Daniel Temkin: Maksimal
Orchid Classics

The second Orchid Classics album from American composer Daniel Temkin (b. 1986) sees his vision maturing and growing ever more assured. Its three works are structured in three movements apiece, but beyond that differences apply: the titular composition is a violin concerto performed by Francisco Fullana with the Maksimal Ensemble and conductor Ryan McAdams; the second's a solo piano work delivered by Ryan MacEvoy McCullough; and the third's a string quartet performed by Aizuri Quartet. As diverse as they are on paper, however, the pieces all developed out of Temkin's reflections on and responses to physical geography. In an introduction included with the release, he ponders the way landscapes encourage us to consider our connections to each other and to the physical realms we inhabit and share.

The calibre of musicianship on Maksimal is significant: the Spanish-born Fullana's an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and currently an Artistic Director and Soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia; McCullough's made a name for himself as both a pianist with a fervent new music appetite and prime mover for the adventurous False Azure Records imprint; and Aizuri Quartet established itself as a leading chamber ensemble during its 2012-25 tenure and appears here in one of its final recordings.

Nodding in its Danish title to modern Scandinavian music, Maksimal opens the release with a fast-slow-fast design and Fullana and the ensemble operating at full tilt in the aptly titled “White Heat.” Rapid violin flourishes soar with confident agility across a bright orchestral foundation peppered with log drum accents, horns, woodwinds, and bells. The ever-restless Fullana's a whirling dervish of sorts, but his partners are fiery too. Only during the mid-movement cadenza does the pace slow, the shift ideal for allowing the soloist to showcase his artistry and command. Darker tonalities introduce the subsequent “Continuum” before a solo passage finds Fullana emoting plaintively, the music turning slightly Copland-esque with the orchestra's emergence. The tenderness of the music's expression is as good an illustration as any of Temkin's artistic growth. The mood brightens for the resplendent “Circle Games,” the soloist and ensemble once more united in delivering a robust dance of playful to-and-fro.

Its title evoking both visual art and physical spaces, Dreamed Landscapes explore galaxies, glaciers, and canyons in consecutive parts. While its solo piano presentation announces a dramatic change from the opening work, Dreamed Landscapes engages when delivered by the enthusiastic McCullough. Temkin might have attempted to directly represent the geophysical phenomena but instead opted to evoke it allusively. The work begins at its most panoramic with “Starfield” and micro-gestures assembling into a complex array of starry streaks and cosmic rumblings. The visually suggestive “Glaciers crumbling, assembling” title finds its counterpart in collapsing musical gestures and abrupt breaks. In “Echoes of the Horizon,” heavy staccato chords engender the image of a monumental landscape where immense rock formations extend across the visual field.

At album's end, we're presented with Ocean's Call, inspired by Big Sur and California's Pacific coast and highlighting the artistry of Aizuri Quartet. Similar to Dreamed Landscapes, Ocean's Call reminds us of the rugged beauty of the natural world and how its glories are always present to the attentive eye. Rolling in like a gentle breeze, wispy harmonics and Karen Ouzounian's lyrical cello usher “Hanging Cliffs, Rising Mist” into being. The music grows ever more plaintive as it threads its way through a coastal path and turns introspective in savouring the quiet grandeur of the setting. Evocations of wind and gently lapping water introduce “The Bitter Salt of the Sea” before a more agitated attack suggests greater waves activity and eventually a furious storm. In keeping with its “Lullaby Waves” title, the work's closing movement offers a gentle resolution with a series of ebbing chords and a call to spiritual reflection on our place in nature. One comes away from the performance appreciative of the music Temkin wrote for Aizuri Quartet to present but also saddened that the group's no longer with us when the performance is so terrific.

July 2026