Ember to Debut on Azica this Coming Friday

Christine Lamprea, Emily Levin, and Julia Choi on the cover of their new album (from the Amazon.com Web page)

This coming Friday will see the release of the first recording of performances by Ember. This is a “nonstandard string trio” whose members are Emily Levin on harp, violinist Julia Choi, and Christine Lamprea on cello. The title of the album, released by Azica Records, is Birds of Paradise, which seems to be a reflection on the final work performed on the album, “Ave del paraíso” by Angélica Negrón. The album will be released this coming Friday, and Amazon.com has already created a Web page for the purchase of both the CD and MP3 download.

The principal composition on the album is a trio in B-flat major composed by Henriette Renié (1875–1956). It was completed around the very beginning of the twentieth century and was first published around 1910. The instrumentation allows for a piano in place of a harp, but the plucked-string sonorities of the harp make for an engaging contrast with the two bowed instruments. Whenever I am faced with a “first encounter” with music that is over a century old, I tend to be skeptical; but I have to confess that I was impressed with how Renié negotiated the interplay of sonorities in a four-movement  setting of “bread-and-butter” structures. This clearly reflected her own skills as a harpist, having played that instrument since the age of eight!

The trio is roughly half an hour in duration. Thus, there was clearly a need to “fill things out” with further selections. “Ave del paraíso” is preceded by “Saans,” composed by Reena Esmail on a commission by the Albany Symphony. She then composed a piano trio version for pianist Suzana Bartal; and, apparently, Levin was able to work with that version in the performance for this album. I have to say that, in listening to that track on the album, the sonorities of the harp come across as better suited than those of a piano!