Hans Abrahamsen Snow (Schnee)
Jesse Tatum flute
Melissa Peña oboe
Jeff Brooks clarinet
Judith Gordon, Luke Gullickson piano
Jeff Cornelius percussion
Elizabeth Young violin
Laura Steiner viola
James Holland cello
David Felberg conductor
Hans Abrahamsen’s Schnee (2008) is a gorgeous marvel which encapsulates winter. The instrumental cycle, already a classic of the twenty-first century, comprises a set of ten canons making up an hour of ghostly, feathery music. There is no hurrying, but great depth. As Abrahamsen himself says: “In Schnee, a single moment is stretched as far as possible. At some point, the music disappears. There is just a breath of air left.”
“As the instruments swirl in polyphonic motion, they create vivid images of frost: In what is now an Abrahamsen signature, the percussionist rubs sheets of paper on a table, and the two pianists run their fingernails across the keys in eerie glissandos. Between movements, performers are asked to retune their instruments lower and lower, so that the music becomes more and more uncanny.” — New York Times
Peter Anderson spoken word