Land of Winter

Donnacha Dennehy’s portrait of the climate of Ireland is full of sounds that evoke light. The 12-part chamber-ensemble suite is covered in mists, hazes and halos; in Ireland, “the quality of light demarcates the seasons,” he writes in an introductory note. The piece features a satisfyingly diverse range of textures that point back to his influences: spectralism (the glacial colors of “December,”), Andriessen (the teeming rhythms of “July”). But it avoids typical new-music moves for depicting the natural world, helped along by its idiosyncratic subject: Ireland’s weather manages to be both gentle and hostile at once.