CD Reviews

Bartok, Shostakovich: Violin Concertos

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 11:47 GMT

Bela Bartok, Dmitri Shostakovich

Yossif Ivanov, violin; Pinchas Steinberg conducts Royal Flemish Philharmonic

Naive Ambroisie

Yossif Ivanov, born in Belgium to a musical family with roots in Bulgaria and winner of a flock of international violin competitions before he was 20, confirms his high promise with performances of two of the most difficult concertos in the modern repertoire. No more than 22 when he recorded these masterworks by Bartok and Shostakovich last July, he shows not only the requisite technique but also an astonishing musicality, presaging an early maturity. His tone is so incredibly beautiful, one must go back to an earlier generation of violinists for comparison. (Ivanov studied in fact with Igor and Valery Oistrakh, and regards David Oistrakh, Igor's father, as a “god” of the violin). He also has the ability to accommodate changes in bowing position, meter, texture and dynamics seamlessly within the musical line.

That last-mentioned trait is absolutely vital when playing Bela Bartok's Violin Concerto No. 2 in B Minor. From the opening measures in which the violin enters quietly over softly strummed chords played by the harps, Bartok puts the violin through its paces. At times, when it isn't playing long, soulful melodies, it sounds almost like a percussive instrument. More often, it plays short chromatic passages with a pronounced rise and fall, with stunning changes in texture and rhythm. There is a sorrowful mood here, calling forth from Ivanov a decided vocal quality that hearkens back to an earlier era of violin artistry. The richly colored second melody goes through all 12 tones of the chromatic scale (though for my money it is a lot more attractive that the “Serialists” would have it), and then we have a fiendish cadenza built on quartertones, all of which Ivanov takes with remarkably deceptive ease.

And that, mind you, is just the opening movement. The slow movement, Andante tranquillo, begins tranquilly (just like the man said), but later pits the violin against more stirring music from the orchestra, including cymbal crashes. Ivanov has a grand time with the songlike melody which the composer puts through six imaginative variations. The finale, steeped in Hungarian folk elements, ends quietly where the opening began, stressing the work's highly symmetrical cyclic form.

Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 77 again casts the soloist in close partnership with the orchestra, which is used more sparingly than would be the case in a symphony, but highly effectively. In four movements, it begins in moderate time with a highly poetic Nocturne, sorrowful but pensive, becoming more urgent and dissonant in the middle section before ending quietly, with an ethereal texture in the violin that makes a remarkable effect in this performance. The exuberant Scherzo takes soloist and orchestra on a swirling, tension-filled ride with traces of the macabre. The third and fourth movements, a dreamy Passacaglia and a demonic Burlesque, decidedly parallel the first two in terms of contrast. A stunning cadenza in the former leads to the abandoned frenzy of the finale, like a circus or a fair fueled by 100 proof vodka and requiring very quick, tricky fingering of the soloist.

Steven Ricks

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:39 GMT

Steven Ricks

Mild Violence

Bridge Records CD 9256

The term “Mild Violence,” a PG Rating on a video game box, inspired the title for a 2005 chamber work on Steven Ricks' Bridge recital CD. Performed by the New York New Music Ensemble with characteristic ėlan, the piece features explosive percussive utterances, juxtaposing moments of pointillism with quirky ostinato and shimmering splashes of harmonic color. While one ‘gets' the tongue in cheek humor, the music is anything but mild; Indeed; it's stirring stuff!

Ricks runs the electronic music studio at Brigham Young University in Utah. Two works for chamber groups and electronics are included here. “Boundless Light” is a meditation on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Featuring shakuhachi-styled effects and vigorous electronic interjections; one is reminded of Davidovsky and Krieger here. It's excellently rendered by Carlton Vickers. “American Dreamscapes” features the most thrilling moment on the CD – a swelling crescendo of electronics that introduces an ensemble tutti of considerable fervor. The piece features alto saxophonist John Sampen; who impresses with all manner of playing – including copious bends, microtones, and altissimo notes.

The Talujon Percussion Quartet performs “Dividing Time;” the piece's background deals with the Divisions of time at the beginning of creation.Cleverly, Ricks uses overlapping polyrhythms to illustrate this inspirational focus, accumulating a rhythmic canvass of considerable flexibility and coloristic variety.

Curtis Macombcer is the “go-to guy” for violin-electronics pieces. “Beyond the Zero,” based on Pynchon's “Gravity's Rainbow,” contains sudden outbursts of fury, uncommon to the Synchronisms. But after an early focus on ‘effects' – an explosive musical illustration of the V2 rocket from Pynchon's novel, Macomber is given a great deal of angular electroacoustic interplay of the high modernist variety – his bread and butter. The piece is an excellent addition the solo plus electronics repertoire.

The CD closes with “Haiku,” a tenderly evocative piece for percussion and electronics. Spoken poetry is interwoven with prayer bowls and tam-tams, creating and ethereal, Eastern-influenced soundscape. Its inclusion is fortuitous; it allows us a full length glimpse at a talented composer of considerable versatility.

Fast Jump

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:41 GMT

Danny Holt

Fast Jump

Innova CD 734

LA-based pianist DANNY HOLT, currently on the faculty at Cal-Arts, is a brilliant player. A percussionist as well as a pianist, he attacks the instrument with verve. On his Innova recital disc, the pianist presents five world premieres; all pieces written since 1997. The disc opens with Caleb Burhans' In Time of Desperation (2003). Written to commemorate the passing of Luciano Berio, the piece is a series of variations on a ground. This venerable technique is refreshed by pop-inflected harmonies and a postminimal rhythmic ostinato. While the language seems distant from Berio's, Burhans' engagement with elements from the distant musical past, as well as his willingness to explore vulnerable emotional terrain, resonant with the departed as music of a kindred spirit.

Holt’s fulsomely energetic approach seems well-suited to the Yamaha grand he favors. Brightly shaded incisive attacks give appropriate luster to the CD’s title work; Lona Kozik’s Fast Jump; Etudes and Interludes for Piano. Kozik writes brilliantly for the piano, inhabiting an earnest, postmodern language rife with virtuosity. “A Tangled Web We Weave (We Keep our Demons Intact)” is filled with whirling arpeggiations and punchy repeated clusters. Traversing the entire keyboard, it alternates registers in strategic, dramatically-charged juxtapositions. Another highlight is “Disperse (the quick but calm spread of sunlight - on water - at dawn)” is an appropriately Impressionist etude in polyrhythmically overlapping arpeggiations, creating a diaphanous swath of shimmering harmonies.

Jascha Narveson's ripple (2005) is a welcome respite in the midst of these stormy musical proceedings. Its spare harmonic palette and gentle demeanor remind one a bit of Tobias Picker's “Old and Lost Rivers;” but Narveson favors a more pointillist sensibility. In a clever programming choice, this “eye of the hurricane” is followed by Graham Fitkin's “Relent.” This postminimal powerhouse is a live staple of Holt's; and he plays it assuredly and impressively. At eleven minutes in duration, Fitkin's constant keyboard assault is a grueling gauntlet, containing enough material to keep the players in his multi-piano works happy; Holt manages to grab it all with two hands - con fuoco!

The disc closes with another set of elegies: David Lang's memory pieces (1997). Although his recent Pulitzer prize award has garnered Lang increased scrutiny of his latest works, these pieces serve as a reminder that he's been a consummate craftsman and thoughful composer all along. Each of the pieces serves as a memorial to a departed friend. The half-hour cycle is frequently poignant, but also serves as a collection of etudes. “cello” highlights cross-hands playing; “cage” is an exploration of ambient effects. “Spartan arcs” is a delightful showcase for one of Holt's favorite techniques: overlapping arpeggios. While one seldom thinks of etudes solemnly emotional works, “memory pieces” is both a technical tour de force and a considerably eloquent collection.

Trios for Deep Voices

Sat, 23 May 2009 10:05 GMT

Trios for Deep Voices

Christopher Roberts

Cold Blue Records

1. Hornbills
2. Around the Hearth
3. Kon Burunemo
4. Flying
5. Mesto
Christopher Roberts, Mark Morton, and James Bergman: double basses

The CD note provided by the composer tells you everything you need to know:
“In 1981, I ran off to the jungles of Papua New Guinea to study the natural prosody of music. I lived with the people of the Star Mountains and introduced them to my double bass, while they introduced me to their songs. I took part in drumbeat initiations and listened to the sound of hornbills in flight. I was overwhelmed. I had a dream in which I moved my bow across the strings of the bass in an entirely new way that recreated the drums, and the hornbills' wings, and the voices of the people whose every song tells a story.”

After that quote, and the obligatory produced/recorded/legalese stuff, the only other insights you get into these pieces (movements?) are the plentiful pictures of the aforementioned jungles. Some composers want the listener to know their set permutations. Christopher Roberts, on the other and more affective hand, gives us a dream and 14,000 words (in picture form) that explain every iota of this fabulous recording.

It is never addressed if these five tracks are movements of one larger piece or separate trios as the CD title indicates. While each track works well on its own and has its own shape and life, I have a hard time imagining one separated from the others. Melodic fragments reappear throughout the five movements which lends a gratifying cyclic form to the whole disc. These fragments are convincing whenever they appear and never sound forced. The music, the culture, the performances, everything blends together into a single construct.

The music itself is quasi-minimalist, keen on repetition instead of development. The emotive ideas behind each movement is clearly communicated and fluidly performed. The three double basses never for a moment sound heavy and cumbersome. There is a lot of air, life, and breath to the music and the playing. Roberts is also adept at managing textures and energy flow. You can easily hear his success at creating his “entirely new way” of playing. The playing might not be new but he clearly achieves his intent and it is a joy to hear.

And yes, he really did lug his double bass through the jungles of Papua New Guinea. Can't imagine doing that myself, but I found myself ruminating upon that notion a lot while listening. I think the end result was worth the effort!

Carter: A Nonesuch Retrospective

Tue, 19 May 2009 11:19 GMT

CARTER: Selected Works. Various Artists. Nonesuch 510893-2 [4 cd]. 269 minutes.

This four disc set, titled “A Nonesuch Retrospective”, was released in honor of Elliott Carter’s 100^th birthday. It is an outstanding (and bargain-priced!) introduction to the composer, covering the majority of his work between the Piano Sonata (1945) to the Robert Lowell song cycle In Sleep, In Thunder (1983).

The music is arranged in chronological order on the four discs, so Carter’s development in these crucial years is audible. We almost never listen to concert music this way—in the order in which it was composed. We usually listen to groups of pieces by genre and/or instrumentation, and the unusual order is quite telling. At times, it feels like one large piece with different sections having different instrumentations.

An important and welcome addition is the inclusion of a titanic reading of the Variations for Orchestra (1955) by the Chicago Symphony, led by Carter champion James Levine, previously released by DG. Less welcome is the omission of the Paul Zukovsky/Gilbert Kalish premiere recording of the Duo for Violin and Piano (1974), which is one of Carter’s most personal compositions. (Does anyone know if that performance is available on CD?)

Most enthusiastic Carter fans will have most, if not all, of these recordings; highly recommended if you don’t.