ensemble reflektor & Holly Hyun Choe: LAUTER!
Solaire Records

A key item in ensemble reflektor's agenda involves the promotion and dissemination of works by female composers, a commitment the young chamber orchestra lives up to with its LAUTER! release. As the German word, fittingly set in caps, means “louder” in English, the group's idea for the release is presumably to emphatically champion the work female composers have done, be it the pioneering material created by Dame Ethel Mary Smyth (1858-1944) or the new pieces contemporary figures inti figgis-vizueta (b. 1993) and Ying Wang (b. 1976) are gifting us today.

While the word ensemble might suggest a collective smaller than a conventional orchestra, ensemble reflektor's members compose a full complement of strings, woodwinds, horns, and percussion. The group isn't so large, however, that it's incapable of fashioning its programming collectively, such that diverse works from multiple genres and by underrepresented voices are always candidates for selection. The collective's performances are expertly guided by the South Korea-born and Los Angeles-raised Holly Hyun Choe, who was appointed its Principal Conductor in 2022.

The hour-long album opens, as it should, with Smyth, who was not only a celebrated English composer but also a strong-willed suffragist who challenged societal norms and thus rightfully deserves to be seen as having helped pave the way for future female composers (her activism even led to a two-month prison sentence in 1912). She studied at the Leipzig Conservatory and acquired a solid education that would influence the composer she would become. Returning to England, she received attention for performances of her chamber, orchestral, and operatic works and with determination overcame whatever gender biases threatened to block her path. In being someone committed to musical innovation, societal change, and the breaking down of gender barriers in classical music, Smyth's values seamlessly align with ensemble reflektor's.

On LAUTER!, she's represented by the Serenade in D major, a towering four-movement work lasting approximately thirty-six minutes. The writing is solidly grounded in the late-Romantic tradition, and as such it's not unusual for echoes of Beethoven and Brahms to emerge. There's dramatic sweep but harmonic splendour too in a work of huge emotional and expressive scope. As attuned as ensemble reflektor is to the works of living composers, the group connects as strongly with Smyth's and delivers a totally engaged performance. Rich in moments of grandeur and yearning, the powerful “Allegro non troppo” proves to be a showcase of sorts for the group's strings, but its woodwinds and brass distinguish themselves too. The scherzo that follows is naturally impish and energized, and, following its Beethoven-esque ending, the momentum carries over into an expressively lyrical third movement where flutes flutter across an outdoorsy blend of strings and woodwinds. The breathtaking finale provides a robust and satisfying resolution to a work that testifies strongly to Smyth's considerable gifts.

Works by inti figgis-vizueta, whose bio identifies her as a “composer and educator who works to reconcile historical aesthetics and experimental practices with trans & Indigenous futures,” have been performed by an impressive range of orchestras and chamber groups, from the Los Angeles Philharmonic and New World Symphony to Alarm Will Sound, Roomful of Teeth, Kronos Quartet, and, of course, ensemble reflektor. The NY-based composer studied with, among others, Donnacha Dennehy and George Lewis and cites Tania León, Nico Muhly, Angélica Negrón, Derek Bermel, and Andrew Norman as some of her mentors. Her provocatively titled devour is, formally speaking, worlds removed from Smyth's Serenade in the way it evokes the impression of a micro-universe gradually crystallizing across a dozen minutes. At the start, primordial fragments quietly intone and then, like some prolonged exhalation, patiently build into a restlessly churning and ultimately violent mass. devour ultimately registers as more biological organism or cosmological phenomenon rendered into sound than a conventional composition.

Wang's music is informed by contemporary developments in politics, culture, society, and technology, and she isn't shy about addressing topics such as environmental pollution, global social grievances, and political persecution. Her experiences living in Shanghai, Beijing, and now Berlin have influenced the conceptual character and musical form of her compositions, which are filled with bold textures and aggressive melodies. Like figgis-vizueta, Wang's collaborated with numerous orchestras and worked with a number of diverse ensembles. The recipient of many awards, she's a graduate of the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and has also studied electronic composition and at Ircam in Paris. In Freiheit ist der Atem der Kunst (Freedom is the breath of art), Wang structures the piece's seven sections in a way that mirrors how AI generates mosaics from smaller building blocks. Snare rolls, howling brass chords, shrieking strings, and queasy orchestral convulsions create the impression of a lumbering behemoth of immense power. During this harrowing presentation, the lines separating the sections grow blurry as borders dissolve and each seeps into the others.

December 2024