Akropolis Reed Quintet plays new music, including another standout by Michael Gilbertson.

​This is the 2nd CD I’ve heard recently which contains largely forgettable new music, with the exception of incredibly imaginative creations by Michael Gilbertson. The first such album, the Verona Quartet‘s “shatter”, was memorable solely for Gilbertson’s marvelous String Quartet. And what a terrific piece it is. (My review of it appears below on my blog.)
 
I bought this disc at hand specifically for the new Gilbertson piece. But I was also intrigued by the relatively new phenomenon, the reed quintet - which sets out to reinvent the traditional woodwind quintet by replacing the flute and horn with other reed instruments, a saxophone and bass clarinet, supplementing the retained oboe, bassoon and clarinet. Hence, the reed quintet.
 
A group of Dutch high school musicians conceived the idea as long ago as 1985, officially creating the first group of its kind, the Calefax Reed Quintet, in 1997. The Detroit-based American group, Akropolis, was formed in 2009 utilizing the same complement of instrumentalists. Calefax has made several records for Pentatone, while Akropolis has 3 thus far, each on a different label. (There is also an earlier digital-download album, and they appear more recently on a vocal album relegated to accompaniment duties.) The CD under review here was released in 2021 on New Focus Recordings. Significantly, it features 5 new works commissioned by/for them.
 
I love this group and I love their sound. It is blended and textured in a way the traditional woodwind quintet can’t quite achieve. I’ve never heard anything quite like it, actually. Further, each member plays with an individuality which is characterful and enthusiastic. And I appreciate that the group specializes in original, contemporary works written specifically for the genre, while the Dutch group tends to play arrangements, often involving vocalists, on their Pentatone albums (which I have not been inclined to try). I like new music and I especially wanted to hear more from Michael Gilbertson, so I started exploring the genre with Akropolis's album, “Ghost Light”.
 
I wish I could be more enthusiastic about the music itself. And I made the mistake of listening to Gilbertson’s piece first - which is so fantastic, it tends to eclipse everything else on the program.
 
In the opening work, Stacy Garrop doesn’t always sound quite comfortable writing for this particular instrumentation in her Rites For The Afterlife. Its brooding soundscape is determinedly atonal and rather thick and unimaginatively scored. This, along with her penchant for lip slurs, gets tiring real fast. The clarinet and, especially saxophone, play an ongoing series of moaning phrases affected by endless lip slurs. The meager material outstays its welcome even in the opening movement which seems to last longer than its 5-minute playing time.

Hoping for some variety and relief from it, the 2nd movement continues exactly as the first, but now with some punctuated honking accompaniment from the bass clarinet. The 3rd movement picks up, though. It is more agitated and gains much needed momentum. But it almost gets away from itself as Garrop writes some extraordinarily difficult, extremely fast articulated passages which are nearly impractical for reed instruments. I have to give these musicians credit. They just manage to play all those double-tongued notes, though not without the uneasiness of a train about to fly off its tracks. Unfortunately, the music soon degenerates into some screeching lip slurring, now in both directions - up and down.

The lyrical finale, though, is quite wonderful. Aptly named “Field of Reeds”, it is pleasing and heartfelt, conjuring up the wide open spaces of the American Midwest with its melancholy hints of Copland. This was by far the most moving and memorable section of the entire piece.
 
Skipping over the Gilbertson for a moment, I'll jump ahead to the 3rd piece on the program, Niloufar Nourbakhsh’s Firing Squad. According to the booklet, the group plays along with a previously recorded version of them playing the piece, “adjusted for effect” to act as a “mirror of acoustic sounds”. Cool. That is certainly novel and piqued my interest. But try as I might, I simply couldn’t hear any such effect on this CD recording. Perhaps that is intended just for live performances. Or maybe I was too distracted by his even more brazen use of lip slurs in all 5 instruments, slowly drawn out and exaggerated for maximum impact. The piece goes on relentlessly for 7-½ minutes with no relief from it. I am at a loss to understand why both these composers would utilize the lip slur so profusely.
 
Seed to Snag by Theo Chandler sounds much more promising. The first movement, “Sprout”, instantly creates an interesting, otherworldly atmosphere with its use of arpeggiated triads in various instruments. This goes on for quite some time before developing into scalic flourishes, followed by more atmosphere – now with trills replacing tremolos. It’s intriguing but ultimately goes on a little too long. (This movement alone is 7 minutes in length.)
 
“Stretch” (2nd movement) features the bassoon in what sounds to be a difficult solo, much of it in the highest register, expertly played here by Ryan Reynolds. (No, not that Ryan Reynolds! I was amused when googling the name, even followed by the word “bassoon”, Google still brings up the actor in the search results.) It is but a brief interlude before the final movement, “Sow”, at last reveals some real creative inspiration and purpose from this composer. This is wonderfully inventive and adeptly orchestrated. Chandler uses combinations of instruments, in separate groupings, with interesting underlying accompanying figures, creating rhythmic motivation and musical involvement. The music is interesting, engaging and, at times, positively delightful - brought marvelously to life by these fine musicians. This, along with the Gilbertson piece, is undeniably one of the most outstanding compositional accomplishments of the entire program.
 
Irritation set in as I attempted to maneuver through to the final work, Homage to Paradise Valley by Jeff Scott. The recording contains poetry readings preceding the 1st, 2nd and 4th movements. I am never a fan of spoken word or narration as part of a music program and was resistant right off the bat. And sure enough, the voice was instantly intrusive and annoying, disrupting the musical program. Making matters worse, there is no detailed track listing for this piece, making it nearly impossible to avoid it. I eventually discovered that the poems are in fact individually tracked, thus one could theoretically program the CD player to skip them. However, without an informative track listing providing the necessary details, it’s very difficult to figure out, especially as the pattern is inconsistent with the absence of a poem preceding just one of the sections.
 
Exasperated, I would have given up, but persevered for the sake of this review. And I almost didn’t make it through the opening couple of minutes, which is brooding, slow-moving and thickly scored. Just as I was reaching for the stop button on the remote, some shrill oboe trills interrupted the gloom and things began to perk up. What follows is some descriptive, interesting story-telling (and the booklet is helpful in describing what the composer is portraying). There are sections of lively animation - a sort of urban exuberance - alternated with heavy memories weighing it down with more darkness. The movement is surely too long at nearly 10 minutes, but there is sufficient variety to keep it interesting.
 
The 2nd movement is also a bit depressing with its very long, opening a cappella bass clarinet solo (which goes on for 2 whole minutes). It is expressively played with deeply felt emotion here by Andrew Koeppe, and despite the oppression of it, his gorgeous, textured tone kept me interested. Suddenly, he is joined by others invoking a lively, nightclub atmosphere which had me smiling. Soon though, the music takes us back to some longing nostalgia, including a brief (and quite wonderful) lyrical duet for the oboe and bass clarinet before it’s done. Overall, this movement is varied, imaginative and very enjoyable; another standout of the program. 
 
The 3rd movement (mercifully sans poem) continues with more thoughtful contemplation, featuring a mournful bassoon. Very nice. Then…(quick with the remote to skip the next poem), the 4th movement raises our spirits in a lively and articulate finale filled with jazz and blues licks in an atmosphere reminiscent of the theater. The lip slur makes a brief (and welcome) appearance here, but is incorporated tastefully and appropriately within the context of the music, demonstrating exactly how it should be done! And what an entertaining conclusion to a fascinating and varied piece of music. If not for the intrusive spoken word (which really is unnecessary), I would have enjoyed the piece much more.
 
Saving the best for last, let's go back to Michael Gilbertson’s Kinds of Light. I don’t use the word amazing very often, but it is absolutely appropriate here. Ingeniously crafted and expertly scored for this specific instrumentation, it bursts forth with natural inspiration and true creativity. The music is positively energized with vitality - articulate, rhythmic, musically engaging and endlessly varied. Never weighed down with thick, dense tonal clusters, textures are airy, transparent and vivid.

Immediately in the 1st movement, Gilbertson employs groups of 3, then 4, then all 5, to create chordal harmonies even in busy, rhythmic passagework. His 2nd movement is a lyrical ballad imbued with rich harmonies as in choral music. Gilbertson has written a lot of choral music and he finds the same blended qualities here with the reed quintet. The 3rd movement is scintillating, with rapid-fire articulation back and forth among the players as if in conversation. The endless variety and descriptive characterization extends into the 4th movement, which opens and closes with hints of minimalism, while its central section erupts into a dazzling display of swing rhythms and jazzy chordal progressions, as if continuing the conversation started in the previous movement. Dave Grusin came to mind here, bringing much pleasure.
 
This piece is a tour de force, not only for its creativity and imaginative scoring, but also it is the perfect length. And this is important, especially as most of the companion works on this program are decidedly too drawn out for their own good. Gilbertson’s 4 concise, contrasting movements last just under 9 minutes total. It’s like an excellent short story written for maximum engagement and interest - a page-turner one can't put down until it's finished. Gilbertson’s Light is the musical equivalent - a wonderful little gem one can listen to again and again, especially as played so brilliantly here.
 
Considering this program as a whole, much of this music wasn’t instantly gratifying. Moreover, an 80-minute CD of it is rather too much for one sitting. However, I was constantly fascinated by the variety of sounds (when scored that way) and the gorgeous blend produced by this combination of wind instruments. Certainly the Akropolis Reed Quintet makes the strongest possible case for this type of ensemble. They are phenomenal musicians and I admired their playing at every turn.
 
Finally we come to what is perhaps the most salient characteristic of this CD - the excellent recorded sound engineered by Dave Schall Acoustic for New Focus Recordings. Clean, clear and colorful, it is impressive in its immediacy and realism. Listening to this CD, we don’t just encounter 5 inanimate instruments making sound. Rather, we are placed in the presence of living, breathing humans making real music in a palpable acoustic. Listening attentively, I hear the occasional intake of breath; the faint, but distinct clatter of saxophone keys (and I believe the bass clarinet as well); and the tangible position of each player spread across the stage. As a listening experience in the home environment (provided one has the benefit of a high-quality stereo system), the sound is stunning in its sense of being there.
 
New Focus Records extends the high production values to the enclosed booklet, chock full of informative and interesting notes about the music, the composers and musicians. And most of all to the amazing cover art, created by UK artist Ashton Springer, which is intriguing and captivating. It literally made me want to buy this CD. I am singularly impressed.