Audio reviews from February 2021
It is remarkable how the energy of the performers allows the more abstract pieces on the album to shimmer and captivate. Such is the case with James Sommerville's striking horn playing in Martin Bresnick's Just Time, a cerebral study of ratios applied to polyrhythms using the eleventh partial in the style of natural horn playing. In the program notes, a lovely connection between the composers is revealed. Martin Bresnick was a teacher to Julia Wolfe, which provides an element of unity to the works on the album. Another cerebral work, Ligeti's Ten Pieces is often discouraged from performance due to its aggressive nature and intensely detailed textures, but it sparkles in this recording even in the most forceful altissimo passages of the clarinet.
- Andrea Vos-Rochefort