Why is it that people still like the story of Tristan und Isolde? “The greatest love story ever!” But why? Of course, there is excitement, drama, love, lust, shame, death, dragons. I think the real reason why is because the love of Tristan und Isolde begins by accident - they drink a love potion. It is almost a laboratory experiment into what love might be like without any of the complications of how real love begins or works - without the excitement, embarrassment, frustration, guilt, or competition present in the courtships of ordinary people. So writes David Lang on why he wove together love fail (2012), into a tapestry of many versions of the 800-year old story. His libretto (with some help from Google Translate) draws from sources such as Lydia Davis, Marie de France, Gottfried von Strassburg, Béroul, Thomas of Britain and Richard Wagner. “I compiled the oddest incidents from these versions of their romance, took out all the names or technological information that would make the texts seem ancient, and put them next to stories by the contemporary author Lydia Davis. These stories are oddly similar to the Tristan stories - they are also about love, honor, and respect between two people, but they are much more recognizable to us. “The resulting 15 movements over 50 minutes for four female voices and sporadic instruments feel more like an elegant contemplation of the timeless subject than an over-the-top Romantic bombast; more Bay Ridge than Bayreuth. Perfect, in fact, for the debonair, post-austere voices of Quince Ensemble. Comprised of vocalists Amanda DeBoer Bartlett (soprano), Kayleigh Butcher (mezzo soprano), Liz Pearse (soprano), and Carrie Henneman Shaw (soprano), Quince thrives on unique musical challenges and genre-bending contemporary repertoire.

David Lang composed "love fail" in 2012 for the vocal quartet Anonymous 4; the work was conceived as a rumination on the timelessness of love, weaving together details from the story of Tristan and Isolde with more modern sources. This newly expanded choral arrangement, performed by the renowned Lorelei Ensemble and conducted by Beth Willer, adds haunting texture and power, as well as a more fully rounded sound, to Lang's austere original. Praised for their "impeccable musicality and pure-voiced precision" by the Boston Globe after the 2016 premiere of this version for women's chorus, Lorelei brings that same unmatched skill to the recording. From the hypnotic layers of the opening "he was and she was" to the almost devoutly meditative mood of "Head, Heart," there's an immediate sense of having captured an entirely new way of experiencing one of Lang's most soulful and mysterious works.

“We group ourselves into nations,” David Lang writes in the program note, “but it has never really been clear to me what that means, or what we get out of it.” In 2014, he wrote The National Anthems, the featured work on Cantaloupe’s new release. The piece uses one line from each national anthem of the United Nations’ 193 countries.

Attempting to find a universal truth in the process of researching the anthems, he instead came to realize they resembled prayers for fleeting freedom rather than confidence in it. By the work's end, what remains sounds like it could be heard inside a church.

Also on the album is his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Little Match Girl Passion. After hearing from nations of people, the piece places similar prayers in the context of one person.

All together, the album has the feeling of clutching hands. Whether you believe in patriotism or not, it reminds us that everyone in the world holds onto something — whether it’s words, a melody or that which we hope is true.

– WQXR-FM (Elena Saavedra Buckley)

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