Tag: CD review

CD Review, File Under?, Pop, Rock

Dear Tick – Emotional Contracts (CD Review)

Deer Tick

Emotional Contracts

ATO Records

 

Deer Tick’s first post-pandemic recording, Emotional Contracts (ATO), is produced by veteran Dave Fridmann, who has manned the console for the likes of Sleater-Kinney, The Flaming Lips, and Spoon. It retains many aspects of the sound Deer Tick has developed over the past two decades. A number of the songs are rousing rock anthems with a tinge of alt-country. “If I Try to Leave” falls into this category, but its lyrics chaff against the music’s uplifting demeanor, with the narrator asking how they would cope if they left their life, family and all, behind. The lyrics of “If She Could Only See Me Now” are those of a traditional rock breakup ballad, but the music and vocal provide an indignant sneer, suggesting this relationship is truly in the rearview mirror. 

 

The lineup for Deer Tick has been steady. The band’s founder singer/guitarist John McCauley is joined here by guitarist Ian O’Neil, drummer Dennis Ryan, and bassist Christopher Ryan. The group also enlists guest artists, Steve Berlin (Los Lobos), who adds keyboards and saxophone to some of the tracks, and background vocalists Courtney Marie Andrews, Kam Franklin, Angela Miller, Sheree Smith, and Vanessa Carlton.

 

Deer Tick has a reputation for creating music that is a bit scruff, rough around the edges even after it is recorded. One would imagine that their previous recordings involved tightening things up a bit during their sessions. In something of a role reversal, the band rehearsed (by their own admission, over rehearsed) the ten songs on Emotional Contracts for months in their slapdash rehearsal space in Providence, Rhode Island. When Deer Tick arrived in the studio to record, Fridmann had to encourage them to let go of the process, to allow the songs to redevelop into finished projects. The addition of the aforementioned guests opens up the sound. For instance, “Running from Love” has multiple vocalists and a chorus cooing in the background, and takes on a soul vibe.  The first single from Emotional Contracts was co-written by McCauley and O’Neil, with the latter taking lead vocals. A heavy rock beat on the verse is disrupted on the chorus by a Latin rhythm on the keyboard. The rhythmic juxtaposition is in part because the lyric sends us “South of the border,” but it also demonstrates the narrator’s fraught emotional state while dealing with trauma from earlier in life. “Grey Matter” leans into Deer Tick’s abiding affection for country.

 

“Once in a Lifetime” isn’t a cover. This original by McCauley features a jaunty bassline, tightly interlocked guitar parts, accordion, and dulcet vocal harmonies on the chorus. “My Ship” is a brief, doleful mid-tempo ballad with McCauley’s voice placed lower than usual. It includes varied harmonies that allow the band to delve into classic pop territory. 

 

“The Real Thing, “ the final track on Emotional Contracts, is a nine-minute opus addressing depression, from which McCauley has long suffered. He adds an edge to his voice, while the drums and bass hold down an inexorable groove, and guitars overlap and punctuate the proceedings with clarion chords. The middle section amplifies McCauley’s voice into a distorted mic, which is then responded to by his regular voice in a pain-filled hook. Guitars crest and then are abruptly cut off, only to have the hook return in full throttle. A nettled version of the melody appears in a guitar solo offset by a new keyboard riff, creating a long, instrumental coda. The song denies easy solutions, instead using the sharing of pain as catharsis. 

 

On Emotional Contracts, Deer Tick creates a melange of exuberance and pathos. 

 

-Christian Carey

 

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

Annika Socolofsky on New Amsterdam (CD Review)

Annika Socolofsky

Don’t Say a Word

Latitude 49

New Amsterdam Records

 

“This unapologetic profession of love and vulnerability is something I have felt denied all my life. And it’s time to reclaim it. These are love songs for the self. These are my feminist rager-lullabies for the new queer era.” – Annika Socolofsky

 

Composer/vocalist Annika Socolofsky works out a great deal of anger on her New Amsterdam recording Don’t Say a Word. She has described herself growing up as a “queer kid” being ostracized. That treatment has subsequently inspired her to examine all sorts of othering in society, from overt discrimination to the subtle indoctrination of lullabies. She is joined by longtime collaborators Latitude 49, a mixed chamber ensemble.

 

“Don’t you cry” begins with ascending echoing chants, each ending with a vibrating sob, subsequently explored in Socolofsky’s alto register. The title track opens with ominous instrumental pulsations. Socolofsky continues to examine vibrating tones, to which are added sneers and moans. These are then accompanied by glissandos, repeated string ostinatos, and reverberant sustained tones from the ensemble. Vocal sounds come to encompass fry and abstract use of language, with a broadening range. Indeed, Socolofsky’s voice encompasses everything from the chest voice chanting of the recording’s opening to high soprano lines controlled with the technique of a concert singer. The piece ends unaccompanied, with pensive reiterations of previous components of the vocal.

 

“Tinker, Tailor” and “Little Boy Blue” both interrogate nursery rhymes, with the aforementioned singing techniques and textual responses to the complex nature of childhood tales. My favorite of the songs is “Like a Diamond,” in which the singer intones warm phrases in one of the “love songs to herself” she has mentioned as a concomitant goal to the expression of her anger at the challenges for her younger self. Socolofsky’s anger is an identifiable and understandable emotion, but her love songs to herself can resonate with others too, and this is a generous gift. 

 

-Christian Carey



by Christian Carey
CD Review, File Under?, Rock

Deerhoof – Miracle-Level (CD Review)

Deerhoof

Miracle-Level

Joyful Noise Recordings

 

At a certain point in their career, many rock bands dread the audience reaction to saying “we’re going to play the new single” from onstage. It suggests that their days of vital music-making have devolved into being among the ranks of nostalgia artists. Deerhoof’s experience is quite different. They keep changing and developing as a band, and their successive releases are acclaimed and eagerly listened to by longtime fans and new listeners alike.

 

Several things distinguish Deerhoof’s latest Joyful Noise release, Miracle-Level, their nineteenth recording, the first released back in 1997. Improbably, this is Deerhoof’s first one recorded in a formal studio setting, with producer Mike Bridavsky, who has worked with Ezra Donner, Greg Warren, and Durand Jones, among others. Vocalist/bassist Satomi Matsuzaki sings entirely in her native language, Japanese, which hasn’t happened before on a Deerhoof album. Drummer Greg Saunier adds piano to some songs. Guitarists John Dietrich and Eddie Rodriguez fill out the quartet.

 

One might think that, having a studio and an experienced producer at their disposal, Deerhoof would indulge in a bit of experimentation with electronics. Instead, the band still prefers live takes to overdubs and the white-hot inspiration of immediacy to laboring overmuch over songs. Miracle-Level sounds cleaner than previous efforts. Bridavsky captures the band’s signature sound with impressive care and accuracy. In that sense, studio work is a step forward.

 

The band often rocks with abandon. “Sit Down, Let Me Tell You a Story” has powerful drumming and scurrying guitar riffs that accompany Matsuzaki’s singing, distressed with sliding tones and buoyed by high soprano lines. “My Lovely Cat” features an urgent lead riff, double time ostinato bass guitar, and energetic drums, with twin bass drum quick time punctuations. The mid-range phrases from Matsuzaki seem to render the vocal unflappable in the midst of the maelstrom. The aphoristic instrumental “Jet-Black Double-Shield” builds to an eruption partway through, only to dial back to overlapping ostinatos, followed by corresponding fortissimo passages to close. “Phase-Out All Remaining Non-Miracles by 2028” is the most musically intricate of the songs. A soaring vocal from Matsuzaki is accompanied by corruscating layers of guitars and the bassist’s own syncopated line. Apart from laying out on the bridge, Saunier provides thunderous drumming; his return during double guitar solos gives the conclusion of the song a propulsive energy. “And the Moon Laughs”manages to fit enough material for a prog epic into less than three minutes.

 

There are ballads too, which are some of the most memorable songs on Miracle-Level. The title song has arcing guitar solos offsetting, and in some cases, shadowing, one of the most well wrought melodies Matsuzaki sings. The album’s final song, “Wedding, March, Flower,” has a delicate, lyrical vocal. The accompaniment is similarly gentle in demeanor, with an elaborate, winsome chord progression played on the piano by Saunier. The title track is an intricate song, with harmony vocals, changes in tempo, and the development of multiple instrumental motifs.

 

Miracle-Level demonstrates that a band can still make changes – big ones – even after twenty-five years. It is seldom that a late career recording is so compelling. Miracle-Level is one of my favorites thus far in 2023.

 

-Christian Carey

 

Deerhoof Touring

 

07/07/23 – Des Moines, IA @ 80/35 Music Festival

07/08/23 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club

07/11/23 – Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar

07/12/23 – Grand Rapids, MI @ The Pyramid Scheme

07/14/23 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall

08/21/23 – London, UK @ Lafayette

08/22/23 – Bristol, UK @ The Lanes

08/23/23 – Liverpool, UK @ Invisible Wind Factory

08/24/23 – Sunderland, UK @ Pop Recs LTD

08/25/23 – Cumbria, UK @ Krankenhaus Festival

08/27/23 – Bethesda, UK @ Ara Drag

08/28/23 – Oxford, UK @ The Bullingdon

08/29/23 – Margate, UK @ The Lido

08/30/23 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2

08/31/23 August – Wiltshire, UK @ End of the Road Festival

09/01/23 – Birmingham, UK @ Supersonic Festival

09/07/23 – Saugerties, NY @ Opus 40

09/08/23 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theater

09/09/23 – Pontiac, MI @ Pike Room at the Crofoot

09/10/23 – Bloomington, IN @ Russian Recording 20 Year Anniversary

09/12/23 – Nashville, TN @ The Basement East

09/13/23 – Asheville, NC @ Grey Eagle Music Hall

09/14/23 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle

09/15/23 – Norfolk, VA @ TBA

09/16/23 – Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar

11/05/23 – Utrecht, NL @ Tivoli Vredenburg – Cloud 9

11/07/23 – Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie

11/08/23 – Rennes, FR @ Salle De La Cite

11/09/23 – Orleans, FR @ L’astrolabe

11/10/23 – Kortrijk, BE @ Sonic City Festival

11/12/23 – Lyon, FR @ Les Subsistance

11/14/23 – Braga, PT @ Gnation

11/15/23 – Lisbon, PT @ ZDB

11/17/23 – Alicante, ES @ Primavera Weekender

02/12/24 – Milan, IT @ ARCI Bellezza

02/13/24 – Bologna, IT @ Locomotiv

02/15/24 – Rome, IT @ Monk

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, File Under?, jazz

Chet Baker – Blue Room (CD Review)

Chet Baker

Blue Room: The 1979 Vara Studio Sessions in Holland

Jazz Detective 2xCD

 

A double CD (or limited edition vinyl, if you prefer) set of unreleased sessions from 1979 displays Chet Baker in fine form, both as a trumpeter and vocalist. These recordings were originally made at Vara Studio in Holland for Dutch radio broadcast. Baker is joined on Disc 1 by pianist Phil Markowitz, bassist Jean-Louis Rassinfosse, and drummer Charles Rice; the trio had been touring with him fairly regularly. They provide  impeccable support. A particular standout is Rassinfosse, whose walking lines and soloing are creative contributions. Markowitz’s playing is distinguished as well, with tasty chord voicings and ebullient solos that provide a strong foil to Baker. Disc 2 includes two groups of supporting personnel: the group from Disc 1 on some of the tracks, and pianist Frans Elsen, bassist Victor Kaihatu, and drummer Eric Ineke on others. The latter group does stalwart work, but clearly have not had the benefit of significant musical acquaintance. 

 

Disc 1 opens with “Beautiful Black Eyes,” by Lou McConnell and Wayne Shorter. Baker plays a florid solo. Markowitz responds with a chord solo that finishes with flourishes that resemble Baker’s lines. Markowitz’s solo on “The Best Thing for You” is a standout, boisterous and virtuosic. Baker and Rice trade fiery fours before the trumpeter repeats the tune to close. “Oh You Crazy Moon,” by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen, is an ideal vocal vehicle for Baker, who sings and plays with exquisite phrasing and effortless high notes for good measure. 

 

“Blue Room” is a well-loved Rodgers and Hart song,  recorded multiple times by Baker (Madeleine Peyroux has also made a lovely recording of it). The ballad is played with a graceful cast, with both Baker and Markowitz embellishing the tune with chromatic extensions and playing with a cool demeanor. The Miles Davis composition “Down” is played by Baker with fleet scalar passages and peppery blues scales. The rhythm section keeps up a muscular groove, with Markowitz playing a forceful solo. 

 

On Disc 2, Baker stretches out on his original “Blue Gilles,” creating a suave solo that takes its time percolating, but is filled with expressive playing that ultimately reconnoiters the upper register in faster note values. Markowitz also takes a gradual approach, ending an ostinato passage with a flourish. Rassinfosse then begins pressing forward in his solo turn, providing a good contrast to the others. Baker’s final cadenza begins with bits of riffs and ends with a long held line.

 

The Miles Davis tune “Nardis” follows. Baker presents a West Coast version of the tune. Markowitz puts a little bit of bite in his comping. Rassinfosse and Rice too are quite assertive.“Luscious Lou” is a medium swing instrumental  on which Baker exercises his high notes and leans into blues thirds. 

 

“Candy” is a vocal number, written by Mack David, Alex Kraimer, and Joan Whitney. Baker would record it again in a trio date released in 1985. His signature croon imitates the swinging solo to follow. “My Ideal” is also a vocal, here the singing more reserved than the ensuing trumpet solo. 

 

The recording concludes with a show tune, “Old Devil Moon” from Finian’s Rainbow by Yip Harburg and Burton Lane. The most uptempo tune on the dates, it is given a bit of bebop swagger in an extended solo by Baker. 

 

These sessions feature some of Baker’s favorite songs, but in fresh and often inspired renditions. 

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, File Under?, Guitar, jazz

Dominic Miller – Vagabond on ECM Records (CD Review)

Dominic Miller

Vagabond

Dominic Miller, guitar; Jacob Karlzon, piano, keyboard; Nicolas Fiszman, bass; Ziv Ravitz, drums

ECM Records

 

Vagabond is guitarist Dominic Miller’s third recording for ECM Records. Apart from bassist Nicolas Fiszman, Miller has assembled a new group of collaborators: keyboardist Jacob Karlzon and drummer Ziv Ravitz join him in a quartet setting. Miller composed most of Vagabond’s eight originals while living in the South of France. He has suggested that nature and the small towns and buildings he passes on long walks supply him with inspiration. The guitarist’s Argentinian roots may be a bit further out of the limelight, but they too are an abiding part of his composing and playing technique. 

 

The track “Vagines,” named after a small French town, epitomizes this. Miller plays delicate melodies, sometimes doubled in octaves, that contain a hint of Francophone aesthetic. Here as elsewhere, he plays a classical guitar that is judiciously amplified. Fiszman and Ravitz deftly punctuate his phrasing. Karlzon joins with a scalar solo that embellishes the tune. On “All Change,” the band is more assertive, creating a buoyant backdrop to Miller’s single line solos.

 

Miller has likened himself to an “instrumental songwriter,”  and on “Cruel but Fair,” one can readily hear the ballad’s song-like construction. Chord-melody and single guitar lines are accompanied by economic comping from Karlzon. Add lyrics to this, and several others on Vagabond, and one could readily imagine them ready to sing. 

 

“Open Heart” is one of the highlights of Vagabond. It features a syncopated ostinato underneath a minor-key tune. The longest composition on the album, it introduces the material slowly, with Miller playing  in a solo context. The other musicians enter and develop the material in rebuttal. Karlzon’s fetching solo retains the tune’s diaphanous contours while extrapolating from its changes. The piece’s denouement features splash cymbals that announce Miller’s return and the reprise of the tune’s head, with a decrescendo to close. 

 

“Altea” begins with sumptuous chord voicings that quickly adopt the Latin rhythms of Miller’s Argentianian roots. His colleagues revel in this context,  both Fitzman and Ravitz providing syncopations in ebullient fashion. There is a tangy solo by Karlzon, and all of a sudden the tune ends with rolled chords by Miller. “Lone Waltz” closes the album with Miller playing a jazz tune in triple time to an arpeggiated accompaniment. Karlzon is at his most virtuosic here, and the rhythm section allows room for the Miller-dominated arpeggiated sections while playing with zest during the piano solos. Once again, the group performs a gradual denouement, with brief melodies from Miller, performed over the piano’s arpeggios, sending the record to a quiet conclusion.

 

Vagabond is Miller’s most versatile project yet, and has several memorable compositions. Miller gels well with this band. Although he tends to change collaborators between projects, one could readily see these musicians sticking around for a while.

 

-Christian Carey



by Christian Carey
CD Review, File Under?, Pop

Wila Frank – Black Cloud (CD Review)

Wila Frank

Black Cloud

Tone Tree Music

 

Singer-songwriter Wila Frank’s debut LP Black Cloud defies the expectations of a Music City artist. Like a number of musicians who have moved to Nashville in the wake of the city’s big boom, Frank isn’t a country artist. Her work hews closer to indie rock, with fetching quirks that make it distinctive. For instance, there is a repeated sharp fourth that gives the progression in “Oh Fate” an unconventional tinge.

 

Frank’s singing sometimes adopts a disaffected, even laconic, tone, which makes the soaring climaxes of songs such as “Fire” even more stirring. A mathy guitar riff on the verses of “Tonight” succeeds to a buoyant vocal hook and emphatic guitar chords. One of the most distinctive aspects of Black Cloud is Frank and her band’s ability to change demeanor tremendously quickly. It is almost like skipping chapters in a novel to find a completely dramatic arc.

 

The title track is haloed with synths and propelled by rhythm guitar, a piano ostinato, and an attractive line in the bass guitar. Frank’s singing floats over this finely constructed arrangement, displaying a plaintive lyricism. A standout.

 

There is a hat tip to country music on “Ghosts and Guitars,” but it adopts elements of Tejano music instead of the Nashville Sound. The album closer, “Executioner,” has a stark electric guitar playing the Lamento progression. When the chorus begins,  drums enter with terse fills and Frank sings with sliding fluidity. There is a memorable, melancholy hook. The vocals soar, buoyed by the  band at full cry. After the last chorus, we are returned to the verse’s electric guitar in a desolate coda.

 

Frank has shared a fascinating autobiographical essay via Talkhouse. She is distinctive and talented, both as a singer and as a songwriter. Many in Music City likely can scarcely believe their ears.

 

-Christian Carey

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

Sufjan Stevens – Reflections (CD Review)

Sufjan Stevens – Reflections 

Timo Andres, Conor Hanick, piano

Asthmatic Kitty

 

Reflections is a studio version of Sufjan Steven’s sixth collaboration with choreographer Justin Peck. Over the course of his career, Stevens has explored a number of genres: indie rock, electronica, and folk music. His work as a concert music composer shows considerable facility, with idiomatic, indeed virtuosic, writing for piano duo. 

 

The opening track, “Ekstasis” begins the ballet with emphatic, thickly voiced chords and glissandos, followed by brilliant passagework and a briefly inserted swinging melody. Pianists Timo Andres and Conor Hanick are perfect for the challenges posed here and perform all of the twists and turns of “Ekstasis” completely in sync. “Revanche” plays with color chords in chromatic formations: a bit of a hat tip to Messiaen. “Euphoros,” as one might expect, is ebullient, with repeated neo-classical motives, a lá Stravinsky, that are again periodically interrupted by glissandos. 

 

“Mnemosyne” begins in hushed dynamics. Here, instead of neo-classical tropes, Stevens explores impressionism through a post-minimal lens, with limpid filigrees and modal tunes. The control exerted by the pianists here is quite affecting. “Rodinia” lives in a similar pocket, with the balletic feeling of the Debussy Arabesques. “Reflexion” concludes the ballet with triple time sequences that swirl upward and then reenter until we are left with an abrupt, unresolved close. 

 

The piece “And I Shall Come to You Like a Stormtrooper Dressed in Drag Serving Imperial Realness” provides a swath of good-humored writing. It tasks the pianists with following one another in post-minimal riffs, a little bit of Cantina Bar swagger, and  building mountain tall chords. Puckish arpeggiations that hint at an undercurrent of John Williams provide a jocular juxtaposition to the grandeur of the piece’s bravura postures. Partway through, a whole-tone, gamelan-like interlude briefly interrupts, only to be replaced by fortissimo rolled chords in scalar patterns. A thinned out version of this upward sequence sends the piece into a misty, quiet close. Great fun.

 

-Christian Carey 



by Christian Carey
CD Review, early music, File Under?

De Profundis Sings Morales (CD Review)

Morales: Missa Desilde al cavallero, Missa Mille Regretz, Magnificat Primi Toni

De Profundis, directed by Eamonn Dougan and Robert Hollingsworth

Hyperion Records

 

Cambridge’s De Profundis has quickly become a go-to ensemble for Spanish vocal repertoire from the Renaissance. An all-male group with a sonorous sound that includes an incomparable bass section (hence the group name), they have released extraordinary recordings of Vivanco, Esquivel, and Ribera. Now De Profundis is turning its attention to Cristobal de Morales (c. 1500-1553), with a projected 12-album project to record his masses and Magnificat settings. The first disc in the collection, released in 2023,  includes Missa Desilde al cavallero, Missa Mille Regretz, and the Magnificat Primi Toni.

 

Often nicknamed “The Golden Age,” the mid-to-late Renaissance was indeed a fertile time for composers in Spain. During the first half of the sixteenth century, Morales was one of the finest of them. His music followed the death of Josquin and preceded that of Victoria, Lassus, and Palestrina. He held prestigious positions as part of the Papal Choir and at Toledo Cathedral, but according to musicologist Kenneth Kreitner, frequently suffered from illness that steadily caused a decline in his ability to perform his duties. Whatever ailment plagued Morales, he continued to compose until near his passing. Even in the sixteenth century, fifty-three-ish would not be considered a ripe old age. Still, Morales left behind a large body of compelling music. It should be exciting to experience it in the De Profundis edition. 

 

Mille Regretz is a famous chanson by Josquin, performed here with light instrumental accompaniment. Morales uses it to create a cantus firmus mass, a common form at the time in which a pre-existing piece of music was used in long note values throughout a mass. Here, it is offset by a newly composed superius part. There are two versions of the Sanctus and portions of the Agnus Dei, one in an earlier manuscript and then revised movements in the printed copy, which have helpfully been supplied here side by side for comparison. Morales likely preferred the later version, but the canonic material from its earlier incarnation is truly rousing. It is not surprising that this is Morales’s most famous mass setting, both for its Josquin hat tip and extraordinarily beautiful music.

 

During his lifetime, Magnificat settings by Morales were even more highly regarded than his Mass settings. Written during his time in Rome in the Papal choir, Magnificat Primi Toni is quite dramatic in its declamation, particularly the “Fecit Potentiam.” The “Quia Respexit” unfurls staggered contrapuntal entrances, a device that is used to stirring effect in a number of passages. Although the bass section has already been lauded, the countertenors sing with exquisite tone and control, as evidenced by the “Quia fecit mihi magna” and “Et misericordia eus.” 

After two works among Morales’s best known music, the CD concludes with a relatively obscure mass, Missa Desilde al cavallero, found in only a single copy. It deserves wider currency. Based on an anonymous 16th century Spanish song, the mass sits astride cantus firmus and parody types, an amalgam that Morales exploits with insightful creativity. An accompanied solo performance of the song is quite lovely, giving context to the mass that follows. Organ and bajón, an early version of the bassoon, provide accompaniment to the mass as well. The entire performance is compelling, but there are some highlights. The shimmering close of the Gloria, buoyed by corruscating lines, and the finely-tuned chords of the Credo’s “Et incarnatus est,” leading into a gently rendered Crucifixus. As was the custom, the Osanna sections feature buoyant fuga, followed by the incandescent ambience of the Agnus Dei movements. 

 

De Profundis will release the next volume of the Morales edition in 2024. In the meantime, revel in its auspicious beginning.

 

-Christian Carey

 

 


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

Frederic Rzewski – Late Piano Works (CD Review)

Frederic Rzewski

Late Piano Works

Bobby Mitchell, piano

Naxos

 

Frederic Rzewski (1938-2021) was a gifted composer and pianist. His oeuvre included pieces in many genres, but it is his piano works that, to date, are best known. Rzewski premiered a number of pieces, but in his later years deputized pianist Bobby Mitchell, dedicating works to him and trusting his talent to be sufficient for their often virtuosic and complex interpretive demands.

 

Rzewski’s pieces combine modernism and vernacular styles, particularly leftist folk songs, often in sets of multifaceted variations. War Songs (2008) includes songs that are both pro and anti-war. It has an Ivesian cast, with the materials layered in a welter of dissonance and complex verticals. Mitchell’s performance is vivacious, reveling in the many quotations, pointing up the places where pro and anti-war songs wage their own conflicts.

 

One of the composer’s large piano cycles, Dreams, is represented here by its last two pieces: Ruins and Wake Up. These pieces were written for Igor Levit in 2014, and they provide a contrasting pair. Ruins seems to be a disturbed swath of unrest, filled with dissonant counterpoint, thunderous bass notes, and angular lines. Besides the directive connotation of Wake Up, it is also the title of a Woody Guthrie song that serves as the piece’s opening gesture. 

 

Winter Nights (2014) was composed to celebrate Mitchell’s thirtieth birthday. This triptych is inspired by the tale about Bach’s Goldberg Variations, in which his student Goldberg played them in order to cure his patron’s insomnia. I’ve often wondered if the vivacity of the Goldergs wouldn’t make for toe-tapping rather than snoring. Winter Nights too has long stretches that seem in homage to Carter’s Night Fantasies, post-tonal, rife with trills and passagework. Elsewhere are long stretches at extremely slow tempos, with gradually unfurling, attenuated single-line melodies. Mitchell does a superb job rendering these detailed scores in vivid fashion.

 

The recording concludes with Saints and Sinners (2016). Originally written for Milton Schlosser, it was performed by Mitchell at Rzewski’s funeral. A substantial piece cast in a single movement, it recalls mid century neoclassical Americans such as Roger Sessions, Arthur Berger, and William Schuman. In a sense then, it is a piece that comes full circle, recalling Rzewski’s initial impetus and training to compose. Late Piano Works is excellent in terms of curation, quality of music, and performance. Recommended.

Christian Carey



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

Rebecca Saunders – Skin on NMC (CD Review)

Rebecca Saunders

Skin

Christian Dierstein, Dirk Rothbrust, percussion

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB), Enno Poppe, conductor

Quatuor Diotima

Juliet Fraser soprano, Klangforum Wien, Bas Wiegers, conductor

NMC Recordings

 

Berlin-based British composer Rebecca Saunders often creates pieces with the capacities of specific collaborators in mind. Her latest recording for NMC, Skin, features three of her “calling card” pieces from the 2010s, performed estimably by their dedicatees. Saunders is one of the composers sometimes described as part of the Second Moderns, creators who revitalize the tenets of modernism in the light of Postmodernism and New Complexity. Pieces consist of a plethora of extended techniques, alternating aggressive gestures and what Tom Service has described as “evanescent shimmer” with music of “violence, stillness, and violent stillness.” Saunders often references the tactility and embodiment central to her work: the pressure on a bow, the weight of different attacks on the piano, the breath, and even the pressing together of shoulder blades before playing the accordion. 

 

The orchestra piece Void is performed here by percussionists Christian Dierstein and Dirk Rothbrust and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, conducted by Enno Poppe. They do an excellent job rendering and balancing the complex textures of the work. The prevailing ambience is eerie, led by shimmering metallophones and forceful drumming. In creating their parts, Saunders worked closely with Dierstein and Rothbrust, which is apparent in the complex choreography of shifting instrumental combinations they execute. Brittle harmonies in the strings, angular trumpet lines, and soft wind chords shadow the soloists, combining to create a varied accompaniment.

 

Unbreathed includes a number of quotes as its performance note,  a list of by Saunders:

 

Inside, withheld, unbreathed,
Nether, undisclosed.

Souffle, vapour, ghost,
hauch and dust.

Absent, silent, void,
Naught beside.

Either, neither, sole,

Unified.

 

This is followed by quotes by Marukami and Beckett, who is a particular touchstone for the composer. Performed by Quatuor Diotoma, Unbreather frequently employs glissandos, often overlapping, to create a fluid, microtonal surface. An abundance of special techniques are used, aggressive attacks and alternations of bow pressure prominent among them. The juxtaposition of dynamic levels, from vicious fortissimos to near-silence, as well as the unpredictability of gestures, lends to the idea of a diffuse form. The conclusion is hushed, suggesting a use of anti-climax that too is Beckettian. 

 

Skin, for soprano and 13 players, is the first piece that I heard by Saunders. It remains inspiring and surprising every time I have listened to  Juliet Fraser’s performance of its tour-de-force vocal part. Virtuosity is ubiquitous, with wide-ranging lip trills, sprechstimme, and high-lying sung passages all requiring tremendous control. Fraser delivers, in a robust reading that belies the demands that Saunders requires. Klangforum Wien, conducted by Bas Wiegers, both supports and interacts with Fraser. The trumpet, in particular, often doubles the soprano’s held notes, only to distress them with microtones. Emphatic percussion, frequent glissandos, and spectral chords create an ominous atmosphere.

Saunders has written a number of compelling pieces, but the selections on Skin are some of her very best. The disc serves as an excellent introduction to her music. Recommended.

 “A Guide to Rebecca Saunders’s Music,” by Tom Service. The Guardian, 5 November, 2012.

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey