kínēma (2021)

Performed with utmost musical imagination and admirable craft by Bell, the solo clarinet part flourished with groovy virtuosity and sweeping lyricism, yielding to stuff of dreams. Under Salonen, the SF Symphony strings delivered a marvelously inspired reading of the intricate orchestral fabric, one awash with textural clarity and rhythmic precision. Beautifully served in its Davies Hall outings, Kínēma was warmly received by the San Francisco audiences. Repertoire piece in the making, the concerto is both instantly appealing and profoundly rewarding musical item.

The first scene is a shining, dewy dawn; the second, a soft, easygoing aria over a steady repeating bass line; the third, a bright, pizzicato accompaniment to a skipping, spattering clarinet; the fourth, a restrained elegy punctuated by sudden, swiftly abandoned surges. The fifth begins with hymnlike solemnity, reminiscent of a sunset, with the violins making a high, smooth spearing sound that shades into the tone of the clarinet. Unexpectedly aggressive, sharply rhythmic music follows — this seems to be the material that Salonen joked earlier was an echo of “Psycho” — accompanied by siren cries from the soloist.

...kínēma” isn’t unpleasant, and McGill was a stylishly reserved soloist, not one to impose himself even in virtuosic passages — his tone mellow yet direct, sweet and refreshing.