Back in April 2014 at Carnegie's Zankel Hall, Augustin Hadelich's performance of David Lang's 'mystery sonatas' was praised by the New York Times as a riveting display of “magisterial poise and serene control.” That same magic penetrates this starkly beautiful recording of the work, played by Hadelich on the exquisite 1723 “ex-Kiesewetter” Stradivari, on loan to him by its current owners since 2011. Lang based his 'mystery sonatas' on the famous pieces by Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, but with a modern twist. “I decided to make my own virtuosic pieces about my most intimate, most spiritual thoughts,” he explains, “[but] mine are not about Jesus, and the violin is not retuned between movements. I did keep one of Biber's distinctions. He divides Jesus's life into three phases—the joyous, the sorrowful, and the glorious. The central pieces of my mystery sonatas are called 'joy,' 'sorrow,' and 'glory,' but these are all quiet, internal, reflective states of being.”

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REVIEW:

The violinist Augustin Hadelich premiered this work in 2014 to considerable acclaim. His warm, commanding tone perfectly matches this open and intensely sincere music. This recording is an instant classic.

– Music for Several Instruments

Commissioned by Carnegie Hall and Stanford Lively Arts to go on a program with his piece the little match girl passion, death speaks draws it's initial inspiration from the work of Schubert - specifically the song "Death and the Maiden." The five-part "death speaks" features Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), Bryce Dessner (The National), Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy) and Nico Muhly, and was produced by Bryce Dessner. "[Connects] the dots between Romantic morbidity and emo rock." - New York Times

A New York Times 25 Best Classical Track Selection for 2019

An homage to the campy and spine-chilling horror films of the 1940s, the stage version of Acquanetta combines theater, opera and film to explore the world of a real-life B-movie star with a mysterious past. Known for her exotic beauty, Acquanetta—aka Mildred Davenport—was the star of such cult films as Captive Wild Woman, Jungle Woman, The Sword of Monte Cristo, and Tarzan and the Leopard Woman, before she disappeared from public life. Michael Gordon's soaring and often comic score, with text by librettist Deborah Artman, is a vivid metaphor for the ways in which the movie camera manipulates how we see and are seen. The cast of characters, featuring Mikaela Bennett (Acquanetta), Amelia Watkins (Brainy Woman), Eliza Bagg (Ape), Matt Boehler (Director) and Timur (Doctor), reveals inner longings and emotional shadows in a spooky meditation on identity, transformation, stereotypes and typecasting, set in the heyday of Hollywood glamor.

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REVIEW:

This piece of music theater, about a B-movie star of the 1940s, was smartly staged as a film within an opera at the Prototype festival in 2018. It works nearly as well audio-only, thanks to a strong cast, Deborah Artman’s crafty libretto and Mr. Gordon’s pummeling yet melodious brand of post-Minimalism.

– New York Times (Seth Colter Walls)

Scored for 24 unaccompanied voices, Anonymous Man is an hour-long piece that expands on Michael Gordon’s eclectic approach to composition, layering minimalistic swirls of vocal sound on top of one another to create a hypnotic incantation. Gordon drew inspiration for the piece from his neighborhood in lower Manhattan. “When I moved into my loft on Desbrosses Street, the streets were empty, since few people lived there. But both then and now, there were the homeless. Over time, the neighborhood changed from an industrial warehouse district to a residential area. Anonymous Man is a memoir about my block. The piece is built around my memories of moving in, meeting my future wife for the first time there, and conversations I've had with two men who made their home on the loading dock across the street.” Performing this tour de force is the Philadelphia-based choir The Crossing. Conducted by Donald Nally, The Crossing was formed by a group of friends in 2005 and has dedicated itself to expanding the contemporary choral music experience through commissions, collaborations, community, and performances that are characterized by a distinctive unity of sound and spirit.

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REVIEW:

Michael Gordon's Anonymous Man is a major work from a major composer in the so-called Minimalist camp. It is a personal reflection on home and homelessness, life and death, and being with and without. It has to do with living in his NYC neighborhood from the time it was a largely abandoned industrial zone through to its gentrification. It is about several homeless men who lived across from him there.

It has pulsating sections and others that gently overlap themselves within themselves. The mood is thoughtful. Time passes and backtracks. There is the inexorable, somehow.

The Crossing are the ideal group to make of this music something special. And they do. It is not music that is self-evident or predictable, even if you know Michael Gordon’s music well. It is the opposite of banal, yet it expresses an experience of things filled with a sameness. It is filled with a ruminative facticity that perhaps fits perfectly the mood of current locked-down stasis within a jarring turn of things to pass.

– Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review

The meeting of legendary Kronos Quartet and ground-breaking composer Michael Gordon has the feel of inevitability about it, but while both have been powerhouses in contemporary music from the 1980s onwards, it wasn’t until 2000 that Gordon wrote his first piece for string quartet, Potassium. Mutual respect and admiration has resulted in a productive collaboration, and this CD brings us the results.

Clouded Yellow uses a certain amount of electronic manipulation of the quartet sound, from the bird-like falling sounds in the opening and some textural effects later on, but the strings are distinctive enough. The ‘flying’ feel in the music relates to a title that refers to a species of butterfly that migrates to England.

Potassium takes some of its ‘blown-out’ sound from an earlier work, Industry for cello and electronics. The strings are sent though distortion filters in the opening, their downward and upward glissandi a heightened sequence of cadences that hold both angst and a counterbalancing sense of logical inevitability. At the halfway point a related but new energy starts up, with violin glissandi now fast and punchy over ostinato notes from viola and cello. This takes on a magical tonal aspect, out of which the opening glissando ‘theme’ emerges with new meaning. Too much beauty cannot be allowed to survive for long however, and the previous energy bursts in to deliver a spectacular coda, the final gesture of which is a kind of musical reaching for the skies.

The Sad Park is a legacy of the tragic events of 11th September 2001 when the World Trade Centre towers in New York were destroyed in that infamous terrorist attack. A recording is used of children’s voices from pre-school children who lived in the shadow of the towers, recounting what they had seen and experienced. In the first of four movements the voice is stretched into a haunting whale-song over which the quartet weaves chords in an ostinato rhythm. The second movement is partly fragmented, but its repetitions inspire a lyrical keening from the strings. The voice is given a momentary clarity on which the strings comment with related material out of which voices return with a rhythmic character that takes us into the third movement. The voices here are stretched beyond recognition, to my ears developing an introvert but everlasting cry. The final movement throws in extra effects for the quartet, an octave pedal adding extra bass and distortion turning the music into something akin to a weighty rock-band. The association with voices and string quartet takes us instantly to Different Trains by Steve Reich, and the one probably wouldn’t exist without the other, but Michael Gordon’s treatment is disturbing and personal – a highly effective expression of new life in the midst of horror and death.

Exalted for string quartet and choir is performed here with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, on whose website we are told that the text used is “the English translation of the first word of the Mourner’s Kaddish, one of the most important and central prayers in the Jewish liturgy written 2500 years ago in Aramaic, the language spoken at that time. The text of Exalted, a lament in memory of Mr. Gordon’s father, consists entirely of the Kaddish’s first four words–Yi-ga-dal, v’yis ka-dash, sh’may, and ra-bo.” This connects to each of the other pieces here for one reason or another, but in particular to The Sad Park as “it very much draws a line to the people who died in the towers.” This is a passionate lament, filled with a drive and energy that only lets up in the final dissolution into descending clusters in the voices.

This is a thought provoking release, but one that sees the Kronos Quartet still on top form, and Michael Gordon’s creativity very much an unstoppable force. Poetic, powerful and moving by turns, this is a release no self-respecting contemporary music fan should be without.

– MusicWeb International (Dominy Clements)

In 1978, Brian Eno put out Music for Airports, his first 'ambient' album. It was a four-part piece, composed in the studio, devoid of all but the most basic aspects of song, challenging listeners to re-imagine what music might be. Twenty years later, Bang on a Can All-Stars created their own version of the work with live musicians, all the while staying true to the source by working with Eno. It was released on record in 1998 to wide acclaim. Ten years later, Cantaloupe Music released a live version of Music for Airports as a digital-only release. To this day, the All-Stars frequently perform the classic work live. Of such a live performance, the Village Voice remarked, 'It was beautiful, and best enjoyed while lying flat on your back and staring straight up, through the palm trees and the sunroof to the deep night outside, with the neighboring, towering buildings overhead appearing to curve inward around you as breathy keyboards slowly gave way to meandering clarinet'. The Bang on a Can All-Stars, with their unparalleled musicality, their international touring, award-winning cds and far ranging commissioning programs, have become one of the most powerful ambassadors for contemporary music in the world. For all their efforts, Musical America recognized the All-Stars in 2004 as Ensemble of the Year. 'One of the most visceral performing groups around', the London Independent raved.

Conducted by Paul Hillier since 2003, Denmark's Ars Nova Copenhagen has built an immovable reputation as one of the world’s most versatile and inventive vocal ensembles. First Drop is testament to that spirit; it’s a wide-ranging and ambitious project that interprets the choral work of some of the giants of contemporary classical music, including Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Louis Andriessen, Michael Gordon, David Lang and more. “Almost all the works on this [release] are first recordings,” Hilliar explains, referring to one source of inspiration behind the title. “Ideally we wanted the idea of First Drop to remain ambiguous, but the diligent listener will sooner or later notice that it originates with Ralph Waldo Emerson.” Recorded over a stretch of nearly ten years, in different locations and with different configurations of singers, the performances documented here still come across as parts of a seamless whole. From the haunting strains of Michael Gordon’s “He Saw A Skull” (composed specifically for the twelve voices of Ars Nova) to Hillier’s vocal arrangement of Steve Reich’s classic “Clapping Music,” First Drop channels a vernal energy that’s unparalleled in new vocal music.

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REVIEW:

It’s difficult to resist the notion that everything Denmark’s leading vocal ensemble touch turns into sonorous gold. Recorded by Ars Nova Copenhagen over a period of 10 years under their inspirational director, Paul Hillier, ‘First Drop’ exudes all the freshness and vitality of a spring shower on a sunny day.

– Gramophone

Reviewing the 2015 world premiere of composer Donnacha Dennehy and playwright Enda Walsh's opera The Last Hotel, The Guardian's Kate Molleson was smitten by "a dark drama in which death hangs over every move – the titular hotel is a shabby establishment where guests go to kill themselves." That description alone is all the listener needs to appreciate the visceral energy of the performances captured here by Claudia Boyle, Robin Adams, Katherine Manley and actor Mikel Murfi (whose presence as the silent Porter is more implied than directly felt), all ably supported by the agile, dynamic sound of Ireland's renowned Crash Ensemble, conducted by Alan Pierson. Modern musical theater has consistently pushed against the boundaries of what constitutes "opera," in the traditional Western classical sense; The Last Hotel is firmly rooted in that vanguard, merging the grit and gall of experimental theater and independent arthouse films with the crackling trajectory of post-classical chamber music.

Percussionist Steve Schick [an origianl member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars] releases his first full-length CD on Cantaloupe Music in conjunction with his first book - which promises to be the definitive volume about percussion in the 20th-21st Century. A former percussionist himself, John Luther Adams finds music from the earth and brings it to life in composition - expect an unadulterated ambient soundscape that takes a journey through different sonic textures and environments, aided by a beautiful production and Schick's breathtaking performance.

Includes 1 CD & 1 DVD

Awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music, John Luther Adams’ Become Ocean was commissioned and premiered by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Ludovic Morlot in June 2013. In May 2014 the orchestra and Morlot took Become Ocean to Carnegie Hall for the annual Spring for Music festival.

Become Ocean is a 45-minute-long work for full orchestra. Adams borrowed the title from a verse by composer John Cage, written in honor of fellow composer Lou Harrison’s birthday. Describing Harrison’s music, Cage wrote, “Listening to it / we become / ocean.” A visionary whose life and work are deeply rooted in the natural world, Adams inscribed the following statement on the score of Become Ocean, “Life on this earth first emerged from the sea. As the polar ice melts and sea level rises, we humans find ourselves facing the prospect that once again we may quite literally become ocean.”

R E V I E W:

With their first collaboration, Ludovic Morlot, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and composer John Luther Adams have struck gold. Become Ocean, Morlot's first large-scale commission as music director of the SSO, is a symphonic work that feels even vaster than its forty-two-minute span. By dividing the large ensemble into three interlocking orchestras, Adams created a score that works on multiple levels: it's an abstract sonic experience at one extreme and, at the other, an evocation of nature and its irresistible force.

-- Thomas May, Listen Magazine

Lauded by the New York Times as a "...hypnotic and ethereally beautiful invocation of wind, sky and birdsong," John Luther Adams's Canticles of the Holy Wind, performed by the renowned chamber choir The Crossing, is quite possibly his most technically challenging choral work, and yet the music's mesmerizing aura of stillness encourages listening at its most elemental. The piece was composed for four choirs of eight singers each, and moves through spaces that are as fantastical ("Sky with Four Suns") as they are peaceful ("The Hour of the Doves"), always with a connection to the inner world within us, as well as the world around us. "John allows us to interrupt our otherwise endlessly forward-tumbling lives," notes Donald Nally, The Crossing's conductor, "and experience these sounds as if we were sitting in the woods for an hour. An hour of wind and of sky and of birds. We are drawn to this music, not just for the beauty of its shimmering harmonies and the overwhelming climactic moments, but also for way it inspires a ‘hearing’ of nature, in real time, as we sing it."

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REVIEW:

There are 34 singers listed in The Crossing, a professional chamber choir founded about a decade ago. The singing, always controlled and disciplined, also has the ring of uninhibited spontaneity to it. It’s as if, for a little more than an hour, the singers cease to be humans and transform themselves into the skies, the birds, and winds, and the Earth itself.

It might be a little too intense for some listeners, like a good storm, but Canticles of the Holy Winds is one of the most impressive things I’ve heard so far in 2017. This disc will be on my Want List for sure.

– Fanfare (R. Tuttle)

Playful, eloquent, intimate and existentially cool, Terry Riley's Autodreamographical Tales is a musical dream diary - a no-holds-barred journey into the creative unconscious, rendered with a compelling joie de vivre by one of the most influential composers of our time. Each of these ten songs offers an uncommonly special connection with Riley, who narrates, sings and adds his signature minimalist piano filigrees to a sprawling narrative that can turn poetic, picaresque or downright kaleidoscopic. Backed by the ever-flexible Bang on a Can All-Stars, Riley challenges the ensemble by digging deep into a wide range of musical flavors that includes free jazz, blues, rock, pop and classical. And through the vivid storytelling of "Long Bus Ride" and "Zucchini" to the Jabberwockyan wordplay of "Science Fiction" and the raucous confessional "Cannabis," Riley also bends and stretches the very limits of language - conveying a multivalent message for these times that is pithy, positive and powerful.