CZERNOWIN Wintersongs

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Chaya Czernowin

Genre:

Chamber

Label: Kairos

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 58

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 0015008KAI

0015008KAI. CZERNOWIN Wintersongs

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Five Action Sketches, Movement: No 1, Breathe Chaya Czernowin, Composer
Chaya Czernowin, Composer
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
Jeffrey Gavett, Baritone
Kai Wessel, Countertenor
Steven Schick, Conductor
Five Action Sketches, Movement: No 2, So Narrow Chaya Czernowin, Composer
Chaya Czernowin, Composer
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
Jeffrey Gavett, Baritone
Kai Wessel, Countertenor
Steven Schick, Conductor
Five Action Sketches, Movement: No 4, Sliver Chaya Czernowin, Composer
Chaya Czernowin, Composer
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
Jeffrey Gavett, Baritone
Kai Wessel, Countertenor
Steven Schick, Conductor
Five Action Sketches, Movement: No 5, Sand Chaya Czernowin, Composer
Chaya Czernowin, Composer
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
Jeffrey Gavett, Baritone
Kai Wessel, Countertenor
Steven Schick, Conductor
Wintersongs, Movement: No 2, Stones Chaya Czernowin, Composer
Chaya Czernowin, Composer
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
Jeffrey Gavett, Baritone
Kai Wessel, Countertenor
Steven Schick, Conductor
Wintersongs, Movement: No 4, Wounds/Mistletoe Chaya Czernowin, Composer
Chaya Czernowin, Composer
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
Jeffrey Gavett, Baritone
Kai Wessel, Countertenor
Steven Schick, Conductor
Wintersongs, Movement: No 5, Forgotten Light Chaya Czernowin, Composer
Chaya Czernowin, Composer
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
Jeffrey Gavett, Baritone
Kai Wessel, Countertenor
Steven Schick, Conductor
In Chaya Czernowin’s music the natural world is frequently present and ever enigmatic. Nature here is not domesticated and anthropomorphised; it’s wild and strange. Contours, tones, shiftings of sound are pieced together with a logic that’s rigorous yet at the same time delirious.

Wintersongs (2003 14) is a cycle of five chamber works. Three of them are present here, alongside four of the brief Five Action Sketches (2014), which serve as interludes. Despite its title, Wintersongs is wholly instrumental except for Wintersongs V, where a baritone and countertenor sing wordless vocables. Continuity in the cycle is provided by the core ensemble: Wintersongs I is scored for a predominantly low septet (featuring bass flute, bass clarinet and bass trombone) and each of the subsequent works adds to this ensemble in different ways.

This is music almost entirely based on extended techniques and textural layering. Sound categories blur. Scored for two septets, an octet and two singers, Wintersongs V: Forgotten Light periodically features an enormous cluster spanning the registral space. This gives way at times to percussive tremolos with countertenor and baritone whispering unintelligibly. The piece ends with all the performers scraping combs’ teeth in a strangely soothing way. Make no mistake, it’s forbidding stuff, but it rewards repeated listens. The other two Wintersongs are similar in aspect but vary in forces: Wintersongs II: Stones features undulating timpani, bowed cymbals and various percussive attacks and resonances, while Wintersongs IV: Wounds/Mistletoe adds to the low initial septet a higher septet of ululating winds.

The disc comprises live recordings made on the occasion of the premiere of Wintersongs IV and V at Miller Theatre in New York City. The performances are brilliantly committed, though occasionally there is a slight lack of clarity in the instrumental profiles.

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