Cellist Hannah Collins borrows the concept of resonance lines from physics. She does so loosely, she admits, but the idea results in a cohesive program, beautifully realized. Resonance lines, the listener learns, "[refer] to the energy emitted or absorbed by an atom as it transitions between different energy states," and it is transitions that concern Collins here. They are of two kinds, which themselves intersect; the music deals with the intersections of composer and instrumentalist, and of composer with the musical past, ...
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Cellist Hannah Collins borrows the concept of resonance lines from physics. She does so loosely, she admits, but the idea results in a cohesive program, beautifully realized. Resonance lines, the listener learns, "[refer] to the energy emitted or absorbed by an atom as it transitions between different energy states," and it is transitions that concern Collins here. They are of two kinds, which themselves intersect; the music deals with the intersections of composer and instrumentalist, and of composer with the musical past, Bach above all. Both are relevant to all of the pieces on the album, although the proportions vary. The two centerpieces are Benjamin Britten's Suite for cello solo No. 1, Op. 72, an extended rumination on Bach's solo cello suites that also stretches the cellist, and Kaija Saariaho's 7 Papillons, an essay in virtuoso cello writing that has both Baroque and Romantic overtones. The music, Collins notes, "highlights the voices of female, LGBTQ+, and multiracial composers." It hangs...
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