\n<\/p>\n
Seong-Jin Cho, piano (Deutsche Grammophon)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Seong-Jin Cho\u2019s 2017 Debussy recording<\/a> was full of bold colors and sharply delineated textures, which suited that composer perfectly. So I had high hopes for this set of Ravel\u2019s complete solo piano works. Surprisingly, it leaves a more mixed impression. As elsewhere, Cho plays with remarkable sensitivity and easily meets the music\u2019s technical demands. Yet the high refinement of his pianism sometimes drains these works of their intensity and expressive focus.<\/p>\n \u201cJeux d\u2019Eau,\u201d for example, is beautifully articulated but muted in its sonority, missing the atmosphere other pianists have elicited. I loved Cho\u2019s dignified, unsentimental approach to \u201cPavane pour une Infante D\u00e9fante,\u201d but that works less well in \u201cValses Nobles et Sentimentales.\u201d The nightmarish atmosphere of \u201cGaspard de la Nuit\u201d emerges only fitfully, though the control and dexterity are wondrous.<\/p>\n The five-movement \u201cMiroirs\u201d is a microcosm of this album\u2019s strengths and weaknesses. The birdsong of \u201cOiseaux Tristes\u201d has rarely sounded so desolate, and, with carefully layered dynamics, the bells of \u201cLa Vall\u00e9e des Cloches\u201d seem to drift in from another world. The more extroverted pieces leave less of an impression, as Cho seems determined to rein in \u201cUne Barque sur l\u2019Oc\u00e9an\u201d and \u201cAlborada del Gracioso.\u201d There is so much to admire here, but I just wish Cho had found a bit more in music he plays so well. DAVID WEININGER<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Crossing; Donald Nally, conductor (Cantaloupe)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n With \u201cpoor hymnal,\u201d David Lang has written hymns for a religion that doesn\u2019t exist. There\u2019s no book of worship or complicated dogma. Its only document is this hymnal, which, over and over again, proclaims the virtues of charity and compassion for those less fortunate.<\/p>\n Lang fashions lyrics from Bible verse, the Haggadah, Tolstoy and Barack Obama for a collection of sorrowful, monastic a cappella pieces in four-part harmony. The vocal lines move in straightforward, rise-and-fall patterns, and solos have an intimate candor. Church altos will recognize Lang\u2019s loving re-creation of their boring harmonizations of the soprano part.<\/p>\n In the score, Lang writes that his imaginary congregation wants to \u201cmake our responsibilities to each other the central tenet of our coming together.\u201d The worshipers only ever encounter godhead when providing service to the outcast.<\/p>\n The piece doesn\u2019t escape the temptations of self-flagellation and guilt wracking. With a somber, tear-stained tone, Lang mourns his project\u2019s impossibility. Perhaps as countermand, he instructs the singers to be \u201cdirect,\u201d \u201cplain-spoken\u201d and \u201cnot overly sentimental.\u201d The canny chamber musicians of the Crossing, conducted by Donald Nally, oblige with smooth, dry-eyed luminosity that sustains a gently haunted air.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n And so the work\u2019s title has at least two meanings: This hymnal contains songs for the poor, but it has also fallen into neglect and disuse, its lessons as simple to understand as they are difficult to practice. OUSSAMA ZAHR<\/p>\n Adam Tendler, piano (New Amsterdam)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The origins of \u201cInheritances,\u201d a collection of miniatures written for the pianist Adam Tendler, are as universal as they are unusual. We all experience loss, as Tendler did when his father died several years ago; few of us, though, receive the inheritance of a cash-filled envelope. He used the money to commission<\/a> these pieces from some of his closest friends. After presenting them in concert, he has recorded them on an album with a prevailingly contemplative mood, but also a variety of perspectives and approaches that accumulate into a sculptural view of grief and remembrance.<\/p>\n Many works here take advantage of Tendler\u2019s adventurousness and muscular skill. Missy Mazzoli\u2019s \u201cForgiveness Machine\u201d has the unrelenting force of heartbroken rage, and Inti Figgis-Vizueta\u2019s \u201chushing\u201d conjures similar might. But there is also the aching suspension of John Glover\u2019s \u201cIn the City of Shy Hunters,\u201d the bright wonder of Ang\u00e9lica Negr\u00f3n\u2019s \u201cYou Were My Age\u201d and the uncanny comfort of Marcos Balter\u2019s \u201cFalse Memories.\u201d<\/p>\n Laurie Anderson\u2019s wistful \u201cRemember, I Created You\u201d incorporates spoken word and artificial intelligence; Tendler\u2019s own voice is sampled in Pamela Z\u2019s \u201cThank You So Much,\u201d which, in its extended technique, also nods to John Cage, a specialty of Tendler\u2019s. He is most exposed in Darian Donovan Thomas\u2019s \u201cWe don\u2019t need to tend this garden. They\u2019re wildflowers,\u201d a musicalized therapy session in which Tendler reminisces, comes to realizations and slides into self-accompanied singing. You will be moved, profoundly and intensely. JOSHUA BARONE<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Alarm Will Sound; Alan Pierson, conductor (Nonesuch)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Many of the best works of the Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy have a tangible link to the history or geography of his homeland. Think of the use of traditional sean-n\u00f3s singing in the song cycle \u201cGr\u00e1 agus B\u00e1s,\u201d or the Great Famine\u2019s presence in \u201cThe Hunger.\u201d In this new, mesmerizing work \u2014 named for Hibernia, the classical Latin name for Ireland \u2014 he tries to capture one of the country\u2019s distinctive but elusive features: the quality of light particular to each of its seasons. Divided into a dozen movements (one for each month), \u201cLand of Winter\u201d begins in December, where shivering harmonics and rumbling bass tones conjure a piercing sunlight that slices through the cold, darkness never far away. Rhythmic energy takes over as the piece moves toward spring, with playful dances in April, scat-singing in May and languorous swells in June.<\/p>\n Dennehy\u2019s shrewd, sensitive ear for timbre is a large part of what makes \u201cLand of Winter\u201d such enveloping listening. Just as important, though, is the ingenious way that his overtone-rich harmony and use of refrains conveys both cyclicality and change. The way the light swirls through the Irish air, the composer seems to say, is a phenomenon both familiar and mutable over time, so that by the time we arrive at November \u2014 granitic and slow, and with allusions to a Bach chorale \u2014 we are back where we began the winter\u2019s journey, and yet time also seems to have moved ineluctably, even a bit sadly, forward. DAVID WEININGER<\/p>\n Stile Antico (Decca)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The superb vocal ensemble Stile Antico concludes its anniversary-themed \u201cGolden Renaissance\u201d triptych with Palestrina, who was born 500 years ago this December. Following albums devoted to Josquin des Prez (died in 1521<\/a>) and William Byrd<\/a> (died in 1623), this final installment is a concise introduction to an Italian master whose flawlessly smooth, celestially shining sacred polyphony loomed over the second half of the 16th century.<\/p>\n Stile Antico\u2019s central offering is Palestrina\u2019s great \u201cMissa Papae Marcelli,\u201d but the ensemble cleverly alternates its sections with six shorter works: \u201cExultate Deo,\u201d gently surging; a pure \u201cTu es Petrus\u201d; the stunningly serene, deeply felt \u201cSicut cervus\u201d; a 12-voice \u201cLaudate Dominum in tympanis\u201d; a \u201cSalve Regina\u201d that, in this company, is strikingly austere; and \u201cAssumpta est Maria,\u201d which draws the program to a joyous conclusion.<\/p>\n But the \u201cMissa Papae Marcelli\u201d is in every way at the core of the album: Listen to the longing of the \u201cKyrie eleison\u201d and, in the \u201cGloria,\u201d the quiet build to rapture of \u201cQui tollis peccata mundi.\u201d Stile Antico sings this complex yet elegantly polished music with the group\u2019s usual combination of lushness and focus, stillness and energy, bringing expression and nuance to what can sometimes slip into coolly uniform gorgeousness. ZACHARY WOOLFE<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nDavid Lang: \u2018poor hymnal\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Inheritances\u2019<\/h2>\n
Donnacha Dennehy: \u2018Land of Winter\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018The Golden Renaissance: Palestrina\u2019<\/h2>\n