Excelsior, Fifth House Ensemble

A new Chicago-based chamber group, the Fifth House Ensemble, presents their debut recording Excelsior (Cedille 2014). They come across as a very capable outfit with fine readings of four contemporary works, each work with its own more-or-less post-modern qualities, some rather firmly in the realm of radical tonality.

The title work, a short chamber opera by Caleb Burnhans (b. 1980) that was composed in 2012, features an ultra-tonal panorama with some ritualistic repetition and lyrical diatonic matter-of-factness that centers at the end around a folkishly modal part for soprano. When I first heard it I thought Gorecki's "Third Symphony", but after hearing it several more times I came to find its own special lyricism to be accessible, yes, but perhaps a bit more magical in its impact than was apparent on first hearing.

Alex Shapiro (b. 1962) and "Perpetual Spark" (2011) has a more dynamic energy to it with a motored minimalist piano part that is both echoed by and contrasted with longer melodic figures in the chamber ensemble as a whole. It does have a spark, lyrically so.

Jesse Limbacher (b. 1991) gives us an equally brief "Air" (2012) that brings us a slightly more modernistic palette of tone with some jazzier phrasing and a sound more an extension of Stravinsky's neo-classical and later writing. It has its own life however which the winds of the Fifth House Ensemble realize very nicely.

Finally there is Mason Bates (b. 1972) and his five-part "Red River" (2007). This again emphasizes in lyrical ways the diatonic end of the tonal spectrum in parts, but not exclusively so. There are some mobile phrasings that suggest jazz influences, a prominent clarinet part, and perhaps the most involved and pleasing music of the entire album, in terms of complexity at any rate. It is movingly performed here.

The Fifth House Ensemble gives us a most fascinating, widely open window on the newer music being written today by the younger generation of composers. There is plenty of substance yet it also is a program that has accessibility. For this reason the album may find its way to those not especially looking for high modernism, who either have been attracted to minimalist tonality or are just stepping into the modern compositional world and need something reassuring. At the same time the musical levels are high, so that someone well-versed in the times will find plenty to like.

Nicely done!

Scott Brickman, Winter & Construction

Scott Brickman composes music that is modern (and/or post-modern) in ways different than the norm these days. The harmonic language is not quite blazing avant. It is (twelve) tonal in an expanded way, mostly more linear than vertical. The musical syntax has a kind of original logic. He explores intervalic relationship not so much as Stefan Wolpe or Ruth Crawford Seeger did, but in common with them there is a discursive flow and at times a playful quality, an exploration of tones unfolding in time, though this is serious music.

His CD of compositions, Winter & Construction (Ravello 7823) gives us a good earful of his music, seven pieces written between 2003-2010. The music is scored for piano, guitar and violin in various combinations, from his Piano Sonatas Nos 2 & 3, through to a piece for solo guitar and one for solo violin, a piece for violin and guitar, and two trio works for all three instruments.

Throughout the music is distinguished by the sensitively appropriate playing of Nathanael May on the piano, Matt Gould on the guitar and Beth Ilana Schneider-Gould at the violin. The latter two have recorded a number of CDs as Duo 46 and also previously appeared in tandem with Nathanael May (see this blog and the Gapplegate Guitar blog for review postings). They have a natural easiness and unpretentious matter-of-factness in their deliveries, collectively and individually, that seem just right. They strike me as the near-perfect exponents of these works.

And the works themselves are sincere, eloquent testimonies to Brickman's straightforward style and refreshing take on modernity.

The music speaks with lucidity, charm and convincing elan.