Fanfare Magazine has added Mark Abel’s The Cave of Wondrous Voice recording to their “Not To Be Missed” Section! See Colin Clarke’s review and interview with Mark Abel on the Fanfare Archive:
“Having previously enjoyed the music of Mark Abel, I had high hopes for the present release, The Cave of Wondrous Voice. I certainly was not disappointed. Concentrating on works for smaller ensemble, it offers a wide variety of expression, starting with the clarinet piece Intuition’s Dance. This is actually the first recording that David Shifrin and Carol Rosenberger have made together since 1984. The piece offers playfulness interspersed with passages of genuine, heartfelt warmth. Abel’s ability to set up a momentum and to then veer off-piste is genuinely interesting and appealing. It is hard to imagine two finer musicians than Shifrin and Rosenberger. Shifrin has it all, the nimble agility, the nuance of cantabile line; Rosenberger is the perfect partner, ever subtle, her tone delicious. The mode of utterance grows ever more profound with the settings of the poetry of Marina Tsvetaeva, in fine translations by Alyssa Dinega Gillespie. The interactions between Hila Plitmann’s soprano voice and Los Angeles English hornist Sarah Beck are beautiful… The flexibility of Plitmann’s voice, and the almost vocal cantabile of Sarah Beck’s English horn and Rosenberger’s ever-caring playing, offer the ideal circumstances in which Abel’s music can thrive. The supreme eloquence of Plitmann, encountered previously on the Time and Distance album, is confirmed here. She has a brilliant way of conveying the direction of a line via the most perfect legato while maintaining exemplary diction—no easy feat. I thoroughly enjoyed Sabrina-Vivian Höpcker’s Delos recording with Fabio Bidini of the Brahms Hungarian Dances arranged by Joachim; given a wider canvas on which to paint here, she impresses me still more… in The Elastic Hours Abel offers her a road that takes in introspection and reflection. She has an inbuilt understanding of phrase shapes and can control her sound down to the merest whisper (something pianist Dominic Cheli can match her in). The piece traces the processes of the subconscious mind through two days, firstly “What Friday Brought,” then “Saturday’s Circumference.” As a listener, one tends to bend in the wind like a sapling to Abel’s train of thought—and a very pleasant feeling it is, too. It is possible only because of the attunement of Höpcker and her excellent pianist here, Dominic Cheli. … Abel’s own Clarinet Trio is cast in three movements, each with a title: “The Unfolding,” “Taking Flight,” and “In Good Time.” Shifrin and Rosenberger are joined by the greatly experienced Fred Sherry to make a formidable trio of performers. … Throughout, the recording is everything one has come to expect from Delos: warm, clear, and inviting, with the perspective and closeness expertly judged.”
—Colin Clarke, Fanfare
See the full review and the interview with composer Mark Abel on FanfareArchive.com