DECODA | THE ARTS FUSE - REVIEW

Classical Album Reviews

by: Jonathan Blumhofer | July, 2024

Decoda, the first – and, so far, only – affiliate ensemble of Carnegie Hall, celebrates a different, more recent strand of American music in their self-titled debut album.

Its biggest item is Reza Vali’s Folk Songs (Set No. 9). Scored for flute, cello, crystal glasses, and percussion (the latter are passed between the soloists), its eight movements evoke both the Pittsburgh-based composer’s native Iran and some of its familiar instruments.

Just about any way you look at it, this is attractive music, dancing, whirling, haunting. Vali’s writing consistently teases the ear: between drones and slightly heterophonic melodies, how many voices are actually involved in the opening Largo?

The third movement’s ghostly pairing of low flute and cello playing harmonics is stunning. So is the “Lullaby’s” lilting flute melody with crystal glasses. Flautist Catherine Gregory and cellist Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir deliver an impassioned, vibrant account of it all.

The full group has the spotlight for the disc’s remaining fare, Valerie Coleman’s Revelry and arrangements of three William Bolcom rags.

Revelry, a sometimes ominous meditation on the concept of people congregating, packs a lot into its ten-minute duration. The first of its two movements ranges from buzzy, swirling textures to static ones. At times, the music seems to grow woozy, but all of its threatening gestures resolve, more or less, into something genial.

The short finale, on the other hand, provides no such comforting solution. Pecking bassoon riffs and edgy, insistent rhythms may or may not depict the title’s “War,” but they’re plenty unsettling.

Decoda dispatches the piece with energy and color; Coleman’s idiomatic writing ensures that everybody has their moments to shine.

The three Bolcom rags that fill out the disc – “Incinoratorag,” “Graceful Ghost,” and “Poltergeist” – also play to the ensemble’s strengths (the arrangements were crafted by members of the group). Though none of them quite top the keyboard originals, the outer pair offer a welcome bit of cheek and “Ghost” swoons elegantly.