Gomitolo!
Bruce Leto, Jr., piano.
Navona 6308
Total Time:  23:45
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Sound Visionaries
Christina Petrowska Quilico, piano.
Navona 6358
Total Time:  69:11
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

In the 20^th Century, France became a sort of center for the new modernist musical approaches that built on the Belle Epoque romanticism and salon music coupled with Wagnerian harmonic freedom.  From Impressionism into the Les Six modern styles and exploration of jazz rhythms and harmonies, a number of works for piano helped further expand musical horizons into the era between the World Wars.

The first album noted here was released in 2020 and focuses mostly on this earlier cmusic with a collection of piano pieces predominantly by Francis Poulenc (seven quite brief piece).  These explore aspects of this salon atmosphere with brushstrokes alluding to European life from “Francaise” (after Gervaise) and “Sicilienne”, a work that pays tribute to Schubert (“Improvisations No. 12 in Eb”), an impromptu (no. 3) and a movement from his Novelettes.  Also included here are two works by Ravel that pay homage to earlier eras and flirt with the composer’s own Neo-Classical bents (Menuet sur le nom de Haydn; Valse: A la manière de Borodine).  These pieces help broaden the European thematic connections on the release which also has some video integration components that can be viewed at Leto’s website: www.brucespianoworks.com.  There is also a newer work by Curt Cacioppo , Ecco Venere, which features an interesting take on the waltz as well in its central section.  Overall, a fine, very brief, downloadable album.

Also available for download is an album of French piano music that moves us across the 20^th Century with works that bear often subtle musical connections in compositional approaches but which build on that of their predecessors.  Canadian pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico’s program for Sound and Visionaries explores this quite well.  The program opens with 8 selections from Debussy’s second book of Preludes (1911-12; nos. 1-4, 7-8; 11-12) which explore some of the intriguing approaches to harmony the composer uses along with brilliant pianistic writing.  The more dissonant aspects of some of these preludes shows Debussy moving away from the Impressionist styles into new territory that sets the stage for the ease into more avantgarde styles.  From here, she moves on to 7 movements from Messiaen’s integral Vingt Regards sur ‘enfant Jesus (1944) which expand upon the harmonic palette of Debussy and move us into a more spiritual realm with the mystical qualities connected with this composer’s work.  From here, we move on to the first and third sonatas by Pierre Boulez.  The first sonata, from 1946, moves us into more cerebral composition as he explores dodecaphonic technique.  The third sonata is a more difficult piece in conception requiring a lot more focus and preparation to navigate the labyrinthine music.  Quilico was assisted in her interpretation by the composer himself, which lends this work a bit more authority even with its rather fluid construction.  The Boulez recordings are form live performances and all of these recordings were aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Company.  This digital release will be of interest to fans looking for a bit more dissonance and conceptual 20^th-Century work.  The performances are all quite fine and paired with the other album make for a very good overview of French Piano styles.

Blow: Wind Quintets by Donatoni, Salonen, & Lash
The City of Tomorrow:
Elise Blatchford, flute/piccolo; Stuart Breczinski, oboe/English horn
Rane Moore, clarinet/Eb clarinet; Nanci Belmont, bassoon/contrabassoon
Leander Star, horn.
New Focus Recordings FCR 294
Total Time:  64:21
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

The City of Tomorrow is one of the more adventurous contemporary wind quintet groups often exploring diverse and experimental works that expand the repertoire and challenge their own technique.  The group likes to focus on 21^st-Century works with a host of new commissions to their credit.

The album’s title comes from the opening work by Franco Donatoni, Blow (1989).  There are a variety of repeated phrases that help provide some connection for the listener as these also get slowly deconstructed after they are introduces as with a series of harmonic ideas that then flit and scatter.  This fragmentation then begins moving through the different instruments that seems to pit one or another against the group as a whole.  The flute takes on a primary role while the rest of the ensemble seems committed to interrupting its rapid-flight feel.  A more lyrical episode separates the next departure point as the oboe takes over the rapid material.  Each of these episodes allows for further virtuosic display across the work’s thirteen-minute playtime.  The harmonic ideas often flirt with an extended, jazz like quality, which is further heightened by the syncopated rhythmic ideas.  It makes for a rather engaging work that ends with a rather dense and intense chord.  Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Memoria (2003) closes off this program with some interesting coloristic choices beginning with the use of alto flute against horn and a bubbling undercurrent.  The forward motion makes this a rather compelling work in its central segment before things give way to a modern chorale that provides some fascinating harmonic work but brings the album to a rather somber conclusion.

Leander and Hero, the central work here, is just such an example of COT’s musical interests.  This impressive multi-movement half-hour work by Hannah Lash was commissioned by the group.  A prelude and postlude frame seven interior movements that move through this ancient mythic tale.  Overlaid onto the desire of a lover swimming across water to see his love is the impact of climate that can be heard in the storm movements of the piece.  The music creates a series of scenes to unfold the story in quite accessible musical language.  Often the lines seem to float effortlessly in different waves, from those that depict the lapping of water to the rather fascinating bird-like textures of flying that appear in “Flocking”.  Lash’s music moves deftly through the ensemble highlighting individual virtuosity, but also providing some opportunity for lyrical phrasing in the midst of these other fluttering sounds.  It is a quite compelling work that should hold up well on repeated listening.

The ensemble here is of course quite superb in exploring these pieces.  They really make each sound like something that they can toss off with ease and that provides one window into just how tight an ensemble they are.  Phrasing for the lyrical moments is easily overlooked at times with the plethora of rapid-fire passage work demanded for the accompanimental patterns used for rhythmic propulsion in these pieces.  All of it makes for a very engaging release of modern woodwind quintet music.