Concerto Net‘s Christi Grimstad Reviews The Cave of Wondrous Voice: Chamber Music by Mark Abel:
“Borrowing its title from Marina Tsvetaeva’s The Sybil, the CD is a wonderment of powerful words and musical footprints that has a ubiquitous outreach. Merely reading the poetic text by the Russian is emotionally crushing. … Abel’s lines require an extremely high tessitura, music that’s well-suited for Israeli soprano Hila Plitmann. It speaks directly to the writer’s sorrowful life. In a propulsion of unsettledness and like a mighty javelin, her voice pierces the heart: remarkable candor and starkness. Sybil, the proverbial soothsayer, has the power to retract and regain. Hila Plitmann cuts into our soul with a timbre that’s omniscient and omnipresent. What a scope!
If a comical interlude “tickles your toes,” then the opening Intuition’s Dance is the one to visit. This spiky dialogue between Rosenberger and David Shifrin’s clarinet dances on a whim and a fancy, caked with options by two strong-headed characters. The piece is bubbly.
Sabrina-Vivian Höpcker uses some of the most inventive violin techniques to build her ideas inside The Elastic Hours. Her notes are sharply poised and, occasionally, ambiguous in thought. Focusing on two days of the week, Friday and Saturday, they abound in universality. Friday’s the end of a long work week (“What Friday Brought”) … too much; Saturday (“Saturday Circumference”) simply moves along with a “kick back and relax” mentality … but does it, really? Dominic Cheli’s piano introspections have a broader narration on the weekend. The musical episodes aren’t imagined as “anticipating”; rather, they’re randomized events and nonrecurring, having unique meaning to each and every one of us. The spat with a nightmarish tumult must be stifled by a shift into some placid moments by Cheli. Saturday should be a respite, but, maybe anxiety has already set in, thinking ahead about the coming week. Can’t we all relate? …
Inside the composer’s own Clarinet Trio, the tripartite consortium has more introspection and a deeper grain … . Fred Sherry slices away at the dense matter of resolve, as if in a perfecting array. Tempering the tensions, Carol Rosenberger is never far away from the freedom to advance her own “opinion” about the piece. Patience upon “The Unfolding” unveils, retracts, unveils, then, more broadly-speaking, channels a more poignant conversation.…
Mark Abel’s new album is an invigorating trek. When all is said and done, “The Cave of Wondrous Voice” speaks to every individual. After all, life is one big circumference … it keeps on repeating itself. Beguiling.
—Christie Grimstad, ConcertoNet