Esa Pekka Salonen: Wing on Wing

Esa Pekka Salonen: Wing on Wing

• SALONEN ESA-PEKKA / FINNISH R.
• MUSICA CLASICA
• INTERNATIONAL
• MUSIC

This trio of recent works by Salonen suggests that he's one of the most interesting composers on today's scene. All three share the virtues of his highly individual style, modernistic and accessible. <I>Foreign Bodies</I> is in three parts and is concerned with the unity of music and the body. It opens with a machine-tooled movement of driving rhythms and color-drenched orchestration. The second is more relaxed, with subtle washes of color, and the finale, titled "Dance," returns to rhythm as a motivating force, albeit with a fascinating twittering woodwind-led climax. <I>Wing on Wing</I>'s title derives from a sailing term but also might describe the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, home of the city's Philharmonic, for which it was written. It's an adventurous work featuring a pair of coloratura sopranos singing wordlessly, human instruments part of an orchestral fabric that also incorporates a manipulated tape of architect Frank Gehry's voice and another of a fish whose call is seamlessly incorporated into the texture. <I>Insomnia</I> begins with a brief dreamlike passage, the bulk of the piece a succession of restless, often obsessive episodes; some threatening, others frantically joyful, but always constantly engrossing and punctuated by virtuoso solos from the orchestra. A fascinating disc that should be heard. <I>--Dan Davis</I>