Fluid Dynamics
Rachel Lee Priday; David Kaplan
Orchid Classics ORC100323 (orchidclassics.com/releases/orc100323-fluid-dynamics)
What strikes me the most about this album is the sheer beauty of the music. Flowing, poetic, immeasurable, visceral and cinematographic, the music is an alluring ode to what lies deep within. The collaborative musical/visual project of violinist Rachel Lee Priday, oceanographer Georgy Manucharayan and six contemporary composers is beaming with imagination and curiosity. Manucharayan’s job includes studying the motion of the oceans and the reasons for it, and in the process he makes experimental videos of these fluid dynamics, using classical music to amplify the movements. It is out of his work that the idea arose to pair the commissioned pieces with selected videos, resulting in a stunning project whose depth is best experienced in live performances.
Rachel Lee Priday’s playing is captivating and intense. Virtuosic, with clear direction, and the imagination and sonority of an exceptional artist, Priday reflects the dance of the ocean effortlessly and naturally. All but one of the compositions are written for solo violin and require an exceptional amount of stamina and energy in performance. Four are commissioned for this project while the remaining three are earlier commissions by Priday.
The album opens with Gabrielle Smith’s Entangled on a Rotating Planet, a wild, energetic, mesmerizing piece. Waterworks by Paul Wiancko, inspired by the energy of a whirling red vortex, brings in a masculine, rhythmical pulse. Convection Loops by Cristina Spinei and Three Suns by Timo Andres are consummately poetic; witnesses to the vastness and colours of the oceans. In addition to two lovely compositions by Leilehua Lanzilotti, ko’inoa and to speak in a forgotten language, the last piece on the album, Violin Sonata by Christopher Cerrone, featuring David Kaplan on piano, is an edgy expedition into a sonic palette.
