The Beauty Of Innuendos
Navona, 2023
8/10
Listen to The Beauty Of Innuendos
The diverse composer Frank Felice brings his “consonant adiatonicism” to these 4 extensive pieces that are fleshed out with help from Mitzi Westra’s mezzo-soprano and Gregory Martin’s piano, where a variety of texts are illuminated with a distinct creativity.
“Four Songs Of Jennifer Haines” starts the listen with Martin’s radiant keys and are pretty, can rumble a bit, and are used intimately alongside the soaring vocals that spotlight the text of Jennifer Haines-Bennett, and “Thirteen Ways Of Looking At A Blackbird” follows with a bit of ominousness populating the mysterious, sometimes bright and other times turbulent landscape that suits Wallace Stevens’ text.
The back half of the listen offers the emotive and poetic “Letters To Derrick”, which flows superbly with the words of Tammy Cutler Randa, while “Four Antiphons Of Hildegard Of Bingen” exits the listen with both sparse moments and firm gestures of eloquent and swift song craft that meshes Bingen’s text with a dynamic and flawless delivery from the pair.
A body of work that further solidifies Felice’s position as one of the most ingenious composers today, Westra’s vocal chops and Martin’s finger acrobatics don’t disappoint across the eclectic journey.
Travels well with: Michael Nix- Aperçu: New Classic Banjo Project; Laurence Sherr- Fugitive Footsteps