Julia Werntz, Somebody Who Loves You Throws Me at You

 

One way to avoid a strait and simple return to tonality is perhaps at times to carve a path through microtonality, so that if all goes right it expands our sense of what is available, stretches our ears and gives us a new proportional universe. The music of Boston-based  composer Julia Werntz gives us a new and compelling set of chamber works in such a mode on her recent album Somebody Who Loves You Throws Me at You (New Focus Recordings 362). There is much to grow into, explore, and expand the musical with here, some five sets of works for everything from solo piano to violin and cello, through to soprano, clarinet, bass clarinet and viola,  the Ludovico Ensemble, and finally two sopranos and mezzo-soprano. The music has a High Modern sense of syntax,  sonic adventure and a complex set of parameters that keep you listening attentively for many go rounds if you give it half a chance.

The recordings are first-rate in musicianship and sound quality and every work is something deeply worked out and  inspiring to get to know without fail. We've come quite a distance from Charles Ives' two-piano works in quarter tones, but then we can take heart in the human spirit that there has been good work in such a category from then to now. Julia Werntz surely is one of the best and I very much recommend you hear this. Give it a free stream  on the BandCamp page devoted to the album. Click here: https://newfocusrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/someone-who-loves-you-throws-me-at-you