Here we have a fascinating collection of compositions by Nick Vasallo, Monuments Emerge (Innova 821), covering the period between 2007-2012.
Since I am ill today I will not go into much detail. Asian (taiko drumming and more) influences, modern classical (minimalism and modernism) and some heavy metal elements (toward the end notably) combine in ways that have a kind of organic seamlessness.
The results are convincing, forward-looking, well constructed, and original.
Piano recital disks can go a number of ways. The key is "recital." This generally means that it is first and foremost the pianist who is on display. The what of his program is perforce secondary to the artist as performer. So you generally get a mixed bag of compositions. If the pianist is exceptional, all falls into place. If not it can be hodge-podge time.
Thankfully the piano recital disk on tap for today is by a young pianist with a dashing muscularity. Behzhod Abduraimov, at 21, takes on some virtuoso romantic-early modern showpieces--works by Prokofiev, Liszt and Saint-Saens (Decca).
The Prokofiev Piano Sonata No. 6 forms the centerpiece of the program. It is a work he does quite well. Apparently Prokofiev is a composer with which Abduraimov has much affinity. When he won the prestigious London International Piano Competition in 2009, he garnered much praise for his performance of the composer's Piano Concerto No. 3.
The 6th Sonata in Abduraimov's hands most certainly comes alive. He attacks the work with the sort of determined motor brashness and alternating tenderness the work demands. It is quite an impressive performance.
His rendition of Danse Macabre (in the Liszt/Horowitz piano version) takes on an exhilarating aggressiveness as appropriate, and alternately works out the staccato-legato contrasts in the less driving passages with a sure touch and a subtle, orchestral discernment of lines.
The two Liszt works come off well also. The madly careening Mephisto Waltz No. 1 gets the full bravura showmanship that impresses for its youthful exhuberance. The slow movement of Liszt's "Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude" comes together with a long, lingering poeticism that captures the mood of the piece with plenty of finesse.
Bezhod Abduraimov leaves a powerful impression with this recital disk. He is a pianist with marvelous technique and a broadly sweeping dynamism and drive. The listener can't help but be carried inexorably forward with the excitement of his approach. Listen and you will be drawn into his maelstrom most willingly.
Robert Schumann was a gifted composer who did his best music at intermittent periods of his career. His was not the grand Beethovenian progression from height to height. One of his most fertile periods was 1842-3, when he composed some of his very best chamber music, notably the Piano Quintet, Op. 44 and the Piano Quartet, Op. 47. A new recording of these works by Alexander Melnikov and the Jerusalem Quartet has just emerged (Harmonia Mundi 902122) I have been communing with my muse lately by giving the disk a spin.
These are exceptionally imaginative works, filled with brilliant invention, melodious themes, rhythmic vigor and a lack of romantic self-indulgence. They are played with lots of style and dynamic thrust by Melnikov and the Jerusalem Quartet.
In addition to the symphonies, the best of the solo piano works, the Piano Concerto and the best of his lieder, this is indispensable Schumann. With the performances at hand, one cannot go wrong. There may be more Dionysian versions from the days of the 78 and LP. This more present-day Apollonian version brings out the thematic brilliance without wearing its emotions on its proverbial sleeve. It isn't without warmth. It does not gush either. You hear the music clearly without undue amounts of supercharged phlegm and neo-Victorian vapors. So it is certainly a version to have.
The time length of a CD can allow for things that generally would not be done during the LP era. A good case in hand is Andreas Staier's recording of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations (Harmonia Mundi 902091). Staier not only tackles the full set of variations Beethoven penned, he begins with a selection of the variations submitted at the time by 50 other composers. So there is one by Schubert, one by Mozart's son, an eleven-year-old Liszt, Kreutzer, Kalkbrenner, etc.
This makes for fascinating listening and helps situate the 33 by Beethoven. Maestro Staier gives a properly discerning interpretation of the whole lot, played on an instrument that by the delicacy of its upper register must have been manufactured sometime in the 1800s.
Given the additional composers' variations this is a good version to have. Staier gives a vigorous, sensitive but not overwrought rendering that sounds quite right to my ears.
Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa (1566-1613). Thanks in part to Stravinsky's championing of the composer, those who revere or appreciate the expanded tonality of modernity recognize that Gesualdo's music was an early precursor of expressive dissonance. To be sure these were mostly contained in his Fifth and especially Sixth Books of Madrigals. And beyond such consideration we recognize that his overall vocal writing style was a brilliant highlight of his age.
The Hilliard Ensemble has just recorded the Fifth Book, Quinto Libro di Madrigali (ECM New Series) and a definitive, ravishing performance it is.
The sheer beauty of the music comes through admirably in the Hilliard Ensemble's capable vocalisms. It's scored for a sextet of soprano, two countertenors, two tenors and baritone. The sensuous diatonic parts and their emphasis on the upper ranges for moments of dramatic impact move from high moment to high moment, punctuated by what is customarily referred to the "shocking" dissonances. A modern audience used to romantic and contemporary harmony tends perhaps to find these punctuations not so much shocking as admirably expressive. As I first listened to this recording, forgetting for a moment the chronology, I thought to myself, "ah, yes, this is the earlier work, not the radically dissonant madrigals." I did not find myself shocked, I found myself engaged. The pure-toned clarity of the ensemble brings out the affective qualities of these madrigals with maximum expressive clout.
To be fair, the Sixth Book contains the more consistently radical dissonances. But what counts is the beauty of the music overall. That comes through clearly, passionately, and sonorously chime-like throughout the Hilliard's performance.
No one who wants to understand the mature Gesualdo should miss the Fifth and Sixth books. Here is perhaps the definitive recording of the Fifth. Another triumph for the Hilliards!
Benjamin Britten was one of the most evocative composers of the mid-to-later 20th century. When it was a matter of paralleling a text, be it lyric content or libretto, no one had quite his ability to paint a musical picture that resonated utterly with the meanings involved, but in such a way that it was unmistakably the auteur's music staves that were at hand.
Celebrated tenor Mark Padmore and the Britten Sinfonia (Jacqueline Shave conducting) give a very effective reading of Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, his Nocturne and Gerald Finzi's Dies Natalis in a new release (Harmonia Mundi 807552).
The combination of the archaic quality of the natural horn harmonics (here we have Stephen Bell as soloist), the string orchestra's night-enfused score and the tenor's expressive vocal part give a poetic, atmospheric quality to the work. The performance of the Serenade given here most assuredly ranks up there with Britten's own verson. The night mood continues with the Nocturne, a less ponderous, more transient work.
Gerald Finzi's Dies Natalis ends the program on a more lyrical, naive note, as the text portrays the world through the eyes of a child. Finzi may not have been given his due as an English composer of stature, but he most certainly holds his own here and completes the mood of the more well-known Britten works.
Padmore is impeccable, the Britten Sinfonia detailed and expressive and the recording bright and well-staged in full sound dimension.
If you don't have these works you most certainly should if you follow the English 20th century orchestral-vocal masters. Those who have the Peter Pears-Benjamin Britten versions of the Britten works will find this recording a good version to contrast with them.
It turns out there is a wealth of early baroque composers who produced music worth hearing today. Until the early music re-renaissance that begin in the '60s we did not have the chance to experience the works of many of them. Now of course we do, in versions consistent with the period style.
Violinist John Holloway has been making a number of recordings devoted to some of the lesser-known masters. His latest, Sonate concertate in stil moderno (ECM New Series B0016622-02) presents sensitive, vibrant readings of six sonatas by Dario Castello (1590-1658) and seven by Giovanni Battista Fontana (1571-1630). Half are for violin and continuo, the latter handled nicely by Lars Ulrik Mortensen on harpsichord. The other half add the renaissance version of the bassoon, called the dulcian, handled effectively by Jane Gower.
These are well crafted, melodically rich works that bring out a virtuoso violin brilliance that John Holloway handles with dash. The sonatas that include Jane Gower's dulcian give us two uniquely colored instruments engaged in jaunty pyrotechniques and moving expressions. The sound of the dulcian in Ms. Gower's hands is full ranged, sonorous and fleet, forming a rather perfectly tantalizing counterfoil to John Holloway's brightly burnished baroque passagework.
In the end you get glowing small-group performances of compositions that have the alternating sweetness and fire of the best chamber music of this period.
Those who revel in early baroque chamber music offerings that recreate the sound and performance practices faithfully, and those seeking something rather brilliant and off the beaten path will get plenty to appreciate here. Recommended.
