CD Reviews

Though certainly not out to win any awards for originality, Nigel Westlake’s chamber music, as represented on The Hinchinbrook Riffs (TP187), is appealing and well-wrought. Westlake has a background in film, television, and rock, and a comfortable amount of stylistic diversity distinguishes the works on this album. The eponymous piece, for guitar and digital delay, and “Kalabash,” for mallet percussion, do not hide their debts to Steve Reich; nor do they shy away from interrupting the contrapuntal minimalist processes they spin. The “Piano Trio” and “String Quartet No.2″ are both far from the world of minimalism, and both make ample use of the conversational, lyrical textures found in standard-practice chamber music. Westlake’s sound ability to build and diffuse tension through tonal, dynamic, and rhythmic contrasts assures that, however familiar the musical territory may be, the music nonetheless sustains interest. The exuberantly raucous, single-movement “Piano Sonata” is probably the album’s highlight: the full-blooded opening syncopations give way to a starry, tranquil middle section, and the ending romps to a satisfying, visceral close.

Just after reading Les Murray’s “Fredy Neptune,” what should show up in the mail? Four CDs from Tall Poppies, an Australian record label specializing in contemporary music. It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a CD here, so I figured I’d share what’s up Down Under with y’all.

Bruce Cale (b.1939) spent decades in jazz before turning to classical composition. TP188 features three large-scale orchestral works by Cale: the Cello Concerto Op. 65, Valleys & Mountains Suite Op. 64, and the Violin Concerto Op. 43. Inspired by George Russell’s Lydian tonal construct and marked by mildly dissonant harmonies and gentle syncopations, Cale’s music, from the evidence of this disc, tends to be moderato in all things – except moderato. Some jazzy percussion does wake up the Cello Concerto (which features a soprano soloist) towards the end. But the Valleys and Mountains Suite, when it’s not busy being blandly scenic, continues mostly at the tepid, lukewarm temperature at which Cale likes to operate. The two movements of the Violin Concerto (“Andante” and, yes, “Moderato”), even though the orchestration is thankfully less muddy, confirm the impressions left by the previous two works. One imagines the very wet acoustic, especially in the Cello Concerto, does Cale no favors as well.