Aizuri Quartet and Adrienne Kim: The Bells Bow Down (Chamber Music of Ilari Kaila)
Innova

A very appealing impression of Finnish-American composer Ilari Kaila (b. 1978) crystallizes from The Bells Bow Down. An intimate impression forms, too, when its six chamber works are performed by pianist Adrienne Kim, flutist Isabelle Gleicher, and Aizuri Quartet members Ariana Kim, Miho Saegusa (violins), Ayane Kozasa (viola), and Karen Ouzounian (cello) in different configurations. Whereas one piece features five players, others are arranged for duo, trio, the quartet, and the pianist alone. Such differences make the album, recorded at the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City in late 2018, an all the more rewarding listen.

Kaila's multi-hued compositional style resists easy capture. Some explanation for that could lie in the variety of life experiences that inform his creative process. Before acquiring his doctorate in Music Composition at Stony Brook University in New York, he studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. After 2011-14 stints teaching at Columbia University and with the New York Philharmonic, he decamped for Hong Kong and a position as Composer-in-Residence at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. That his compositions span multiple stylistic zones might be attributed, in part, to such a background, but they're also inspired by personalized subject matter: the title work, for example, was written in 2006 in memory of pianist Hanna Sarvala, a friend of his at the Sibelius Academy who died in a tragic accident two years earlier.

In keeping with its status as a memorial setting, The Bells Bow Down is suitably elegiac. Opening with subdued strings at the outset, the piece brightens with the piano's chiming entrance, and the strings likewise become more lively thereafter, the instruments' collective expressiveness turning the piece into a celebration of a life cut tragically short. It's hardly one-dimensional, however, as dramatic episodes suggesting anguish also appear. All the vicissitudes of life, from grief to joy, seemingly emerge over the course of its nine-minute presentation.

Arranged for trio, 2015's Cameo springs into being with unaccompanied flute, after which the chamber landscape expands with viola and piano. Spirited and infused with joy, the piece, by the composer's own admission, was influenced by ‘70s UK prog rock, as well as by Kaila's interest in the Carnatic music of southern India. Consistent with the composer's general approach, however, all such elements are integrated subtly, the piece ultimately not tipping its hat in any one direction. Like everything on the release, Cameo plays like a Kaila original, not a pastiche. Hum and Drum (2017) pairs cello with piano in a romantic and lyrical exercise that's elevated by superb performances from Ouzounian and Kim. Rapid ostinato passages generate dazzling flurries of sound, the piano's rippling lines an effective counterpart to long, unfurling cello phrases; elsewhere, pizzicato playing provides dynamic contrast to the aggressive passages. For a dozen minutes, the two push urgently forward, their intense dialogue suggesting an emotional journey undertaken.

Kim is granted a marvelous solo spotlight in the 2016 suite Taonta, whose five movements range widely. A cadenza-like flourish introduces “Sarabande,” after which the piece settles into fragile ruminations. An insistent flow of advancing and receding patterns lends “Rosary” an Impressionistic character; similar in effect is the richly textured closing movement “The Caudal Fin.” Starkly contrasting with them is the heavily percussive “Taonta.” For “Xianwei: Tail-Biting Fish,” Kaila borrowed a technique from classical Chinese music in which each melodic phrase begins on the final note of the previous one, resulting in a design here that merges slow-moving, single-note lines with dense five-note clusters—each phrase naturally beginning on the final note of the previous one.

Wisteria (2003), a single-movement setting for string quartet, sees Kaila's expressive side amplified in the Aizuri Quartet's heartfelt treatment. Though a brief six minutes in duration, the material encompasses a broad emotional spectrum from mournfulness to longing. The album-closing Jouhet features the quartet again, this time performing a 2017 commission that in marking the centenary of modern Finland naturally reflects a folk dimension. Its title inspired by the jouhikko, an ancient lyre with strings and bow made of horsehairs, the setting oscillates between brooding parts where the violins exude a rather Hardanger fiddle-like quality and others where strings swirl at a frenetic clip.

June 2020