Accept Daniel Pesca’s invitation, “Walk with me, my joy,” and head into a labyrinth — of memories, overlapping paths, new spaces that sometimes feel familiar.
Guided by a haunting lullaby, the Irish folk song “Shule Agra,” the musical paths are built from the memory of composer/pianist Pesca’s mother singing him an old song, also known as “Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier” or “Buttermilk Hill.”
With great craft and musical space, Pesca weaves his journey of memory through the title piece, a free-flowing set of variations for flute (Sarah Frisof), cello (Christine Lamprea), percussion (Ian Rosenbaum) and piano (Pesca).
The music on this album, out June 6, reminds me of the feelings I’ve had reading dream-like novels like “Piranesi” by Susanna Clarke or “The City and its Uncertain Walls” by Haruki Murakami. It’s an elusive sense of mystery, along with some mix of delight and melancholy.
That discovery alongside familiarity plays out in a variety of ways. With his longtime duo partner, flutist Frisof, Pesca’s “Gestures of Grace” combines strength with delicacy. Three intermezzos bring guitarist Dieter Hennings’s lyrical yet austere playing.
More intensity arrives in the cello solo “In Solitude,” written at the start of the pandemic. In the solo piano “Chaconne,” a clarion opening gives way to another set of loose, abstract variations, playing in new ways with an old form built again on repetition.
Pesca is a welcome re-addition to Rochester’s music scene after returning two years ago to teach at his alma mater, the Eastman School of Music. Perhaps it goes without saying: his collaborators play with great technique and beautiful sound.
In all of this music, the mystery pairs with immediacy and presence. Each musical line seems to generate the next, spinning a new path to follow and, in that, rewards multiple listening sessions and explorations of what lies around each corner.
Mona Seghatoleslami is music director, host and producer on WXXI Classical 91.5 FM.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
