Daniel Temkin: COLORS
Orchid Classics

In photos adorning his debut album COLORS, Daniel Temkin (b. 1986) looks ten years younger than someone approaching forty. Consistent with that, the music the American composer writes brims with the freshness, vitality, and unfettered imagination of youth. The impression his music establishes, here represented by six chamber works, is enhanced greatly by the instrumentalists featured on the set, among them harpist Ashley Jackson, flutist Emi Ferguson, violinist Ariana Kim, and others. The album title's not only reflected in the diversity of musicians and instruments featured on the release but in the music itself, which is multi-hued and vibrant. Further to that, the works are scored for solos, duos, and trios, making for an always engaging presentation.

He's operating exclusively in composer mode on COLORS, but Temkin's also a percussionist. He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in percussion and composition from Rutgers University, New England Conservatory, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the University of Southern California and spent two summers at Aspen as a percussionist. He's been a Composer-in-Residence with multiple companies, has received an abundance of grants, fellowships, and awards, and has appeared as a composer, percussionist, and conductor on Naxos, Albany, and Navona recordings. Temkin's work has been performed by many an acclaimed orchestra and chamber outfit, including Aizuri Quartet and PRISM Quartet, and in 2019 he joined Pennsylvania's Bucknell University as an Assistant Professor of Music.

COLORS is distinguished by its personnel and performances but as much by the writing. Temkin's music appeals for its unpredictability and refusal to slot itself into one simple category. It's grounded in classical, of course, and classical of a largely tonal, melodic, and immediately accessible type, but other genres surreptitiously seep in, among them pop and folk. It is also never coy, the composer instead preferring to be direct and sincere in his expression. That makes for music that's authentic, absorbing, and alluring, regardless of whether it's performed by a single musician or an orchestra. His background as a percussionist naturally emerges in rhythms that animate the material, yet those elements are treated as part of the overall fabric of the piece rather than a dominant aspect.

Co-produced by Temkin and Ryan Streber and recorded at Oktaven Studios, the album sounds beautiful, the clarity of its presentation instantly apparent when Jackson initiates it with the three-part Moments (2021). Those enchanted by her 2023 solo album Ennanga will be seduced all over again by her rendering of the score. Aptly titled, the opening movement “Awakening” feels like the first moment of one's day, especially when it exudes a gentle radiance intimating hope. A graceful lilt amplifies the entrancement induced by “Circles,” and the poetic lyricism of “In the Butterfly's song, I hear your name” proves as beguiling. Jackson's harp sparkles resplendently as she makes her way through the work, and Temkin is lucky to have a musician so clearly sensitive to his material on the album.

Interestingly, two treatments of “In the Butterfly's song, I hear your name” appear on the album, the other ravishingly performed by violist Ayane Kozasa as the concluding part of the five-movement Unspoken (2012-19). First, however, Kozasa gives voice to the delicate “Lilting, unhurried,” declamatory “(Calling out) from within,” and wistful “Those moments in and out of time.” Jackson returns for Together, We (2017), this time partnering with flutist Ferguson for a brooding single-movement meditation, the piece conspicuously darker and more aggressive than others on the album.

Violinists Francisco Fullana and Alexi Kenney imbue Time Capsule for two violins (2017) with a resonant sweetness and gestures that oscillate between rustic and romantic. Whereas in one moment fiddling situates the work in a country pub, in another we're relocated to the classical concert stage for harmonic effects and a few phrases that call to mind The Lark Ascending. Violinist Kim teams with pianist Qing Jiang and cellist Christine Lamprea for the two-part Flow (2018), its spirited opening “Wash Over Me, Wash Me Over” rousing and the concluding “Tide Pull” even more animated, this time by rollicking folk dance rhythms.

June 2024