Ispirare, features percussion (well-handled by Matthew Kocmieroski) and a startling recording of a Sicilian folksinger singing guttural Italian phrases from time to time. 

But the viola is the star and you feel Berio reveling in its dark and dimensional timbre while exploring its considerable range. Watras feels completely at home in Berio's world, carving her line in the ether like a rivulet of lava in a mountainside. Her performance here has left me desperate to hear her take on Voci, Berio's full-scale viola concerto. While she's at it, she could assay his Sequenza VI for solo viola. Boom - I've just planned out her next album. 

And that's really my only quibble with Ispirare. The Berio-Ran-Berio sequence of the second half is so much stronger than the Rochberg and Atar that the album feels slightly unbalanced. Maybe a playlist with the last three tracks first, leaving the Rochberg and Atar as a palate cleanser would make more emotional sense. But listen for yourself first, and soon. Don't let my critical inquiries come between you and some very fine - and inspired -  music. 

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