Call Her Moonchild

American composer Susan Botti has joined forces with the Japanese-American violinist Airi Yoshioka to form the duo Duo Della Luna. Their Mangetsu (NEW FOCUS RECORDINGS FCR305) is an exciting instance of contemporary classical, where the womens’ performances really connect on a very direct level.

The title piece is a six-parter compiled from numerous poetic and literary sources, and making use of very extreme techniques, requiring Botti to express herself in multiple languages (did I mention she’s an accomplished soprano singer?) while Yoshioka stabs, scrapes and delivers intensely difficult pizzicato passages. I’m hoping this one tells a story much like The Residents’ Eskimo; I’m basing that on one part, titled ‘The Stolen Child’. You can buy it for this 15-minute epic alone; a bleak and mysterious work of deep-frozen genius, and delivered with tremendous conviction by the players.

Much to enjoy in the rest of the programme, especially their radical take on Bartok; five short pieces where Botti goes back to the folk source materials used by Bela B. and yowls her heart out as she throws unexpected shapes, while the violin delivers astringent whines of severity and melancholy tones. Plenty more rewarding material on the set, including a new composition by Linda Dusman, and the duo seuze every opportunity for sparky, animated cross-talk between vox and violin, the texts layered with traditional folk themes, poetry, feminism, and the more abstract contemplations of ‘Changing Light’ by Kaija Saariaho.

Despite the “difficult” atonal and sometimes slow-moving surfaces, this is innovative music of great expression, served up with much passion. (16/06/2021)