Gabriela Lena Frank: Her Own Wings
Bright Shiny Things

In one sense Her Own Wings is a string quartet recording but in another sense it isn't. Its two Gabriela Lena Frank works are performed by string quartet; however, the structure of each piece doesn't conform to the kind of allegros-adagio-scherzo format typical of the string quartet. Instead, each work is comprised of distinct parts, eight in one and six the other, that play more like folk-flavoured classical pieces gathered together under a shared title. Helping to structurally unify the opening work, Milagros (2010), is the reprise of its opening movement at its end. Yet even in the absence of such a gesture, the works' respective parts would still feel connected on account of her writing voice.

The works originally were scheduled to be performed at the Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival in Oregon, but after the festival's cancellation an album was chosen by way of substitute. A connection to the city remains in the location of the recording itself: an Oregon winery barrel room, which turned out to be an excellent choice when its acoustics provided an intimate yet resonant space for recording purposes. The album title carries two meanings: it relates both to Oregon's state motto ‘Alis Volat Propriis' (‘she flies with her own wings') and, more obviously and pertinently, to Frank herself, whose compositional voice retains the influence of family background—her mother Chinese-Peruvian and father Lithuanian-Jewish—without being hamstrung by it. The works feature Spanish movement titles, but the material itself crosses cultural borders and blurs genre boundaries. It's not uncommon for a smidgen of jazz, for example, to emerge alongside folk in a movement.

The world premiere recording of Milagros starts arrestingly when a haunting nine-note motive in “Capilla Del Camino” expands into a constellation of related material. While the theme isn't without a hint of dissonance, Frank's soundworld is largely tonal and immediately engaging for its melodic emphasis. That said, atonality does seep into the urgent second movement “Zampoñas Rotas,” its unsettling mood intensified by glissandos and serrated, stabbing rhythms. The composer's lyrical side comes to the fore in “Mujeres Cantando” when individual expressions by the players are zestfully performed. Cello is prominent in “Adios a Churín,” with the mournful quality of the writing lending itself naturally to the instrument. Enhancing the music's impact and accessibility, the eight movements are concise, with most in the two- to three-minute range and only one pushing past four. Regardless of shifts in tone and dynamics, the musicians—violinists Sasha Callahan and Greg Ewer, violist Bradley Ottesen, and cellist Leo Eguchi—execute the work with exuberance and conviction.

Aside from Megumi Stohs Lewis replacing Ewer, the same personnel returns for Leyendas (2001), the more overtly folk-inflected work of the two. We hear a hint of Frank's mother's side in the lilting sway of the opening “Toyos,” for example, and the third movement, “Himno de Zampoñas,” likewise exudes a subtle Chinese influence in its stately opening part before detouring into other areas. A strong folk influence permeates “Chasqui,” with this time her father's background seemingly referenced in the delineation of its melodies and rhythms. “Coquetos” similarly draws from Latin music to bring the work to a rhythmically enticing close, with in this instance an insistent pulse giving the movement a strong dance feel. When the strings thrust forcefully in “Tarqueada,” on the other hand, the music suggests it could pass for a lost Bernard Herrmann track from a Hitchcock soundtrack. If Leyendas ultimately plays more like a set of stand-alone pieces than a fully integrated work, it's no less satisfying on listening grounds.

October 2020