Daníel Bjarnason.
In Tuesday’s (5/5) San Francisco Classical Voice, Richard Ginell writes that on April 29, the Los Angeles Philharmonic presented composer and conductor Daníel Bjarnason’s latest “project, presented on the LA Phil’s long-running Green Umbrella series … ‘Vocal Dimensions’ … an assortment of pieces delineating how various species of the human voice can be twisted, altered, and enhanced to suit the music…. Bjarnason enhanced the resident LA Phil New Music Group with a few 21st-century luminaries. Composer Nico Muhly was there, contributing piano accompaniment to his song ‘New-Made Tongue’ and sitting in elsewhere. Composer Kate Soper unleashed her tour de force for voice and flute, Only the Words Themselves Mean What They Say, with herself as the voice. Violinist Pekka Kuusisto was recruited to head the strings in a performance of Bjarnason’s song cycle Hands on Me. The one piece that really hit the mark … was the world premiere of Chaya Czernowin’s NO! A Lament for the Innocent, conceived during the first Trump administration, when national immigration policy involved separating babies from their mothers. The piece delivers exactly what Czernowin promises…. Soper’s piece … had a live theatricality and ferociousness that made it all the more entertaining…. Hands on Me [was] written for an 11-piece group including electric guitar, a sparingly deployed drum kit, and frequent solo opportunities for violin (Kuusisto) … The eight songs are predominately inward in mood.”
