Experiential orchestra is proud to be named a 2021 Grammy® Winner for our world premiere recording of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison (1930)
The recording itself took place in February, 2019, and was released 31 July in the UK, and 7 August 2020 in the US. This release date coincided with the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, in recognition of Smyth’s role in the suffragette movement in England.
DAME ETHEL SMYTH
THE PRISON
Out of the tunnel
Unabridged - danielle eva schwob
Track: “Traveling North” with Ashley Jackson, harp
Phoenix Ensemble
Clarinet Quintets
The Phoenix Ensemble’s latest album JOHANNES BRAHMS / ELLIOTT CARTER: CLARINET QUINTETS is, of course, masterful. The Phoenix Ensemble now looks back on almost three decades of being a fixture in the national chamber music scene, focusing on performances and recordings of 20th- and 21st-century music. Indeed, it may be this particular specialization in complex musical structures that allows the musicians to explore Brahms' late quintet with the previously unheard thoroughness and careful reconnaissance displayed on this album.
“Anna Urrey and Mark Lieb are solid in the Carter duo, and their effort here should inspire flutists and clarinetists looking for a challenge”
—American Record Guide
New York Pretending
to Be Paris
The 19 Mercer Ensemble
“This is a delightful disc. Eric Schorr has a near-Schubertian way with melody, although the setting, in terms of musical language, is closer to musical theater. It might look like a short playing time, but his is a wonderfully satisfying musical experience. The subtitle, “Songs of Remembrance and Desire,” sums it all up perfectly…. (Fanfare)A captivating disc…Songs are brimming with melody…Schorr embraces the opportunity to depict musically the profound emotional responses to instances of daily life. His music is affecting and brimming with humanity. Puccini was a master of this approach, and Schorr’s songs are a worthy successor to that tradition.”
— Fanfare
Travelogue 4 escape
CHET LAM
Silencio en juárez
juan pablo contreras
The term “mestizo” is traditionally used to classify a person of mixed-race descent. The majority of Mexicans are mestizos of Spanish and indigenous heritage. Ángel Mestizo (Mestizo Angel), a concerto for harp and chamber orchestra, is an imaginary journey of the harp’s migration to Mexico during the Spanish conquest and its evolution to become one of the most iconic instruments in the country.
The concerto is cast in four movements. The first movement, “La Conquista” (“The Conquest”), narrates the onset of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The movement is driven by sounds of gunshots and galloping horses. Historians believe the Spaniards first brought the harp to Veracruz, a major port on the Gulf of Mexico. “Veracruz,” the second movement, depicts the harp’s arrival in this beautiful city.
The word “criollo” was first coined to label a person of Spanish ancestry born in Mexico. The third movement, “Cadenza Criolla,” is scored for solo harp. The cadenza incorporates thematic ideas from the previous movements and outlines the evolution of the harp in Mexico. What had been an exclusively European instrument was slowly appropriated by Mexican musicians and eventually became a folk instrument.
The finale, “Son Jarocho,” celebrates the mestizo culture that predominates in modern Mexico. The son jarocho is a regional folk music style that originated in Veracruz as the indigenous and Spanish communities mixed. A diatonic harp, the arpa jarocha, is one of the main instruments in this genre. “Son Jarocho” revolves around a festive theme that is introduced by a solo violin in the opening of the movement. The concerto concludes in an uplifting tone praising the product of the blending of the Spanish and indigenous people: the mestizo angels.
SAGE Brushes
Michael K. SlAYTOn
Contemporary American composer Michael K. Slayton’s affectionate focus on chamber music shows just how expansive intimate musical setups can be on SAGE BRUSHES.
This Navona Records release draws its inspiration from 20th-century art: paintings by Mark Rothko, Paul Klee, Joan Miró, and Marcel Duchamp. In highly synesthetic fashion, Slayton recreates with music what the artists crafted with oil on canvas. The music mirrors everything in mesmerizing precision: the colors, the degree of abstraction, even the weight of the brushstrokes. And just like the originals — it unsettles as much as it enchants.
“The execution of the Exponential Ensemble is nothing less than masterful. Every tone, every nuance is presented with a precision that makes the musical experience even more intense. It is obvious that the ensemble has not only musical mastery, but also a deep connection to the topics they explore.”
— Am:plified Magazine
Matters of Time, Exponential Ensemble’s debut album, features four commissioned works inspired by science. Time and matter are the common elements of all these works, starting with Crown of the Sun by Amy Brandon. The sun has always been instrumental in keeping our daily sense of time, from sunrise to sunset, while making life on earth possible. Inspired by a NASA recording of the sun’s crown, this piece will take you to a unique sonic world made of woodwind multiphonics.
A Dark Matter by Gilad Cohen, inspired by the astrophysics concept of dark matter, is a reminder that the universe is mostly made of matter that we can’t even see or define, very much like our own matters (or worries) that we carry around everyday in our minds. A Dark Matter was also inspired by Gilad Cohen’s own experience of the COVID-19 pandemic; matters that all of humanity can relate to forever. Climate change is a matter of our time. During the COVID-19 pandemic, travel significantly came to a halt, air pollution decreased and nature slowly took over again; sometimes in the most unusual places.
The Bright Exuberant Silence was inspired by Jared Miller’s experience of standing in the middle of Times Square in the summer of 2020 with just the bright exuberant neons and blooming dandelions as silent companions.
Finally, time and matter are the foundation of the Theory of Relativity by Albert Einstein and also the root of Relative Theory by Robert Paterson; a whimsical work inspired by four important scientists and mathematicians: Blaise Pascal, Albert Einstein, Emmy Noether and Pythagoras. Thank you to all our composers for writing these wonderful and meaningful works. It is with great pride that we present to you our debut album: Matters of Time.
– Pascal Archer, Artistic Director, Exponential Ensemble