VOX, the premiere recording of the Heare Ensemble, celebrates the 90th birthday of iconic American composer George Crumb with a scintillating rendition of VOX BALAENAE [Voice of the Whale] for Three Masked Players: Electric Flute, Electric Cello, and Electric Piano (1971).The Heare Ensemble (Jennie Oh Brown, flutes; Jennifer Blyth, piano; and Kurt Fowler, cello) first performed Vox Balaenae as graduate students at the Eastman School of Music. Since then, the ensemble has performed this powerful, environmentally-conscious piece more than 25 times. It was written after Crumb heard hydrophone recordings of Humpback whale song that opened up a whole new/ancient sonic world; timeless, reverberant, atmospheric. Additional works on the album were programmed for their thematic relevance to Crumb’s ideas. Having grown up and lived for many years in Virginia, the ambient sound of the Appalachian Mountains infused much of Crumb’s writing. Stacy Garrop’s Silver Dagger is based on an Appalachian folk song. The lyrics contain many variants on the Romeo and Juliet theme, one of which is a boy asks a girl for her parents’ consent to marry, the parents won’t give approval, so the girl and boy each end their lives with a silver dagger. In the spirit of Crumb’s expansion of the Western musical pallette, the ensemble chose a work by Thai composer Narong Prangcharoen. The title references the Thai porcelain, Bencharong, typically created using three to eight colors and often given on special occasions, such as weddings. Prangcharoen illustrates the colors of Bencharong pottery in each dynamic movement. Carter Pann’s Melodies for Robert was written as a loving homage to the late Robert Vincent Jones, an American war hero, respected physician, and cherished father. In contrast to Crumb’s de-personalization of the masked performers on stage, in Pann’s piece, the openness of humanity is celebrated. Melodies for Robert was commissioned by SDG Music Foundation and premiered by the Heare Ensemble in 2017.

Classical Music

Houston-based ROCO is one of the most innovative, boundary-pushing ensembles performing today, committed to building new connections to audiences, creating new repertoire and embracing new technology. For their debut album, they asked their musicians to pick their favorite pieces from ROCO’s repertoire, and what rose to the top were five of the orchestra’s then fifty-eight world premiere commissions (now going on seventy-five by the end of the current season). Music includes Karim Al-Zand’s haunting ‘Visions from Another World,’ Reena Esmail’s pulsing, unpredictable ‘Teen Murti,’ Derek Bermel’s tender ‘Murmurations’ (hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as “delightful and often intriguing”), Anthony DiLrenzo’s whimsical ‘Jabberwocky,’ and Marcus Maroney’s Bartok-inspired ‘Concerto for Chamber Orchestra.’ ROCO is a professional ensemble that flexes from 1 to 40 players from all over the US and Canada, with guest artists from around the world. Performing intimate concerts in dozens of venues, ROCO’s musicians don’t just give concerts, they challenge preconceptions, create extraordinary experiences, and foster new relationships with audiences through the language of music.

“Gerald Levinson’s world is very much his own, a world of superb orchestral brilliance, vivid gesture, strong, pliable rhythm and long-reaching form... One might feel even that he has not invented but discovered the finest of his works, as relics of an ancient civilization might be unexpectedly discovered in some jungle.” (Paul Griffiths) Now hear Levinson’s music for yourself with Innova’s sweeping new retrospective – Now Your Colors Sing – that spans over 40 years of his output, from small to large. The centerpiece is An?hata (Symphony No. 1), in a brilliant concert performance by the American Composers Orchestra, conducted by Hugh Wolff, who had commissioned the work. This exuberant, colorful work for large orchestra with expanded metal percussion is infused with influences from North Indian ragas, Balinese gamelan, and a sense of drama from the Western tradition. The Sanskrit title refers to “unstruck” sounds, symbolizing an entry into a deeper state of awareness of the cosmos. Wolff also conducts another major symphonic work on this recording: Avatar, commissioned for Christoph Eschenbach’s inauguration as Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The title suggests again the potential for music to embody transcendent energies. These works are complemented by three other large-scale compositions: Now Your Colors Sing for double string orchestra – whose title (citing a remark to Chagall by his former teacher) sums up one of Levinson’s defining musical characteristics; At the Still Point of the Turning World, There the Dance Is for a somewhat jazz-like ensemble of low reeds and strings with guitar and percussion; and Au Coeur de l’infini for organ, recorded on the great organ of Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris — currently undergoing major restoration after the 2019 fire — for which it was conceived, by its celebrated organist, Olivier Latry.

If one has never been to St. Petersburg, Russia, it is difficult to describe its particular strangeness; the slightly otherworldly quality captured so well by authors from Gogol to Dostoevsky to Colum McCann. When New York native Timothy Dunne went to Russia to study with Sergei Slonimsky at the State Conservatory of St. Petersburg, he found its “otherness” to be an ideal space in which to shift a career based on performance to one based on writing. There, he had to work through different musical, cultural and linguistic challenges, ultimately crafting works The New York Times would call “strikingly written.” His Innova Recordings debut, Metaphrase, is a collection of those works. The album’s title comes from the term for a creative chain reaction by which one artwork- literary, musical or otherwise- inspires a conscious re-telling or re-fashioning. This concept opens the album with Braid, a metaphrase on Dunne’s own Ribbon. It comes to the fore in Margarita Metaphrase, written in appreciation for Slonimsky and appropriating music from his 1972 chamber opera based on Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel, The Master and Margarita. Throughout, Dunne’s works reveal a rich and turbulent creativity in search of a fresh, modernist grammar. Would the kind of fracturing, reassembling and exploration that he finds himself pursuing have been possible without the influence of St. Petersburg on Dunne’s work? The tricky thing is that eventually, the threads that make up something become so woven together as to be inextricable. Writing about these works, Nigel Osborne said Dunne’s compositions constitute “a field of complete originality where atonality meets the ghosts of tonality, and figure meets ground in a wild and open space.”

Giantess marks the second solo album of flutist Jennie Oh Brown. A deeply personal project, this album is dedicated to her late grandmothers. Both grew up, raised families, and survived during a time when Korea was ravaged by war, oppression, and poverty. This collection of works captures their spirits through stories of courage, wonder, faith, struggle, and loss. 2016 Pulitzer Prize Finalist Carter Pann joins Brown as collaborative pianist on his own works, as well as Shulamit Ran’s Birds of Paradise. A vibrant and colorful work, the brilliance of Bird’s outer movements beautifully frame the soulful second. Pann’s Giantess embodies its title in this heroic work for flute and piano. It is contrasted with Pann’s Melodies for Robert for flute, cello, and piano, where lush harmonies bring a calm lyricism to the movements. Valerie Coleman’s Wish Sonatine depicts the passage through which Africans were trafficked across the Atlantic. Misook Kim’s Amazing Grace is derived from the hymn while taking motivic ideas from the Korean folksong Arirang. Visionary composer Augusta Read Thomas’ work for flute and string quartet, Plea for Peace, was written to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the world’s first nuclear reactor. Jennie Oh Brown is a founding member of Picosa, a Chicago based ensemble dedicated to music that crosses boundaries of genre and time. She is also on the faculties of Wheaton and Elmhurst Colleges.

Hyper-virtuosic Vietnamese traditional music enters the experimental world with a bang. Van-Anh Vanessa Vo and Kronos Quartet are worthy matches for this daring, iconoclastic crossover that pushes both into new and thrilling territory.

Since the release of their debut album, the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet have established themselves as master arrangers and interpreters of music from a broad range of genres and time periods. With their fifth release, Thrum, the ensemble returns to their roots with four world premiere recordings of compositions written for the MGQ in the last decade.

Provenance is the latest release from Maya Beiser, hailed by The New Yorker as a “cello goddess” and by the San Francisco Chronicle as “the queen of post-minimalist cello.” The title means ‘origins,’ referring to both Maya’s personal history and the intertwining cultural traditions that course through this stunning disc. On some selections, the rich-hued sound of Maya’s cello is heard on its own; on others, she’s accompanied by Lebanese-American master musicians Jamey Haddad (percussion) and Bassam Saba (oud), with percussionist Shane Shanahan. The culminating track is a dazzling arrangement of Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir for multi-tracked cello and drumkit, featuring studio legend Jerry Marotta (Peter Gabriel, Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello).

Provenance brings together music by contemporary composers from Armenia, Kurdish Iran, Israel, the US, and the UK. It was inspired by the Golden Age of Medieval Spain, when Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together, giving rise to a centuries-long flowering of commerce, culture, art and architecture. Likewise, Maya grew up in an Israeli kibbutz at the foothills of the Galilee Mountains, co-existing in harmony with neighboring Muslim and Christian Arab villages. Provenance is inspired by that experience, celebrating the glory of a multi-religious, multicultural civilization and the hope of lasting peace.

Kayhan Kalhor’s I Was There by is based on a melody by the ninth-century Persian Kurdish musician Ziryab, a former slave who became the most influential musician of his time. Armenia’s unique musical tradition is represented by Djivan Gasparian’s haunting Memories. Gasparian is one of Armenia’s greatest living musicians, a virtuoso player of the traditional double-reed Duduk.

Mar de Leche (Sea of Milk) by Israeli composer Tamar Muskal draws on an ancient love song in Ladino, the mixture of Hebrew and Spanish spoken by medieval Sephardic Jews, whose music blended Arabic and Jewish traditions. Douglas J Cuomo, composer of the theme to Sex and the City and the chamber opera Arjuna’s Dilemma (Innova 697), contributes Only Breath; inspired by a poem by Rumi, it builds slowly from a meditative opening to a virtuosic climax. Led Zeppelin’s Middle Eastern-tinged Kashmir, heard in an arrangement by Evan Ziporyn, makes a fitting close to this compelling disc.

Cellist Maya Beiser has captivated audiences worldwide with her virtuosity, eclectic repertoire, and relentless quest to redefine her instrument’s boundaries. She is a featured performer on the world’s most prestigious stages, from Lincoln Center to the Sydney Opera House and the Taipei International Festival. Appearances in Barcelona, Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, and San Francisco have brought her acclaim worldwide. She has collaborated with artists across a wide range of musical styles, including Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Mark O’Connor, Steve Reich, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, and Tan Dun (Crouching Tiger Concerto), among many others.

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2009 marked the 45th anniversary of Terry Riley's minimalist manifesto In C, and to celebrate the occasion Innova offers a group of "remixes" from 15 individual composers and one collaborating duo. Remixes are the fashion for today's classical composers steeped in contemporary pop music and DJ culture, and happily, each of these 16 tracks treats Riley's material with affection and high spirits while projecting their own individual viewpoints.

Certain ones stand out. Jack Dangers' "In C--Semi-Detached" launches into In C more or less according to Hoyle before slow-moving, whooshing textures and sustained chords slowly enter the fray. Mason Bates, in his "Masonic" persona, makes liberal use of popping percussive effects and gorgeous, strategically-placed piano chords, presenting Riley's repeating patterns largely in reverse sequence. DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid's remix is essentially Riley, laced with sustained timbres and subtle rhythmic manipulation. Daniel Bernard Roumain's "Zachary's Dream" features the violinist/composer emerging center-stage in the final few minutes. Perhaps the Mikael Karlsson/Rob Stephenson collaboration "Xenoglossia" strays farthest from the source, with its almost static transparency and collage-like juxtapositions. String-like sonorities in lower and higher registers shift and wander around without going anywhere in David Lang's "simple mix".

Best of all, however, is the original In C itself, where the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble under Bill Ryan presents one of the most colorful, texturally varied, rhythmically incisive, and intensely expressive renditions I've ever experienced, live or on disc. It may be brief (20 minutes), but it has a lot to say. If you're an In C fan, you'll surely want this stimulating and exceptionally well-engineered release.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

For over a decade, the Cassatt String Quartet has collaborated with the composer Gerald Cohen. “Telling stories through music is central to all I do as a composer and performer – most explicitly in my operas and vocal works, but also in purely instrumental works such as those on this album,” said Gerald Cohen. “This album is the culmination of the voyage I have taken with the Cassatt String Quartet during the past decade. I will always be grateful for the collaboration with these wonderful colleagues.”