Simone Porter Releases Debut Album

Violinist Simone Porter has released ad tendo, her debut solo violin album on Bright Shiny Things. The recording is inspired by philosopher Simone Weil’s insight that “Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.” The Latin root of the word “attention,” ad tendo translated means “I stretch toward.” Each work on the album animates this stretch by exploring how different types of attention can yield greater spiritual alignment. ad tendo features works by Andrew Norman, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Hildegard von Bingen/ Olivia Marckx, Heinrich Biber, and the premiere recording of Reena Esmail’s Drishti (दृष्टि).

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TRACK LIST Listen here
Drishti (दृष्टि) by Reena Esmail
I. Shimmering II. Tense, volatile III. Searching IV. Diaphanous V. Swiftly
VI. Yearning VII. Brewing VIII. Wild, erratic IX. Luminous X. Reaching

Lachen Verlernt by Esa-Pekka Salonen

Improvisation on O Virtus Sapientiae by Hildegard von Bingen/Olivia Marckx

Sabina by Andrew Norman

Passacaglia in G Minor, C. 105 “Guardian Angel” by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber

CRITICAL ACCLAIM
Violinist Simone Porter is deeply engaged in classical tradition, and her solo debut album concludes with Biber’s Passacaglia in G Minor, which dates to 1676. But the concept behind this arresting collection elides any genre or era, focusing instead on a quote from philosopher Simone Weil: “Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.” Indeed, this stunning effort feels like a spiritual invocation through sound, rendering contemporary works by Reena Esmail, Andrew Norman, and Esa-Pekka Salonen indivisible from the Biber, or from Olivia Marckx’s gorgeous “Improvisation on O Virtus Sapientiae,” which is based upon Hildegard von Bingen’s 12th-century work “Antiphon for Divine Wisdom.” The collection begins with Esmail’s 10-movement “Drishti,” which is the yoga term for “focused gaze.” The piece unfolds patiently, braiding phrases that collide Western classical tradition with Hindustani music; but in the end, it’s about sound. Porter articulates the score with a mix of visceral energy and ethereal beauty, producing an almost weightless profundity that still manages to hit like a ton of bricks. The performance is virtuosic, but it also conveys Weil’s concept masterfully. Salonen’s chaconne “Lachen Verlernt”—its title borrowed from Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire— breaks the spell a bit with its slashing intensity, a kind of midway crescendo that’s followed by Marckx’s swirling but measured beauty and Norman’s delicate yet insistent, light-streaked “Sabina,” inspired by a morning mass at Rome’s Santa Sabina Basilica.
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The ten short sections of Reena Esmail’s Drishti explore open strings, harmonics, double stops and long melodic lines, often inflected with portamentos: perhaps an acknowledgment of Esmail’s Indian heritage. Porter is completely secure in the technical demands of the music, and also has an unerring sense of pacing, so that nothing outstays its welcome, and the movements – sometimes tenuous, sometimes aggressive – add up to more than the sum of their parts, with the subtleties of the performance beautifully realised in the warm, detailed recording. Salonen describes Lachen Verlernt as a chaconne, where ‘the harmony remains the same throughout the whole piece; only the surface, the top layer of the music changes.’ That harmony often nudges tonality, and is expressed through double stops, accurately and effortlessly despatched. O Virtus Sapientiae by Hildegard von Bingen is the basis of Marckx’s Improvisations, unfolding over a drone at first, then gradually fragmenting and extending the basic melodic tape, but never losing its harmonic root. Less immediately gripping is Norman’s Sabina, moving from a ghostly opening to a frenetic climax, and back again, but lacking a strong melodic identity. After that, going back over 300 years to the closing Passacaglia from Biber’s Mystery Sonatas comes as quite a shock, but its devotional character reflects the concept of the album, taken from Simone Weil, and spoken right at the end: ‘Attention taken to its highest degree is the same thing as prayer. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.’
BBC Music Magazine, Five Stars

Simone Porter will perform the album live as part of the Death of Classical series in New York City, at The Crypt under The Church of the Intercession, on May 29.