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ABEL'S SIXTH
DELOS ALBUM A CAREER LANDMARK Mark Abel's Spectrum is a harvest of new and compelling compositions. They are performed by stellar collaborators including singers Hila Plitmann, Isabel Bayrakdarian and Kindra Scharich, and instrumentalists Carol Rosenberger, Dominic Cheli, Jonah Kim, Sean Kennard, Dennis Kim, Jeff Garza, David Samuel, Adam Millstein, Max Opferkuch, Christy Kim and Jeffrey LaDeur. The recording showcases two major vocal works. Trois Femmes du Cinema is an homage to departed film figures Anne Wiazemsky, Pina Pellicer and Larisa Shepitko. Two Scenes from "The Book of Esther" dramatizes episodes from the biblical saga, which has long been viewed as a precedent-setting depiction of female empowerment. Bayrakdarian, Plitmann and Scharich give powerful and emotional readings of the texts, which were written by Abel and poet Kate Gale, respectively. The album also includes the short song cycle 1966 and three striking chamber pieces – Reconciliation Day (for viola and piano), Out the Other Side (violin, cello and piano) and The Long March (flute, horn and piano). The new instrumental works build on ground Abel set out in his previous release, The Cave of Wondrous Voice. Spectrum was recorded over the course of nine months – from fall 2021 to summer 2022 – at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Belvedere, CA, and Silent Zoo Studios in Glendale. The album was produced by Matt Carr and engineered by Carr and James T. Hill. The booklet accompanying it can be found here. Spectrum can be ordered from the vendors listed at this link -- listn.fm/spectrum/ The album has received considerable media acclaim. Gregory Berg of the Journal of Singing called Abel "a composer who has a lot to say and has some very intriguing ways of saying it. ... Everything here is deeply engaging and unfailingly fresh." Textura's Ron Schepper wrote: "He is his own man, who brings his sensibility and highly developed command of craft to a particular idea and illuminates it in a strikingly imaginative manner." Donald Rosenberg of Gramophone said of Spectrum: "Abel’s affinity for setting words is in appealing bloom in songs of diverse atmosphere and feeling." CultureSpot LA's Henry Schlinger declared: "Abel brings his unique history of rock, jazz and literary influences to his classical compositions, and the result is a refreshingly distinctive approach to contemporary music." The Trio Barclay video of Out the Other Side was produced and edited by Kim Huynh. The videos for Trois Femmes du Cinema were designed by Mark Abel, and produced and edited by Marie Ramos. The Book of Esther video was designed by Mark Abel and produced by David Weuste. Matt Carr was the videographer and editor for the 1966 excerpts video. A playlist that includes all six videos can be found here. Other video clips and audio for Mark's previous albums can be found on this site's Recordings and Audio/Video tabs. |
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"SPECTRUM": A CLOSER LOOK
AND LISTEN
New York publicist/music journalist Max Horowitz interviews Mark and soprano Hila Plitmann about the album and their series of collaborations over an eight-year period. Enjoy the podcast at this link
DUO WORK RECORDED BY CELLIST JONAH KIM
Mark’s composition Approaching Autumn made its recording debut on the Delos album of the same name by the exciting young San Francisco-based cellist Jonah Kim. The nearly 15-minute piece is performed by Kim and acclaimed pianist Robert Koenig, chair of the Music Department at UC Santa Barbara. The album also includes two high peaks of the cello repertoire -- Zoltan Kodaly’s stunning Sonata for Solo Cello and Edvard Grieg’s Cello Sonata. The record was produced and engineered by the highly regarded Matt Carr.
Approaching Autumn was given its world premiere by Kim and pianist Dominic Cheli on October 2, 2022, at Festival Mozaic in San Luis Obispo, Ca. Kim and Cheli performed the work for a second time on May 14, 2023, at Cabrillo College in Aptos, Ca. (See clip above)
Lou Fancher of San Francisco Classical Voice called Approaching Autumn "compelling." To Lynn Rene Bayley of The Art Music Lounge it is “a surprisingly dramatic piece … the work of an assured composer who knows what he is about. Not a single phrase or note is superfluous, repetitive, or just thrown in to impress the listener. Abel set up his themes, develops them in musically sound yet constantly surprising ways, and ends up with a work that I consider a modern American masterpiece. It should be played by many more cellists … .”
For Fanfare's Colin Clarke, Approaching Autumn is "a piece at once atmospheric and magical. ... Abel celebrates the liminal nature of autumn as a stage between bright summer and dark winter, and the music oscillates between joy and rumination; he also celebrates the turning of summer into autumn. Abel's music is, I suspect, deceptively difficult to perform. The surface is relatively simple, but success requires the sort of chamber music telepathy that Kim and Koenig show here. This is a splendid piece, nearly a quarter-hour of pure beauty. Abel has the music dance between interior and exterior modes of expression, keeping us within this transitionary space."
Rafael de Acha of All About the Arts described Approaching Autumn as “melodically forthcoming, harmoniously laid-out, often playful, eminently accessible, at times ruminative, unabashedly joyful at others. Jonah Kim and Robert Koenig partner beyond perfection in this delightful work by the gifted composer Mark Abel.” David W. Moore of the American Record Guide called the piece "beautifully romantic."
Gramophone's Andrew Farach-Colton had this to say: "The melodic writing is conversational – volubly so – and communicates an unsettling sense of anxiety. There are cadences of Janáček-like brusqueness and moments of naive nostalgia that lead to an unexpectedly dark ending. Kim and Koenig somehow capture the very elusiveness that gives the music its substance." Joanne Talbot of The Strad praised Kim and Koenig for "delivering a sensitive and persuasive lyrical interpretation of (Approaching Autumn)."
After the work's premiere, Craig Russell wrote in SLO Review: "Abel’s piece was as impressionist in color as the painting that was displayed over the stage. There were crisp snaps of the cello’s strings against the neck (what my orchestration prof called “Bartok pizzicato”), the glassy sound of ponticello, flickering tremolos, Bach-like counterpoint, and conversational interactions between the keyboard and cello."
Mark’s composition Approaching Autumn made its recording debut on the Delos album of the same name by the exciting young San Francisco-based cellist Jonah Kim. The nearly 15-minute piece is performed by Kim and acclaimed pianist Robert Koenig, chair of the Music Department at UC Santa Barbara. The album also includes two high peaks of the cello repertoire -- Zoltan Kodaly’s stunning Sonata for Solo Cello and Edvard Grieg’s Cello Sonata. The record was produced and engineered by the highly regarded Matt Carr.
Approaching Autumn was given its world premiere by Kim and pianist Dominic Cheli on October 2, 2022, at Festival Mozaic in San Luis Obispo, Ca. Kim and Cheli performed the work for a second time on May 14, 2023, at Cabrillo College in Aptos, Ca. (See clip above)
Lou Fancher of San Francisco Classical Voice called Approaching Autumn "compelling." To Lynn Rene Bayley of The Art Music Lounge it is “a surprisingly dramatic piece … the work of an assured composer who knows what he is about. Not a single phrase or note is superfluous, repetitive, or just thrown in to impress the listener. Abel set up his themes, develops them in musically sound yet constantly surprising ways, and ends up with a work that I consider a modern American masterpiece. It should be played by many more cellists … .”
For Fanfare's Colin Clarke, Approaching Autumn is "a piece at once atmospheric and magical. ... Abel celebrates the liminal nature of autumn as a stage between bright summer and dark winter, and the music oscillates between joy and rumination; he also celebrates the turning of summer into autumn. Abel's music is, I suspect, deceptively difficult to perform. The surface is relatively simple, but success requires the sort of chamber music telepathy that Kim and Koenig show here. This is a splendid piece, nearly a quarter-hour of pure beauty. Abel has the music dance between interior and exterior modes of expression, keeping us within this transitionary space."
Rafael de Acha of All About the Arts described Approaching Autumn as “melodically forthcoming, harmoniously laid-out, often playful, eminently accessible, at times ruminative, unabashedly joyful at others. Jonah Kim and Robert Koenig partner beyond perfection in this delightful work by the gifted composer Mark Abel.” David W. Moore of the American Record Guide called the piece "beautifully romantic."
Gramophone's Andrew Farach-Colton had this to say: "The melodic writing is conversational – volubly so – and communicates an unsettling sense of anxiety. There are cadences of Janáček-like brusqueness and moments of naive nostalgia that lead to an unexpectedly dark ending. Kim and Koenig somehow capture the very elusiveness that gives the music its substance." Joanne Talbot of The Strad praised Kim and Koenig for "delivering a sensitive and persuasive lyrical interpretation of (Approaching Autumn)."
After the work's premiere, Craig Russell wrote in SLO Review: "Abel’s piece was as impressionist in color as the painting that was displayed over the stage. There were crisp snaps of the cello’s strings against the neck (what my orchestration prof called “Bartok pizzicato”), the glassy sound of ponticello, flickering tremolos, Bach-like counterpoint, and conversational interactions between the keyboard and cello."
RADIO INTERVIEWS AND ARTICLES
Among Mark's previous albums, The Cave of Wondrous Voice has received the most attention from classical radio. WWFM's David Osenberg aired a lengthy two-part interview in July 2020 that covers the entire span of Mark's output for Delos. Here are the links for each 59-minute show -- WWFM1 and WWFM2.
Around the same time, Julie Amacher of Minnesota Public Radio included a 23-minute interview in her New Classical Tracks series -- the program is here. In February 2021, Rob Kennedy of WCPE The Classical Station put together an hourlong feature on Mark's music journey with a choice selection of tracks -- it is here.
The Chicago-based online arts magazine Stay Thirsty published an extensive email interview with Mark covering a wide range of topics -- read it here.
There have also been two feature articles on the creation of the Marina Tsvetaeva cycle -- from the online magazine Russian Life and the Bowdoin College newspaper.
The eminent David Shifrin connected with Ken Field of WMBR, MIT's radio station, to discuss Cave, his first encounters with Mark and other matters pertinent to clarinetists -- WMBR
The most fun of the radio interviews is probably the one by Dacia Clay of Houston Public Media for the charming and informative podcast "Classical Classroom." In it, Mark and Dacia define art song and discuss its value, listen to some music along the way, and rehash some of Mark's musical history. Check it out here.
Two years later the irrepressible Ms. Clay, having moved over to KING-FM's Second Inversion site in Seattle, interviewed Mark again after the release of "Time and Distance." Their conversation is here.
In 2016, the opera "Home Is a Harbor" was aired in its entirety on KCBX, the NPR station for California's Central Coast. Excerpts from Mark's interview with program host Bettina Swigger can be found here.
The website of Los Angeles' venerable KCET, America's largest independent public television station, issued a long piece on Mark's work by Sarah Linn, arts writer for The Tribune of San Luis Obispo, Ca. It can be viewed here. Ms. Linn also wrote this profile at the time of release of "Terrain of the Heart."
Ryah Cooley of the New Times of San Luis Obispo wrote this look at the origins and making of "Home Is a Harbor."
Mark had wide-ranging chats about "Terrain of the Heart" with Ted Peterson of Estero Bay Community Radio in Morro Bay, Ca., and Jim Cross of WGDR, community and public radio for Central Vermont. The Peterson interview can be heard here and the Cross interview here.
An earlier interview takes "The Dream Gallery" as its subject. Mark was the guest of Charles Sepos of KRCB, the NPR affiliate for California's Sonoma County. Hear it here.