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CD Review —
Jesse Jones: In Profile

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by Peter Feher

The path to finding an artistic voice might start in music school, but it doesn’t end when you graduate — or even if you become the professor. That process of self-discovery is what connects the five otherwise contrasting pieces on Jesse Jones: In Profile, the latest release on the Oberlin Music label, dedicated to works by faculty composer Jesse Jones.

Like the title suggests, In Profile offers a portrait. The assortment of compositions featured on the album — all recorded here for the first time and in top-notch performances by Oberlin faculty, students, and guest artists — comes from a six-year period in Jones’ career, 2009-2015.

[Read more…]

CD Review — Pianist Xak Bjerken in The Oberlin Concertos

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Three remarkable concertos commissioned from members of the Oberlin composition faculty showcase one remarkable pianist in The Oberlin Concertos, released last fall on the Conservatory’s music label.

The pianist is Xak Bjerken, whose greatest talent is perhaps his balancing act. Every note is infused with expression, yet his individuality never spills over to eclipse the compositional voices of Stephen Hartke, Elizabeth Ogonek, and Jesse Jones. Those same words could just as easily describe conductor Timothy Weiss, who leads the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble with the ultimate combination of precision, musicality, and musical vision.

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2021: A roundup of recordings

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As a guide to gift-giving (and don’t we all need a little help!), enjoy a chronological look over the CD reviews our correspondents have written over the last twelve months — plus a look ahead at some reviews to come in early 2022.

Note that many of these recordings are available as downloads rather than physical discs. And while streaming platforms are invaluable resources, it’s important to remember that payments received by the artists are generally small (and ridiculously confusing to calculate in some cases!)

Finally, don’t forget to make an end-of-year gift to your favorite local performing organization to support our musicians. Happy holidays!

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CD Review — Oberlin CME: Norman | Trigos | Broening

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by Jarrett Hoffman

After highlighting music by three members of the Oberlin composition faculty, Timothy Weiss and the Conservatory’s Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME) have continued their Oberlin Music label offerings with another triptych of works by composers from the present day.

Norman | Trigos | Broening, released in May, begins with Andrew Norman’s Gran Turismo for eight violins. And if you’re familiar with the auto-racing video game series that gave the work its title — one among a few inspirations — you won’t be surprised by the blazing speed. Even the few slow sections, beautifully written and sensitively phrased, provoke a sense of suspense: thrills await around the corner.

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CD Review
Kendra Colton: Late Air —  
Music by John Harbison

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by Mike Telin

Composer John Harbison has done it all. His numerous awards include a MacArthur Fellowship and a Pulitzer Prize. He has written works for many of America’s leading musical organizations and has served as composer in residence with the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. His catalogue includes three operas, seven symphonies, twelve concerti, a ballet, six string quartets, numerous chamber works, and a large body of sacred music. On her latest CD, Late Air — Music by John Harbison, soprano and Oberlin voice professor Kendra Colton reminds us that the celebrated composer has a special talent for writing art songs — she also proves herself to be a sensitive interpreter of them. [Read more…]

Kirsten Docter to premiere new viola concerto by Jesse Jones

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by Mike Telin 

For many years, Jesse Jones has led a double musical life. In one, he serves on the composition faculty at the Oberlin Conservatory and has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Rome Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His works have been performed by ensembles including the American Composers Orchestra, the Spokane Symphony, the Juilliard String Quartet, the Argento Chamber Ensemble, and Sō Percussion.

In the other life, he is a mandolinist/composer who has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion and performed at the Oregon Bach Festival, Wintergrass, and the Sister’s Folk Festival, and toured with the genre-bending ensemble String Helix. In March of this year, he and his duo partner, bassist Craig Butterfield, released their third album, Eclipse, on Summit Records.  

In spite of his success in both lives, Jones has always been reluctant to combine the two. That changed when he was presented with the opportunity to write a new viola concerto.

[Read more…]

Threadgill’s Pathways with Zooid & Oberlin Ensemble at CMA (Jan. 11)

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by Nicholas Stevens

“The music as always speaks its own language.” In a program note for his new piece Pathways, Henry Threadgill names places and people who inspired him, yet declines to describe the music or the process behind it. Immersion in the 90-minute work feels like watching a non-narrative film in a familiar yet unknown language. What the committee for the Pulitzer Prize for Music recognized when they honored Threadgill in 2016 was the unique vitality of this invented language. In its world premiere outing on Friday, January 11, Pathways unfolded like a hive intelligence fleshing out its own original, complex definition of beauty.

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CMA’s Creative Fusion Series begins with Henry Threadgill, Zooid, & Oberlin CME

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by Daniel Hathaway

The Cleveland Foundation, which has brought more than eighty international artists to Cleveland since 2008 under the auspices of its Creative Fusion program, has partnered with the Cleveland Museum of Art to commission six new works to be premiered over the next two seasons.

Launching the series, composer and multi-instrumentalist Henry Threadgill will bring his Zooid ensemble to the Museum’s Performing Arts Series on Friday, January 11 at 7:30 pm in Gartner Auditorium to join Tim Weiss’s Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble in the world premiere of Threadgill’s Pathways, a partly improvisatory, partly pre-determined work.

Threadgill, now 74, won a Pulitzer Prize in 2016 for his recording In for a Penny, In for a Pound, which the awards jury described as a “highly original work, in which notated music and improvisation mesh in a sonic tapestry that seems the very expression of modern American life.”

Although he has been been characterized as a jazz musician, Threadgill objects to being hedged in by that branding. [Read more…]

Pianist Ursula Oppens with Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble (Apr. 6)

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by Mike Telin

Oppens-UrsulaWorks that combine electronic and live acoustic instruments have come a long way since Donald Erb’s Reconnaissance was premiered in 1967. The musical elements are integrated in Erb’s groundbreaking score, but the results come across like a first date. On Friday, April 6 in Warner Concert Hall, legendary pianist Ursula Oppens joined the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, under the direction of Timothy Weiss, in a mesmerizing performance of Jonathan Harvey’s Bird Concerto with Pianosong (2001). During the colorful 30-minute work, Harvey masterfully merges the technological with the acoustic, and here the result is a love affair. [Read more…]

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