Wings: Chamber Music by Rami Levin - Various Artists

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Rami Levin (b.Brooklyn 1954) composed five of this CD’s works while living in Brazil (2010-2017). The two sprightly movements of Asar (Wings) for clarinet, violin and piano utilize bird calls “heard constantly outside my window.” The soulful Saudade (Longing) for guitar follows. Reflections of Reflections (11.11.11) for wind quintet matches the numerical uniqueness of November 11, 2011 with drily mathematical music – 11 sections, each 11 measures. Caprichosa (Capricious) for flute and harp is more engaging, songful and rhythmically “capricious.”

Três Cançöes (Three Songs), commissioned by Brazilian soprano Veruschka Mainhard, set poems by Mainhard’s then-seven-year-old daughter Laura. The texts of Os Macacos Brincalhöes (The Playful Monkeys), O Pequeno Barco (The Little Boat) and Porco (Pigs) are delightfully imaginative and charming, as is the music, charmingly performed by bright-voiced soprano Alisa Jordheim and pianist Kuang-Hao Huang. Jordheim, accompanied by flute, harp and guitar, also sings Four English Songs (1997), light-hearted settings of the nursery rhymes Sixpence, Apple Pie, Hey Diddle Diddle and The House that Jack Built.

In Linguas Fraternas (Fraternal Languages) for viola and piano (2019), Levin drew upon her experiences teaching ESL in Brazil. Leste-Oeste (East-West) juxtaposes Afghani elements on the viola with American blues on the piano; in Norte-Sul (North-South), the instruments play in different rhythms, “a musical representation,” writes Levin, “of different ways of saying the same things…The piece is an homage to the beauty and richness of language and the experience of merging different cultures.”

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