On Lines and Traces of Desire, composer Mischa-Salkind Pearl collaborates with cimbalom artist Nicholas Tolle on this collection of solo, duo, and ensemble works for the beguiling stringed percussion instrument. These mystical, reflective pieces celebrate the cimbalom's resonant qualities, and honor the eminent composer György Kurtág, whose music provided Tolle the inspiration to dedicate himself to the instrument.
| # | Audio | Title/Composer(s) | Performer(s) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Time | 65:25 | |||
| 01 | The Plum Gatherer | The Plum Gatherer | Mary Bonhag, soprano, Nicholas Tolle, cimbalom | 10:43 |
Palm's Soft Terrain |
||||
| Nicholas Tolle, cimbalom | ||||
| 02 | I. Undulating Herringbone | I. Undulating Herringbone | 7:53 | |
| 03 | II. Basket Weave | II. Basket Weave | 3:35 | |
| 04 | III. Mary Ann Ostrander Pattern | III. Mary Ann Ostrander Pattern | 14:21 | |
| 05 | Map of My Room | Map of My Room | Ludovico Ensemble, Jeffrey Means, conductor | 11:27 |
Lines and Traces of Desire |
||||
| Lamnth, Lilit Hartunian, violin, Nicholas Tolle, cimbalom | ||||
| 06 | I. | I. | 2:18 | |
| 07 | II. Unison | II. Unison | 5:46 | |
| 08 | III. | III. | 2:39 | |
| 09 | IV. | IV. | 1:42 | |
| 10 | V. Sonata in E Major - Adagio (Blasco de Nebra, 1780) | V. Sonata in E Major - Adagio (Blasco de Nebra, 1780) | 5:01 | |
Lines and Traces of Desire features the music of Mischa Salkind-Pearl performed by Nicholas Toll on cimbalom alongside several chamber collaborators. Since each work centers the cimbalom, we hear a distinct side of Salkind-Pearl’s composition, very much shaped by this beguiling, melancholy instrument. Developed and practiced primarily in Eastern and Central Europe, especially in Hungary, the cimbalom is a chordophone with metal strings strung across the top of a large trapezoidal box and played with cotton tipped strings, with a damping pedal underneath. Each pitch has multiple strings tuned to it in unison, giving the instrument a kind of natural “chorus” effect that celebrates the resonance of the minute temperament discrepancies between strings.
Looming large in the world of the cimbalom is the eminent Hungarian composer György Kurtág who has used the instrument extensively in his poetic compositions. Both Salkind-Pearl and Toll reference Kurtag’s influence. Pearl writes that the title track is a response piece to Kurtag’s 8 Duos for Violin and Cimbalom, op. 4 and Tolle cites Kurtag’s music as his source of inspiration for devoting himself to the instrument. The brooding, ritualistic character of the cimbalom infuses all of the works on this album, regardless of the varied and contrasting music that Salkind-Pearl creates.
Opening the album is The Plum Gatherer, a duo with soprano Mary Bonhag, setting a 1928 poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Tolle opens the piece with a haunting solo passage, dotted with grace notes that drip off slow arpeggiated lines like water dripping from the crags of a cave. Bonhag’s vocal line is almost hypnotic, delivering the text with a detached fatalism as Tolle ventures between widely spaced resonant intervals and shimmering trills.
The three movement solo cimbalom work, Palm’s Soft Terrain, is in line with a strain of Salkind-Pearl’s work that is engaged with traditional craft practices. In the program note for the work, he mentions patterns of American weaving drafts as a reference point. One can hear this influence in the meticulous phrasing and repetition with variation, the delicate adjustments one takes when something you make with your hands takes shape. The patience and embrace of subtle syntactical differences in rhythm are at times reminiscent of Feldman, but Salkind-Pearl’s world in this work is ultimately more evocative and less rhetorical. The striking tremolando ending of the first movement, “Undulating Herringbone,” draws the ear beyond the repeated pitches to the percussive artifacts behind the attacks themselves, a celebration of tactile materiality. Indeed, tactility is at the heart of “Basket Weave” as well, as a sharp, truncated articulation mimics the sound of the light hammering of an object into shape. In the final movement, Salkind-Pearl “unweaves” and stretches material from Brahms’ Ballade op. 10 no. 4, creating a slow motion contrapuntal unfolding. Layers of contrast with the tolling mid-register sonorities are created with high register ponticello flourishes.
Map of My Room expands to a quartet, adding violin, flute, and bass clarinet to the cimbalom. Salkind-Pearl has created a sonic map of his room in his home, using his lived environment as a template for music that is infused with the associations that accompany different corners and nooks of his lived environment. The work opens in a spectral whirl, accumulating energy over a pedal point articulated by the cimbalom. As it develops, hazy clusters emerge and recede in the instruments, floating by like passing constellations of thought during a meditation. Amidst dramatic contrasts and an extended passage around a central pitch, the work remains contained in its self-defined space, a chronicle of a refuge.
Lines and Traces of Desire for violin and cimbalom expertly uses silence as an integral component of phrasing to enhance a contemplative, reflective mood. Within that frame Salkind-Pearl explores specific compositional devices in different movements that frame the dialogue between the instruments and the presentation of material. In the first movement, each short phrase is characterized by large intervallic leaps; in the second, unison incantations between the instruments are interrupted by ricochet gestures; in the third glissandi, harmonics, and non-pitched timbres create a mysterious environment; and in the fourth movement, languorous harmonies and playful figuration alternate unpredictably. The final movement embeds a loose transcription of an Adagio by 18th century composer Blasco de Nebra in a suspended frame of wondrous ebow sustains and fragile violin sonorities. For an album that has been so focused on the unmistakeable uniqueness of the cimbalom, brought to life gracefully and virtuosically throughout by Tolle, it is charming to hear it placed in a role of imitating an 18th century fortepiano, through a kind of sonic looking glass.
- Dan Lippel
Recorded September 10th, 2023 at Distler Hall, Tufts University
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Jeffrey Means
Cover Image: Mischa Salkind-Pearl
Design: Marc Wolf, marcjwolf.com
Mischa Salkind-Pearl composes instrumental, vocal, and electroacoustic music that frequently seeks to embody traditional craft practices, and which repurposes musical artifacts as personal relics. Boston Classical Review named his opera Troubled Water, premiered in September 2015 by Guerilla Opera, the Best Premiere of 2015. Mischa’s work includes diverse collaborations and projects: Current projects include a grant to compose a work for The Rhythm Method string quartet that integrates traditional techniques of American weaving, a collaboration on a concert-length piece for Mike Williams and Stephen Marotto, and upcoming projects with Loadbang and the Hinge Quartet. His work, A Poppy of Erasure, was included in the exhibition “Intersections: Masters of Line and Space” at the Akron Art Museum. He composed, performed, and recorded the music to the 2018 documentary Art in Smog by director Lydia Chen. Ensembles and soloists who have commissioned him include Guerilla Opera, Bent Frequency Duo, Loadbang, Hinge Quartet, Lamnth, Ludovico Ensemble, ensemble mise-en, Chamber Cartel, Transient Canvas, Diagenesis Duo, cellist Rhonda Rider, saxophonist Philipp Stäudlin, and percussionist Masako Kunimoto. His music has also been performed by Ensemble SurPlus, Uusinta Ensemble, the Boston Conservatory Sinfonietta, Dinosaur Annex, Bent Frequency, and Lamnth, as well as conductors Jeffrey Means and James Baker, among others. Mischa founded and served as artistic director of Boston’s Equilibrium (2011-2019), an ensemble that presented concerts highlighting the music of New England’s diverse contemporary music community. Mischa is composer-in-residence for the Ludovico Ensemble, and was the 2020-2021 composer-in-residence at the Concord Academy in Massachusetts. He is Chair of Composition, Contemporary Music, and Core Studies at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. His music can be heard on Ludovico Ensemble’s portrait CD of his work written for that ensemble, I Might Be Wrong (2016), on Transient Canvas’s Wired (2018), Shi-An Costello’s [Alloy] (2021), Chen Li Music’s CD, Pluralities (2017), Diagenesis Duo’s Hands and Lips of Wind (2019), and other records.
Mary Bonhag is an “extraordinary” singer (Classical Voice N. America) committed to the healing powers of song. She is both a new-music specialist and a singer deeply devoted to sacred music across the ages. Mary was featured on Resonant Bodies Festival, and has sung with 21st Century Consort, and San Francisco Contemporary Players. Mary recently premiered a new chamber opera by Susan Botti, River Spirits, an allegorical tale featuring Mary, Susan Botti, and Lucy Shelton. In 2010, Mary co-founded Scrag Mountain Music, now in its 14th year of organizing chamber music residencies and innovative and affordable concerts around Vermont. Since COVID, she has devoted much of her personal practice and professional work to chant. Since 2020, she has been leading Taizé chant services both online and in person. Collaborations and relationships are central to Mary’s professional life as a singer and she enjoys close partnerships with pianist David Kaplan, Aizuri Quartet, Aeolus Quartet, Decoda, conductor Filippo Ciabatti, Ruth Cunningham, and numerous composers. After studies at University of Michigan and Bard College (under Dawn Upshaw’s mentorship), she was invited to residence at SongFest, Fall Island, and Tanglewood. Mary is featured on the NPR show Performance Today and appears on Albany Records. In between travels, she lives and makes music with her children in Vermont amongst the pine trees and flowers.
http://www.marybonhagsoprano.com/Nicholas Tolle is one of America’s premiere cimbalom artists. He has performed as soloist in Pierre Boulez’ Repons with the composer conducting at the Lucerne Festival in 2009, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal with Péter Eötvös in 2012, with Steven Schick at UC San Diego in 2017, and again at the Lucerne Festival with Jonathan Nott in 2025. He has appeared as a soloist with Collage New Music and Orchestra 2001 performing Steve Mackey’s 5 Animated Shorts, and with numerous orchestras performing Kodály’s Háry János Suite. Based in Boston, MA, he plays regularly with such groups as the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Emmanuel Music, and Sound Icon, and with his own group, the Ludovico Ensemble. He has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and the New York Philharmonic. A leading interpreter of new cimbalom music, he regularly performs with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, and Ensemble Signal. In 2019 he won 3rd prize in the Budapest Music Center International Cimbalom Competition.
Inspired to study the cimbalom by György Kurtág’s music, Nicholas Tolle is deeply committed to expanding the instrument’s repertoire. He has worked with composers such as Louis Andriessen, John Harbison, and Hilda Paredes, and has had pieces written for him by Marti Epstein, Toby Driver, Brad Lubman, Juri Seo, Anthony R Green, Bahar Royaee, and many others. He worked especially closely with Pierre Boulez and George Benjamin on their cimbalom music, having performed the entire cimbalom repertoire of each composer under their own batons. He has presented lectures on composing for cimbalom at Princeton University, UC Davis, New England Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, and many other schools. Nicholas studied percussion at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and the New England Conservatory. He is featured performing Boulez’s Repons in the EuroArts documentary Inheriting the Future of Music: Pierre Boulez and the Lucerne Festival Academy, and in Kurtág’s music for cimbalom and voice on soprano Susan Narucki’s 2019 album The Edge of Silence, which was nominated for a 2020 Grammy award. His recording of Kurtág’s Seven Songs from The Edge of Silence was named one of the best classical tracks of 2019 by the New York Times.
The Ludovico Ensemble is a Boston-based chamber ensemble specializing in modern music. Founded in 2002 by Nicholas Tolle, the group is known for its carefully curated programs focusing on specific and often unusual instrumentations. From 2007-2014, the group held the position of Ensemble-In-Residence at the Boston Conservatory. In 2010, the group released its first album featuring chamber music by the late Dana Brayton, former composition teacher at the Boston Conservatory. The Boston Globe hailed Ludovico’s recording of Marti Epstein’s Hypnagogia as one of the best classical albums of 2015, and Alex Ross of The New Yorker called it a new release of interest. In 2016 the group released its third album featuring the music of Composer–In–Residence Mischa Salkind-Pearl.
The group consists of many of the best freelancers and new music specialists in Boston, and its instrumentation varies wildly from concert to concert as the repertoire demands. The group’s name is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fictional medical treatment featured in the Anthony Burgess novel and Stanley Kubrick movie A Clockwork Orange, in which the protagonist is subjected to a classical conditioning regimen that induces nausea at the sight of violent or exploitative acts, but also, inadvertently, to the music of Beethoven.
Jeffrey Means is an American conductor and percussionist with a special interest in modern and contemporary music. His wide-ranging career has included engagements across North America and Europe, collaborating with many of today's leading composers and ensembles. He is artist director of the Boston-based group, Sound Icon, which has given premieres of numerous major works of the American and European Avant-Garde. After studying with Pierre Boulez in 2009-2011, he has maintained a close relationship with Boulez's music. Means is professor of conducting at Berklee College of Music and is an active recording engineer.
Lamnth is a violin and cimbalom duo founded in 2023 by Lilit Hartunian and Nicholas Tolle dedicated to building a new repertoire for their unique pairing. Their thoughtful and hands-on approach to collaborating has yielded new works by composers including Maya Bennardo, Darcy Copeland, Marti Epstein, Ash Graham, Sid Richardson, Golnaz Shariatzadeh, and Niloufar Shiri. They were in residence at Avaloch Farm in 2023 with Mischa Salkind-Pearl and in 2024 with Bahar Royaee. Their second season in 2024- 2025 will see premieres by Anthony Green, Curtis Hughes, John McDonald, and a residency with New Music Brandeis. In 2025 they served as the John and Arlene Heiss Ensemble in Residence at the New England Conservatory. In 2024 they launched two annual initiatives: LamnthLab, an open call that awards commissions to two composers, and the Jack-o-Lamnthern Spooktacular, a Halloween concert that invites composers to “dress up” as other composers by arranging existing music for violin and cimbalom. Their third season in 2025-2026 will feature portrait concerts of Mischa Salkind-Pearl, Marti Epstein, Anthony R. Green, Juri Seo, and Bahar Royaee.
Lilit Hartunian performs at the forefront of contemporary music innovation, both as soloist and highly in-demand collaborative artist. First prize winner in the 2021 Black House Collective New Music Soloist Competition, her “Paganiniesque virtuosity” and “captivating and luxurious tone” (Boston Musical Intelligencer) are frequently on display at major concert halls and leading academic institutions, where she often appears as both soloist and new music specialist. Lilit appears regularly with A Far Cry, Emmanuel Music, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Sound Icon, and Ludovico Ensemble. Recent highlights include co-founding violin and cimbalom duo
Lamnth, performing at the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s “Ligeti 100” chamber music concerts in Symphony Hall, and appearing on the 2023 Grammy-winning album for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Described as “brilliantly rhapsodic” by the Harvard Crimson, she can be heard on New Focus Recordings, Innova Recordings, Albany Records, and New Amsterdam Records.
New Focus Recordings is an artist-led collective label featuring releases in contemporary creative music of many stripes, as well as new approaches to older repertoire. The label was founded by guitarist Dan Lippel, composer Peter Gilbert in 2004, and composer/engineer Ryan Streber in 2004, formed …Read More …
Listen to full streaming tracks while you browse the site. New tracks enabled for streaming every month. Click on the button to open up the radio player.
