The City of Tomorrow: Blow
New Focus Recordings

The visionary element intimated by the name The City of Tomorrow isn't reflected in its instrumental makeup but rather the material the group performs. Comprised of Elise Blatchford (flute, piccolo), Stuart Breczinski (oboe, English horn), Rane Moore (clarinets), Nanci Belmont (bassoons), and Leander Star (horn), the wind quintet shows itself to be determinedly forward-thinking on Blow. Though electronics and theatrical treatments often figure into The City of Tomorrow's live presentation, the playing on the release is purely acoustic, though no less gripping for being so.

To begin, Blow is structurally enticing in the way it frames a multi-part setting by Hannah Lash (b. 1981) with two single-movement pieces by Franco Donatoni (1927-2000) and Esa-Pekka Salonen (b. 1958). Her riveting Leander and Hero is all the more special for being the premiere of a newly commissioned work for the group. Adding to the recording's appeal, the pieces allow soloists to shine; further to that, the group's size allows for both a rich ensemble sound to result but one not so large that clarity of expression is compromised. Lash's in particular is designed with individual voices in mind when the piccolo and E-flat clarinet are accorded the central roles. With five instruments only in play, the virtuosity of each member is able to be better appreciated as well.

From the start, Donatoni's title work arrests the ear with vitality and unpredictability, as well as for how it positions voices in oppositional, even confrontational relationships. Seeming battle lines are drawn between instruments as the members lurk stealthily through a tension-filled soundfield. The music percolates anxiously as the flute darts serpent-like through a staccato field of wind accents. As the piece progresses, different instruments take the lead, in each case the soloist advancing rapidly against a backdrop that mutates as quickly. The energy level never dissipates for thirteen minutes until a final, long-held chord brings the piece to a charged resolution.

Tasked by the group to compose a work with an apocalyptic theme, Lash chose climate change and the Greek tale of Leander and Hero as a means by which to ground the theme in relatable terms. In the myth, Leander attempts to swim across the Hellespont to be with his love Hero, only to find himself thwarted by Poseidon and a vicious storm. Lash amends the tale, however, to have the protagonists depicted as birds swept up by swift winds, with the aviary roles enacted by Blatchford's piccolo and Moore's E-flat clarinet; the crushing effects of climate change are dramatized even more by using a vulnerable species such as birds as the victims. Yet while the subject matter is apocalyptic, the music itself is often delicate and intimate, especially when solo and duo passages appear alongside full group episodes. “Prelude: The Cliffs,” for instance, follows solo voicings by the piccolo, its plaintive expression like a lover yearning for its partner, with repetitions of its ascending melody by the clarinet.

The graceful intertwining of winds continues in the subdued “Courting Dance: Slow and Ancient” before “Flocking” evokes the frantic movements of birds anticipating a storm. An engrossing dialogue between the central actors occurs during “First Storm,” after which melancholy permeates “Hero and Leander” as the two gradually come to realize the impossiblity of their union. Tension intensifies during the opening of “The Storm; Leander Does Not Return to the Nest,” and dread signaling Hero's awareness of Leander's passing emerges too when the leads' haunting lines appear amidst ominous chord progressions. A slowed tempo, funereal tone, and sparse arrangement prove fitting choices for “Hero Finds Leander's Body and Will Not Leave His Side” before a (slightly darkened) reiteration of the opening material in “Postlude: The Cliffs” lends the work a structural soundness.

Though Salonen composed Memoria as a gift to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra (he being one of its founders), the fifteen-minute piece sounds tailor-made for The City of Tomorrow. Of the three works featured on the release, Salonen's elegant creation feels most like a natural extension of twentieth-century writing. Rather than soloists extricating themselves from the ensemble, the music has it functioning more as a single entity working with common purpose and towards a shared goal. Constantly pushing forward, the music unfolds in an agile, polyphonic flow of interlacing patterns, the listener's senses never less than fully engaged, until a solemn chorale arrests the momentum for a satisfying close.

August 2021