Live at Bozar

Aglica Trio: Lise Vandersmissen, harp; Carys Gittins, flute; and Agnieszka Żyniewicz, viola. Etcetera Records, 2026.
In Live at Bozar, a live-broadcast performance recorded at Brussels’ celebrated concert hall as part of Aglica Trio’s victory in the Belgian Supernova Chamber Music Competition, the ensemble takes the familiar world of the Debussy Trio and pushes it into exhilarating new territory. Alongside Debussy, they offer electrifying performances of contemporary works that cast the entire program in a new light. Hilary Tann’s From the Song of Amergin draws inspiration from three lines in Robert Graves’ modern restoration of an ancient Celtic text: “I am a wind: on a deep lake, / I am a tear: the sun lets fall, / I am a hawk: above the cliff.” Aglica Trio embraces the sensuality of Tann’s writing, bringing particular weight to the life-affirming power of those repeated words: “I am,” giving the music an almost physical presence. Portuguese composer Francisco Fontes’ Slices of Life, was written for the trio and narrator. It’s filled with explosive and charged tension, surging forward with frantic energy before suddenly giving way to an almost dreamlike atmosphere. But it is perhaps the relationship between these contemporary works and Debussy that proves most revelatory. Hearing the newer repertoire alongside Debussy seems to breathe fresh life into the familiar. There is something deeper and more expansive at work, as though the Trio has been liberated to approach the music with new ears, to linger over every nuance, color, gesture, and possibility.

Angel’s Wine: The Songs of John Dowland

Zoe Vandermeer, triple harp and soprano. Centaur Records, 2026.
John Dowland, who died 400 years ago, not only built a career writing songs of sorrow, he left an influence that reaches composers to this day. His famous “tear” motif, a descending scale that briefly rises toward hope before falling again, perfectly captures the suspended yearning at the heart of his music. Like poetry giving shape to feelings we cannot quite manage on our own, Dowland’s songs reach directly into the heart, finding connection amid life’s complexities. On Angel’s Wine: The Songs of John Dowland by solo soprano and triple harpist Zoe Vandermeer, selections from Dowland’s First and Second Bookes, The Musical Banquet, and A Pilgrim’s Solace are presented much as they might have been heard in his own time, sung with accompaniment, though here the lute is replaced by the harp’s more resonant, ringing sound. Vandermeer masterfully balances lyrical phrasing with rhythmic pulse, creating an effect that feels almost like a heartbeat. In Come, Heavy Sleep, the harp provides a gentle frame for her luminous, pure coloratura. She brings the same tenderness to her solo works, lingering over each phrase in Adew for Master Oliver Cromwell as though offering a caress. This is an album of utter delicacy and beauty, an emotional release in sound.