Augusta Read Thomas (b.1964)
Sol
Solstice Ritual (2024)
Magical Flights of the Adarna bird (2025)
Illuminations ‘Fanfare Sinfonia’ (2023)
Light Pearls through Prisms (2025)
Equinox Ritual (2025)
No recording details supplied
Nimbus NI6464 [68]
Augusta Read Thomas, born in New York, studied at Tanglewood and Yale. Her teachers included Oliver Knussen and Jacob Druckman. She has had a number of teaching positions, and is currently Professor of Composition at the University of Chicago. She was also for many years composer in residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Her music has been amply commissioned and performed and, thanks in particular to Nimbus, widely recorded. This disc contains a mixed group of recent works, all first recordings; it has been my introduction to her music.
Thomas has an exquisite ear and a most attractive musical personality. The first work here, Solstice Ritual, is subtitled Homage to Varèse and Ravel; that gives an idea of her musical forbears. She has Ravel’s fastidiousness, his piquant harmonies and his feeling for a long line. From Varèse she takes a serious interest in percussion, particularly in bells and drums, though without his aggressiveness. She quite likes the splintered textures of post-Webernian pointillism, but with a much greater forward momentum than is usual in that idiom.
Solstice Ritual shows these qualities in abundance. It is in three movements of roughly equal length, together just under twenty minutes. It is written for fourteen players, of whom four are percussionists. The first movement, Reaching Skyward, starts high in the treble with bell sounds, to which melodic fragments are added. The tempo speeds up and the melodies become more sustained, then the lower instruments have a turn. The second movement, Two Drumming Rituals, does what it says; it is a kind of scherzo. The finale, Bell Prayers, returns us to bell sounds. This is an impressive work, clearly modern but also accessible.
Magical Flights of the Adarna Bird is for solo cello. Adarna is a magical bird from a Filipino legend. The piece begins so high that one might have thought it was a violin playing. Most of it is fast-moving, nervous music. I fancy I hear something of Messiaen in the contours of the melodies, but this is just to give an idea of what it sounds like – there is no direct reference.
Light Pearls through Prisms is also a solo work, powerfully and idiomatically written for the piano. It makes much use of repetition, and its texture and mood are to me reminiscent of late Scriabin.
Illuminations ‘Fanfare Sinfonia’ is for solo timpani, three percussion and nine brass instruments. It is indeed a set of glorified fanfares, which sound occasionally rather like Carl Ruggles. I have to say that I found it the least interesting of the works here.
Finally, Equinox Ritual is a work for percussion alone; four players are required. It is subtitled Homage to Igor Stravinsky, though I hear more of Varèse’s Ionisation, his work for percussion. There are three movements, with almost the same titles as in Solstice Ritual, except that the second movement is Three rather than Two Drumming Rituals. It reworks the ideas of Solstice Ritual but in a more abstract way.
For me, Solstice Ritual is the standout work here, but all the others are of interest. The various players and ensembles all play with a will, and give accomplished performances. The recording is excellent. Those who already know Thomas’s work will need no persuading to acquire this disc; those who, like me, did not, will be glad to make the acquaintance of a really worthwhile contemporary composer with a distinctive and beguiling voice.
Stephen Barber
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Details
Solstice Ritual (2024)
Members of the Grossman Ensemble and guests / Jeffrey Milansky
Magical Flights of the Adarna bird (2025)
Alexander Hersh (cello)
Illuminations ‘Fanfare Sinfonia’ (2023)
Josh Jones (timpani), DePaul Wind Ensemble / Erica Neidlinger
Light Pearls through Prisms (2025)
Marianne Parker (piano)
Equinox Ritual (2025)
Garrett Arney, John Corkill, Adam Rosenblatt, Nonoka Mizukami (percussion)
