CD Review

CD Review, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

“Blue” Gene Tyranny Boxed Set (CD Review)

“Blue” Gene Tyranny

Degrees of Freedom Found

Unseen Worlds

6XCD boxed set/digital

 

Composer and pianist “Blue” Gene Tyranny passed away in December 2020 of complications due to diabetes. The boxed set Degrees of Freedom Found, a generous six-CD compilation of tracks from 1963-2019, was already in the works and contains liner notes by Tyranny. Thus, it is an endorsed release rather than a posthumous archival grab. 

 

He was associated with a number of prominent musicians, Robert Ashley, Carla Bley, Bill Dixon, and Iggy Pop, whom he joined on an early tour of the Stooges. Most viewed him as a generous collaborator. Ashley, in particular, afforded Tyranny a considerable amount of freedom in crafting the music he played in the opera “Perfect Lives (Private Parts),” in which he enacted the role of Buddy, the world’s greatest piano player.

 

Like Tyranny’s talents, the boxed set is eclectic in makeup and it is curated roughly by category rather than chronology. The set begins with selections that highlight the extraordinary pianist he was, with a warm touch yet fluid dexterity. The stylistic incorporations of the music, even within a single work, is wide-ranging throughout. Thus, one can be in the midst of listening to a minimalist-inspired piece and suddenly swerve through blues or honky tonk pianism. His detractors took this to be undisciplined and digressive, but appreciators knew better that the amalgamations the pieces underwent were intrinsic to their design.

 

If one dipped into a later disc first, they might get the impression that Tyranny was more interested in synthesizers, chamber orchestra, jazz, or theatrical vocal works than solo piano: all are here. The performance dates range from 1963, when the composer was still in Ann Arbor, to later presentations in Montana, Massachusetts at Jacob’s Pillow, Philadelphia, and a number in New York, which became his longtime base of operations, culminating with a valedictory piece featuring winds from 2019, titled “The Forecaster Hopes.”

 

Some of the included works are aphoristic, the length of pop songs. Often the most evocative all too quickly vanish. One piece, “Meditation” for trio and chamber orchestra, is spliced together (seamlessly) between two performances thirty years apart. There are also large-scale pieces, such as Tyranny’s epic monodrama “The Driver’s Son,” the half-hour long piano work “We All Watch the Sun and the Moon (for a Moment of Insight), and “Barn Fever,” a substantial synthesizer piece with a rollicking groove and fiendishly fleet soloing. 

 

Degrees of Freedom Found is a substantial amount of music, but a deep dive into Tyranny’s work is amply rewarding.

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, File Under?

Sergio Merce, “En lugar de pensar” (CD Review)

Sergio Merce

En lugar de pensar (Instead of thinking)

Wandelweiser CD

 

“The name of the album is about this feeling that I have. I believe that playing music is a non-cerebral thought form; thought in the sense of being a channel to see, to reveal, a channel that opens through intuition, observation and attention but not through thinking.”

 

Argentinian composer Sergio Merce frequently records at home, but the results aren’t rough hewn as a result. Employing a microtonal saxophone of his own design, synthesizer, and an electronic wind instrument, Merce creates music that encompasses drones, layered sine waves, complex overtones, and periods of silence. The first piece, “Forma Circular” is an enclosed shape. It repeats twice on the recording. Often, a single interval is isolated for a period of time, to be followed by silence and then a more complex, microtonal sonority. An additive process of building from a simple interval to a stack of harmony is another common approach in the piece. Partway through, pitched pulsations animate the soundscape, moving the proceedings from a prevailing feeling of stillness to a mid-tempo presentation. Even when it is absent at the beginning of the second pass through the form, a subliminal urgency is still felt. 

 

In “Forma Continua,” straight tone intervals are morphed with microtonal beating. Single sine tones act as interludes between each wave of distressed dissonances. Merce prioritizes seconds among the intervals, but nearly each one gets to take a turn at being central to the music. Silence plays less of a role than sustain in this piece, with one attack beginning while another sustained chord is held. At times the instruments are recognizable as distinct entities. At other points in the piece their textures overlap, creating beautiful blurred sounds. Merce’s hand-fashioned instruments and home recording practices are in service of sophisticated music-making. 

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, Piano

Ian Pace Plays Ferneyhough and Yeats (CD Review)

Brian Ferneyhough

Complete Piano Music 

Ian Pace, piano (Ben Smith, piano on Sonata for Two Pianos)

Metier CD

 

Marc Yeats

The Anatomy of Melancholy

Ian Pace, piano

Prima Facie CD

 

Ian Pace is one of the finest interpreters of complex contemporary music currently active. Two recent recordings of music by British composers of exquisitely intricate scores – Brian Ferneyhough and Marc Yeats – serve to further cement his reputation as the go-to artist for this repertoire. 

 

Brian Ferneyhough studied with Klaus Huber and others, but a great deal of his early work in the 1960s consisted of autodidactical pieces. Invention, Epigrams, Three Pieces, and Sonata for Two Pianos all date from 1965-’67 and fall into this framework. Apart from the sonata, they are aphoristic creations, dealing with the surface textures of total serialists Boulez and Stockhausen but with a more intuitive approach to construction. Joined by Ben Smith, Pace underscores the vivid dynamic contrasts and registral stratification of Sonata for Two Pianos. 

 

By 1980, Ferneyhough’s reputation had been enhanced from prodigious emerging talent to that of one of Europe’s pivotal figures. The New Complexity tag was coined for his work and that of a few other composers (Michael Finnissy, Chris Dench, and James Dillon prominent among them). However dubious and reductive any stylistic pigeonhole may be, Ferneyhough has created scores of exacting technical difficulty and interpretative requirements. A watershed work in this regard is 1981’s Lemma-Icon-Epigram, which Pace first performed while a student at the Juilliard School in the early 1990s and has presented many times since. Ferneyhough has suggested that the sixteenth century poetic form the Emblema provided a formal design for the work, with references between the movements culminating in the hyper-distillation of its Epigram. 

 

Three excerpts from Shadow (Opus contra naturam) are reconfigured from the opera Shadowtime. In his note, Ferneyhough suggests a Liberace or Joker styled performance, one that allows for the piece’s abundant virtuosity and periodic vocalizations to take on a kind of macabre lightness.

 

Quirl is Ferneyhough’s most intricate piano score to date, with a self-similar rhythmic structure based on fractal geometry from which are deployed gestures within gestures in a whorl of activity (hence the title). There is also a renewed interest in linear counterpoint reflective of the composer’s exploration over the past two decades of Renaissance music. El Rey de Calabria (2019) provides a brief recapitulation of Ferneyhough’s early style. The piece is an affectionate remembrance of his family’s three-legged cat.

 

Pace’s program essay on Ferneyhough’s piano music acknowledges the difficulties of realizing its notation while strenuously rebutting the notion that it is impossible to play accurately or perversely written to look more complex than will actually be realized. The pianist underscores the increasing number of performers who convincingly present  Ferneyhough’s music. He suggests that his own journey with the scores has been an evolving one, with the current recordings a snapshot of his understanding of their rich details. 

 

Marc Yeats specializes in polymetric composition, using multiple meters in an asynchronous fashion in pieces for large ensemble and layering polyrhythmic designs in solo works. Yeats takes the polyrhythmic investigations of Elliott Carter and Conlon Nancarrow and puts them on steroids. His piano pieces are in single movement design, ranging from 10 to 18 minutes in duration. Dense and detailed, dynamic extremes, formidable technical challenges, and mercurial gestures with sharp turns in demeanor make Yeats’s music a daunting prospect for performers. 

 

However, Pace supplies powerful and extraordinarily detailed renderings, once again making the case for the playability and interpretive potential of tremendously complex music. Each piece is distinctive. Particularly memorable are the whipsnap contrasts of Enûma Eliš, the delicate and rhythmically supple lines in Ouroboros, and the layered structure of the title work. Yeats has a strongly individual voice, and he effectively ups the ante on complexity. 

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Chamber Music, Contemporary Classical

Kenneth Kirschner, Joseph Branciforte – From the Machine Vol. 1

The {greyfade} recording label has recently released From the Machine Vol. 1, a new digital and vinyl album of contemporary music composed entirely by software employing “…algorithmic processes, generative systems and indetermancy.” A collaboration between Kenneth Kirschner and Joseph Branciforte, the two tracks of this album were composed by computer but performed by conventional acoustic ensembles. This combination of digital composition and traditional performance brings the human touch to music that would otherwise be realized by strictly electronic means. From the Machine Vol. 1 attempts to join the creative efforts of computer-based composition with expressive performance by skilled musicians.

Kenneth Kirschner’s April 20, 2015 is the first track on the album and this was originally intended as a purely electronic piece. Starting with acoustic piano and string audio files, the end result was created by applying digital processing techniques such as time stretching, looping and recombination. Joseph Branciforte then tediously worked out a conventionally notated score for Kirschner’s composition so that it could be performed and recorded by an acoustic ensemble. Pianist Jade Conlee along with cellists Mariel Roberts and Meaghan Burke accepted the challenge of playing this piece characterized by independent lines and no formal rhythmic structure. The result is far more successful than might be expected.

April 20, 2015 opens with a series of light, solitary notes in the piano joined by legato notes in the cellos. The contrast between the warm cello tones and sharper piano notes makes for a lovely mix of sounds. There is no phrasing present, but the sequences of two or three notes from each instrument provide a surprisingly coherent sensibility. This piece could easily sound cold or mechanical, but the eloquent intonation and careful articulation by the players adds a level of warmth and expression that is very effective. The piece proceeds in sections of about three minutes each separated by short silences. The form is consistent but the colors vary – sometimes darker and sometimes lighter – depending on the tempo and the register of the moment. Despite the lack of a structural framework, April 20, 2015 always engages and never becomes bland or boring.

The playing throughout is exceptional, given the independent lines and absence of any common rhythmic structure. Listening to this is like looking at a painting comprised of a number of unrelated squiggles that are clearly abstract, yet perceived by the brain as a cohesive image. April 20, 2015 has managed to fuse digital precision and possibility with the eloquence of artful human performance.

The second track on the album is 0123, by Joseph Branciforte and this piece takes an entirely different approach. Based on a four note pitch set, 0123 consists of sequence of tone clusters that form a series of chromatic tutti chords. Each chord sounds for a second or two, and the different combinations of notes in various registers propel the piece forward with a kind of elementary voice leading. According to the liner notes, all of this was created using the Max/MSP programming environment such that “…the underlying algorithm derives the complete harmonic vocabulary of (0123) playable by a given set of instruments…” The idea here is similar to Tom Johnson’s The Chord Catalogue (1986), a piece in which all 8178 chords in a single octave are sounded on a piano. Another recent CD along these lines is Involution, by Dave Sidel, that methodically explores the harmonic possibilities of alternate tuning scales.

This performance of 0123 by a string ensemble allows for more nuance in the playing, even as the rhythm, tempo and dynamics are all included in the compositional algorithm. 0123 was performed by violinist Tom Chiu of the Flux Quartet, violist Wendy Richman, International Contemporary Ensemble, cellist Christopher Gross, Talea Ensemble and double bassist Greg Chudzik, also of the Talea Ensemble. The artful playing by this extraordinary quartet adds an expressive dimension that would otherwise be absent in a purely electronic realization.

0123 opens with low, rumbling chords and the bottom-heavy registers of the quartet add a pleasing weight to the sound. The opening is a bit like hearing a train horn – impressive and dignified. As the chords proceed, some dissonance adds a bit of tension and uncertainty, although never intimidating or menacing. Even the higher strings are playing in their lowest registers, adding to an overall dark and mysterious feel. The ensemble is so tightly cohesive that the sound sometimes resembles that of a pipe organ. There is no melody or rhythmic structure – as each chord is presented it is allowed to express its own personality. Great emotion can be heard in these chords, with no trace of their algorithmic origins.

As the piece continues, the dynamics increase in all voices and a certain amount of tension builds. The chords become shorter, then longer and there is a stronger dissonance in the higher tones. The warm sounds of the cello and double bass are never dominated by the higher strings, and this provides a solid, welcoming foundation against the encroaching tension. The predominance of the lower strings in the scoring is so distinctive and effective that one wonders why it is only rarely heard. A gradual crescendo of sustained chords completes this 19 minute piece. 0123 is a fine example of simplicity, digital rigor and masterful string playing that combine to uncover the deep emotional implications present in clean, uncluttered chords.

From the Machine Vol. 1 is a step forward in the ongoing project of joining computer-based composition to the virtuosity of human performance. Hopefully there will be more to come.

From the Machine Vol. 1 is available directly from {greyfade} in vinyl or as a digital download.

by Paul Muller
CD Review, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

Moonbow (CD Review)

Gunnar Andreas Kristinsson

Moonbow

Sono Luminus CD

Caput Ensemble

 

Icelandic composer Gunnar Andreas Kristinsson’s second CD, Moonbow, presents a  selection of pieces written during the past decade for sinfonietta and chamber forces. Clarinetist Ingólfur Vilhjálmsson joins Caput Ensemble, conducted by Guðni Franzson, in Sisyphos. Written in 2014, this is the composer’s most acclaimed piece, and one can readily hear why. Based on the mythological tale of the title character ceaselessly rolling a boulder up a hill as punishment in Hades, the concerto features eruptive outbursts, virtuoso solo turns, a middle section of minimal repetitions, and a closing danse macabre.

 

Patterns IIb, for violin, bass clarinet, and percussion (mostly mallets) is a set of variations on the Icelandic folksong “Fagurt er í Fjörðum” providing a further exploration of ostinato. Kristinsson adopts the patterning of minimalism, but uses a collection of semitones to construct a chromatic pitch structure that prioritizes semitones. Passacaglia B is a trio for bass clarinet, harp, and percussion, the bass melody traded between all the instruments – the percussion once again featuring mallets – and overlaid with differently paced repeating melodic patterns in the alto and treble registers. The passacaglia itself infiltrates the upper register at times, leaving the bass clarinet to take up a scurrying low register melody.

 

The Siggi String Quartet have been stalwart advocates of Icelandic composers, and their performance of the CD’s title work is no exception. Moonbow refers to a lunar or “white” rainbow. Sustained cello melodies ground syncopated upward directed repeating phrases. Again, there is a confluence of chromaticism and minimalism distinctive in its deployment. A poignant slow section arrives near the end of the piece, with yearning melodies offset by pizzicatos. This proves to be an interlude rather than a coda, as the patterned passages return, now juxtaposed against the plucked strings. The dynamic and intensity build to a double-time, but harmonically unresolved, finish.

 

Roots is a three movement ensemble work based on spectralism. The “roots” in question are fundamentals of the overtone series. The first movement uses only one series, the second movement uses multiple series that shift into and out of focus. In the final movement, melodies are crafted from the upper partials of the series, with microtonal shadings used to better replicate their tunings. This is a well trod, but durable, version of microtonality, and it provides a contrasting approach to the other pieces on the CD, one that Kristinsson might profitably further examine. Moonbow demonstrates consummate craftsmanship in winning performances. Recommended.

  • Christian Carey

 

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Contemporary Classical, Microtonalism

Peter Thoegersen – Facebook: What’s On Your Mind?

Flea Records has released a new CD of vocal music by Peter Thoegersen titled Facebook: What’s On Your Mind? The album is a microtonal song cycle consisting of twelve short cantos sung by mezzo-soprano Lore Lixenberg, accompanied by synthesized piano. Peter Thoegersen is a pioneering composer known for the use of multiple tempi and alternate tuning simultaneously in his works. Ms. Lixenberg is an accomplished vocalist who has performed music by composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pauline Oliveros and Phil Niblock, among others. The texts for the song cycle are drawn from Facebook postings by the composer between 2016 and 2020. Facebook: What’s On Your Mind? is an unflinching look at social media in an age of anxiety, powerfully expressed in contemporary microtonal music. To forget your pain you can taste music but not the alcohol as it can lead to alcohol addiction. Even if music cannot heal your anxiety, then visit rehabilitation centers near you to get rid off anxiety and stress.

We all have that Facebook friend who is perfectly polite and sociable in person, but suddenly loses all restraint when posting online. Full disclosure – Peter Thoegersen lived for a time in my town and we would occasionally meet for coffee or attend concerts together in Los Angeles. Peter was always good company in person, but online – and especially during the last four culturally difficult years – his frustrations and inner demons would sometimes get loose and overwhelm any sense of digital decorum. You generally had to be unfriended by Peter at least twice to know that he cared about you and he often disappeared from Facebook for a time, only to reappear in a new, sanitized profile. Facebook: What’s On Your Mind? is an attempt to express this experience through music while, as Thoegersen has written in the liner notes, “…demonstrating the whimsical nature of instant world communications and unbridled bad taste.”

The twelve Cantos of the song cycle each have their own tuning scheme starting with Canto I with 13 tet. Each successive canto increases the divisions of the octave by 1: Canto II is in 14 tet, Canto III 15 tet, etc. The notes at the beginning of the score give a detailed pitch list for each tuning and the deviation of each note, in cents, from the conventional 12 tone equal tempered scale with A at 440 Hz. The rhythmic meter of the cantos varies, from conventional 4/4 to the more exotic 11/4, 24/16, 7/32 and others. The phrasing in the piano is often rapid and generally independent of the vocal line. The piano accompaniment on this CD is synthesized, but the tuning schemes are intended to be programmed into a suitable keyboard to enable live performance.

The vocal parts are even more challenging, given the multiple tuning, exotic meters and performance instructions on the score such as ‘throat overtone singing’, ‘nasal multiphonics’, ‘near scream but maintain pitch’, ‘Severe Ululation–machine gun’ and the like. The score is presented to the singer in conventional notation with the pitch variances for the tuning given in cents above the note. The dynamics also vary widely from a near whisper to actual shouting and the vocal styles can change quickly from a sweet bel canto to frantic screaming. The recording and mixing by Ian Hansen is exceptional given the challenges. Ms. Lixenberg’s performance of Facebook: What’s On Your Mind? can only be described as heroic.

The general form of each canto is similar – the piano sometimes provides a quiet introduction but more typically accompanies with a flurry of fast passages that surround the vocals with a surging wave of notes. The piano accompaniment is typically active and reminiscent of a baroque harpsichord. Often the voice strains expressively while the piano quietly adds to the anxiety with a dark undercurrent. Thoegersen tends to organize the piano phrasing rhythmically, and this provides some structure. The vocal and piano lines are independent, but they are always complimentary.

The subject matter of several of the cantos varies from whimsy to frustration. Canto II – I Am Cat God, is actively playful with a spectacular piano line, and ends with a quiet ‘meow’ from the voice. Canto IV – WheN I saY i HatE you is a cry for understanding in the Facebook world. The soprano screams, shrieks and shouts: “When I say I hate you, it doesn’t mean that I hate you…” This is accompanied by a marvelously anxious piano line that delivers great sheets of sound in support. Canto X – The More Likes You Get… is a commentary on the definition of Facebook popularity, only turned upside down. The soprano sings with a robust lyricism that “Acceptance is the focal point of mediocrity”, accompanied by a halting and questioning piano line. Almost in answer, Canto XI replies with the soprano yelling: “How many of you hate everything I say!” The singing here is strident – part music and part howl – with a repeating piano line that adds to the sense of vexation. It finishes with a vigorously shouted political comment: “Sending your sons to war for profit!”

All of the cantos are of consistently high musical quality, innovative and expertly performed. The texts of some of them, however, reflect a very deep sense of frustration and stray beyond the vulgar and into proper obscenity. The words are not always intelligible given the dramatic vocalizations, but the listener will be challenged at some point. This might be perceived as an editorial exclamation by some – or as an insult by others – and seems a needless risk taken by the composer. The music clearly conveys its many strong emotions, is carefully composed and in every way has been brilliantly performed. The Cantos need nothing further.

The first eleven tracks on the CD are short and punchy – less than 4 minutes each, with most only a minute or two in duration. The final track, Canto XII – Eleven Ad Libitum Live Facebook Cantos is just over 14 minutes and consists of eleven further pieces heard as a continuous sequence with short pauses between. This is fully scored for piano but the vocals are extemporaneous with the text drawn from various Facebook postings. This opens with a tentative piano intro followed by an unsteady entrance in the voice. The words here are political, specifically directed at Donald Trump at a time when his speeches caused much distress. There is the usual angry frustration in the words, with much yelling and shouting. As this proceeds, the singing becomes a mix of the operatic and the spoken, all with strong anti-authoritarian sentiments. The vocals often soar upward to a fine shriek, then suddenly switch down to a low, gravelly speech reminiscent of the witches in Macbeth. The piano supports this underneath with a Gothic lyricism, adding anxiety throughout. The music is similar in form to the other tracks on the CD, but text of this canto is focused and more overtly political. This reflects the heavy emotional turbulence of the Trump era and makes for a fitting finish to the album.

Artists and musicians everywhere are still processing the trauma of the last few years. Facebook: What’s On Your Mind? documents the deep emotional scars inflicted by the Trump era with this vigorous new recording of Thoegersen’s cutting-edge music.


Facebook: What’s On Your Mind? is available directly from Flea Records.

by Paul Muller
CD Review, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

Simple Music by Giya Kancheli

Giya Kancheli

Simple Music

Jenny Lin, piano; Guy Klucevsek, accordion

Steinway and Sons CD

 

Giya Kancheli died in 2019, leaving behind an imposing catalog that included a number of late large works for orchestra and chorus. The Georgian composer also wrote in a more intimate style, often for films and theater. These pursuits kept his work out of view of the censors of the Soviet era, so eager to hunt down modernist composers. Thirty-three of these pieces, ephemeral but attractive, are collected in Simple Music. Pianist Jenny Lin and accordionist Guy Klucevsek realize these works on a Steinway CD.

 

They are not the first to create a duo version of the pieces – another recording is for piano and cello. The accordion and piano create a cabaret ambience often heard in European cinema. Lin and Klucevsek are well matched musical partners. They allow gentle, jazzy, material like “Theme from ‘When Almonds Blossomed’” and “Theme from ‘Mimino’” to unfurl with lyricism, but without undue sentimentality. Jaunty selections like “Theme from Mother Courage and Her Children” and a “Rag-time from Richard III” are clever and instantly hummable. The pieces also reference a number of classical composers, Chopin, Johann Strauss, and Stravinsky among them. Kancheli had a distinctive voice of his own, but it is fascinating to hear him working in a milieu that encourages pastiche. Lin and Klucevsek explore Simple Music’s considerable charms with a sense of wonder and adventure.

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, Minimalism, Orchestras

Louis Andriessen on Nonesuch (CD Review)

Louis Andriessen

The Only One

Nora Fischer, soprano

Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor

Nonesuch Records

 

Louis Andriessen is in poor health. The eighty-one year old composer finished his last work, May, in 2019. It received a belated premiere (sans audience due to the pandemic) in December 2020 by Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and Cappella Amsterdam, conducted by Daniel Reuss (the linked broadcast of the piece starts forty-eight minutes in).

 

The Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, has released another of Andriessen’s final works, The Only One (2018), on a Nonesuch recording. It is a set of five orchestral songs, with an introduction and two interludes, for soprano soloist Nora Fischer. The texts are by Flemish poet Delphine Lecompte, who translated the ones used into English.

 

Fischer is a classically trained vocalist who is also adept in popular and cabaret styles. Her singing is abundantly expressive, ranging from Kurt Weill style recitation through honeyed lyricism to raspy screams. This is particularly well-suited both to the texts, which encompass a range of emotions, from rage to resignation, and to the abundantly varied resources Andriessen brings to bear. In The Only One, his inspiration remains undimmed; it is a finely wrought score. Much of it explores pathways through minimalism equally inspired by Stravinsky that have become his trademark. Andriessen is also well known for resisting composing for the classical orchestra for aesthetic reasons. Here he adds electric guitar and bass guitar and calls for a reduced string cohort, making the scoring like that used for a film orchestra. Harp and piano (doubling celesta) also play important roles. Esa-Pekka Salonen presents the correct approach to this hybrid instrumentation, foregrounding edgy attacks and adopting energetic tempos that banish any recourse to sentimentality.

 

“Early Bird” begins with birdsong, which morphs into a melody akin to cuckoo clock birds. Unlike Messiaen, the bird doesn’t indicate spiritual uplift, the song ends with the narrator abased by a humiliating situation. Memento mori are to be found frequently in both words and music, even a tongue in cheek rendition of the Dies Irae chant. Right alongside these are defiant retorts and much dance music. “Twist and Shame” is a (near) dodecaphonic dance. The bird call from “Early Bird” returns harmonically embellished in the final song, “Grown Up,” to signify a grotesque heron, part of a grim cast of characters that join in a waltz macabre. Afterwards, the piece closes simply with the words, “The grown-up that betrayed my inner child,” followed by eight quiet dissonant chords: the curtain falling irretrievably. As valedictions go, “The Only One” is an eloquent summary of a composer’s life and work.

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

Marco Stroppa on Kairos (CD Review)

Marco Stroppa

Miniature Estrose – Primo Libro (1991-2003, revised 2009)

Erik Bertsch, piano

Kairos CD

 

Pianist Erik Bertsch’s debut recording for Kairos is of composer Marco Stroppa’s most highly regarded piano works, the first book of Miniature Estrose. Bertsch was the first pianist to perform it in its entirety in Italy. The overall arch of the complete cycle of piano pieces, including a second book, has been sketched but not yet released. Even its partial completion is an impressive hour long demonstration of the capabilities of the piano in the twenty-first century. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv7hy_QySsA

 

The first selection on the CD, Passacaglia canonica, in contrappunto policromatico, is dedicated to Pierre-Laurent Aimard, reminding one of the auspicious pianists who have undertaken Miniature Estrose. Bertsch more than holds his own, crafting a detailed and energetic rendition of the piece with clear counterpoint and clarion interjections. On Birichino, come un furetto, incisive repeated notes in all registers are wittily deployed to demonstrate the roguish ferret of the title. Moai features sustained chords against rapid repeating notes, trills, and dissonant dyad pairs. As the piece progresses, intricate arpeggiations unfurl amid an increasingly emphatic demeanor. 

 

Ninnananna is an exploration of repetition, but of a far more chromatic and embellished fashion than that of minimal music, concluding with enchanting bell-like timbres. Based on the Easter Island “bird-man” ritual, Tangata Manu is a varied creation, juxtaposing avian calls, ascending scales, insistently repeated notes, trills, inside-the-piano effects, and sustained bass sonorities. Innige Cavatina was written for Luciano Berio’s seventieth birthday. It is the piece most closely evoking the Romantic tradition, with bass octaves announcing dissonant verticals that are often echoed by enigmatically soft passages. The interplay of gestures in a wide dynamic range supplies the feeling of being aloft that is suggested by the composer’s description of the piece. 

 

The CD’s final work, Prologos: Anagnorisis I. Canones diversi ad consequendum, is also its most expansive. A prologue, five sets of cyclic canons, and an extended epilogue, Stroppa likens the piece both to the toccata genre and to the moment of climax, the recognition of truth, in a Greek tragedy. The composer is artful in his deployment of the venerable genre of canon amid a virtuosic, postmodern atmosphere. Bertsch’s strategic pacing of Anagnorisis reveals its intricate dramatic structure. This is also true on a larger level. The pianist does a masterful job of navigating the entirety of Book 1 with assured technique and clarity of expression. One presumes he will be one of the first to assay Book 2.

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Composers, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

Curtis K. Hughes – Video Premiere and CD Review

Tulpa

Curtis K. Hughes

New Focus Recordings

 

“Tulpa is a term appropriated by 20th century theosophists from Tibetan Buddhism to refer to a manifestation of a physical being generated purely by thought, sometimes also likened to an imaginary friend, a doppelgänger, or a shadow version of the self.”

 

  • Curtis K. Hughes

 

Curtis K. Hughes is Professor of Composition at Boston Conservatory. Tulpa is his second portrait CD and the programmed works span from 1995 to 2017. There is a consistency from the earliest to most recent works, with the principle change being an  ever more assured compositional voice and a major work in Tulpa, a 2017 piece for ensemble.

 

The program is designed with several miniatures between the larger works, serving as interludes. Flagrant (2008) is a snare drum solo. Despite the reduced means at his disposal, Hughes imaginatively deploys various techniques and an overall approach to strikes on the drum that bring out a number of colors in zesty gestures. This segues nicely into the percussion ensemble piece Antechamber (2015). Played by the Boston Percussion Group, the piece is both colorful and varied in gestural profile. Some parts adopt fulsome grooves, while others are pointillist, with seamless transitions between demeanors.

 

Lesson Plan (2007) is a piece for bass clarinet dedicated to Lee Hyla on his departure from Boston for Chicago. Since the composer’s untimely passing, it serves as an affectionate homage through various quotes and a buffo blues cast. Merger (2016), for two cellos, is one of the finest pieces here in terms of construction. Angular counterpoint and hockets between the instruments are offset by piquant harmonies.

 

Wingtones (2009) for clarinet and piano, is cast in two movements. The first is a loose rondo. After a potboiler introduction, there is a Hindemithian fugue opener that is gradually discarded for a swing section. A slower paced fantasy ensues that once again returns to the swing section followed by a coda with flutter tongue and unison melodies. The second movement is more reflective, a fantasy that part way through speeds up and  interpolates the swing from the previous movement. Despite occasional interjections of fast music, cascades of arpeggios and altissimo clarinet playing are reasserted. The piece closes with lush harmonies and tremolandos.

 

It Was Not Raining (1995) is the final interlude, a piece for solo marimba that features rhythmic canons and multi-mallet technique. This is followed by the title work, a piece for large ensemble cast in four movements. The first movement, “i. telophase,” features pitched percussion and piano creating a swath of disjunct melodies. The other instruments join in a contrasting lyrical section. Gradually the two strands merge in a propulsive stream now buoyed by ostinatos. A brash unison melody provides the first climactic passage of the piece. Things go sideways in “ii. (manufactured for a purpose),” with a section for low winds followed by a tantalizing brief violin solo interrupted by a cadenza for piano and percussion. Winds and percussion cohere into a fast-shifting section of glinting harmonies. The strings, led by two low cellos, are then added to the proceedings, providing a syncopated backdrop for a more straightforward ostinato by clarinet, percussion, and piano. Gradually, their disparate grids combine into a fulsome workout, which leads directly into “iii. ‘un amour inconnu…’,” an evocative setting of a short passage from Proust’s Swann’s Way, sung with impressive microtonal inflections by soprano Rose Hegele. The final movement, “iv. the number of completion,” begins with a bassoon solo that is quickly succeeded by vibrant percussion, into which it reinserts itself,both gradually taking up a unison theme before the entire ensemble takes up disjunct fast lines that are passed from instrument to instrument. The piece concludes with a ferocious pileup of thick chords in repeated eighth notes. Tulpa is engaging throughout, and seems to be a culmination of the other, smaller, compositions on the CD. Whether for soloists or writ large, Hughes writes compelling music that is artfully crafted and energetically appealing.

 

Sequenza 21 has the pleasure of premiering a live performance video of Merger.

Tulpa will be released on Friday April 16th.

 

by Christian Carey