Robert Carl, Splectra, Alison Bjorkedal, Music for Solo Harp

Another good one of those specially priced EPs from Cold Blue is Robert Carl's Splectra (Cold Blue Music CB0056), a solo harp work in two parts played with dexterous lyrical crispness by harpist Alison Bjorkedal.

An elemental motif is the kernal to the exegesis, as the music unfolds and expands with great interest, not without advanced tonality.

Anyone who loves the harp will find this very much in their wheelhouse, I suspect. Strongly recommended.

Panufnik, Lutoslawski, String Quartets, Tippett Quartet

Of twentieth-century Polish composers there are many, many fine ones. The later modernists were at one time dominated by Penderecki, for various mostly good reasons, but here in the States we heard less of Lutoslawski (1913-1994) and very little of Panufnik.

Happily we celebrate the 100th birthday for Panufnik (1914-1991) this year, so all who are curious are getting the chance to know the composer more intimately (type his name in the search box above and you will see some of the new releases that I have posted on thus far). At the same time Lutoslawski's music has surged in terms of recorded performances in the last few decades. So we are learning much more these days about the later 20th-century modern movement there.

With a new Naxos (8.573164) release we get to hear all three string quartets by Panufnik coupled with Lutoslawski's only work in the medium, all played nicely by the Tippett Quartet.

What the disk does in a nutshell is affirm Lutoslawski's stature in the modern pantheon, but it also gives us a chance to see the chamber side of Panufnik in great depth, with three excellent quartets that have been rather neglected in the discographies. And he fares very well with these works on close listening.

The Panufnik quartets each have a character of their own. No. 1 (1976) is a rather somber affair; No. 2 "Messages" (1980) has a bit more flow, as it is based on how Panufnik in his youth was fascinated by the sound he heard when he put his ear to a telegraph pole, as he listened to the humming caused by the wind setting the wires in motion. No. 3, "Wycinanki" (1990), generates musical impressions of traditional Polish folk paper-cut art.

All three have some of the structural strengths of the mature Panufnik. A serialist he isn't, but he often organizes works around a sort of generative grammar of particular intervals or motives, a structural tendency that gives the music an inherent logic. The listener may not be aware of the limitations Panufnik sets for himself in such a work, yet there is long-form continuity and contrast. These three works (affirmed by reading the liner notes) do not have rigorous motival schemes in the literal sense, yet there is coherent musical discourse throughout that builds on motival-intervalic logic. There is great strength and subtlety in the three quartets. All told they show a master musical mind at work, Panufnik at his mature best.

The Lutoslawski string quartet extends the idea of a modern abstract, coherent discourse in its own way. The two-movement quartet from 1964 is his only work in this configuration. It has a more cosmically expressive dynamic that makes for a fitting end-point to the program. One wishes he wrote more quartets and it is equally true for me of Panufnik.

We have these four works to experience and relish in any event. The Tippett Quartet gives us fine readings, detailed yet woven into whole cloth, the patterns and changes brought out in sharp outline.

With the Naxos price, this CD gives you much to explore and appreciate without eating into your retirement savings, or your nest egg in general, assuming you have one! It is a most valuable addition to any self-respecting modernist's collection, with works you may well want to return to continually, each time gaining something new from the experience. Get this one!

Alfred Schnittke, Quartet & Quintet with Piano, String Trio, Quatuor Molinari

The music of Alfred Schnittke (1934-1988) is remarkably consistent. Virtually everything I have had the pleasure to hear of his output bears the stamp of originality, of a modern yet melodically thoroughgoing fineness, of a structural soundness and a human and humane expressivity.

This holds true for the works represented in the recent Musique de Chambre Vol. 2 (Atma ACD2 2669), featuring Quatuor Molinari and guests. Two late and one slightly earlier works are represented: the Piano Quartet (1988), a String Trio (1985), and the Piano Quintet (1972-76).

As is often the case with Schnittke, tradition and modernism combine in interesting ways, notably in the String Trio and Piano Quintet, where plaintive melodies, waltz figures, tender, melancholic minor largo-like themes share aural space with contemporary dissonances and abstract structures.

The performances are rather exceptional. Louise Bessette at the piano, Marcin Swoboda as the additional viola on the quintet and the Quatuor Molinari giving attention to the details and the big picture, combining tonal and extra-tonal passagework with sureness and an excellent feel for the composer's passion and structural genious.

If you only have some or all of his string quartets, this gives you a more complete picture of his chamber output. Much recommended.

Wolfgang Rihm, Complete Works for Violin and Piano, Yang, Rimmer

Wolfgang Rihm (b. 1952) has been gaining international recognition steadily as a composer of importance, and deservedly so. I am not that familiar with his chamber music, so when Naxos recently released the Complete Works for Violin and Piano (Naxos 8.572730) I jumped at the chance to hear and review it.

The complete output at this point consists of five works, written over a long period, 1972 through 2006. For this recording the considerable efforts and artistic panache of Tianwa Yang (violin) and Nicholas Rimmer (piano) were enlisted. They do a very commendable job negotiating the twists and turns of music that sometimes sounds quite difficult to play. In the process they manage to put each work in a bright, dramatic light for us to appreciate.

This is high modernist fare, fully abstract for the most part and exciting to hear.

The Phantom und Eskapade (1993/94) has a vibrant sonority and a periodicity that identifies it readily as in a concertante style.

Hekton (1972) is relatively brief but filled with turbulently invigorating sound events that demand precision and passion from the players. Yang and Rimmer handle it all with fluidity and a gracefully dynamic presence.

Antlitz (1992/93) has quiet subtlety and repose, punctuated by expressive outbursts that help frame the tenor of the work.

Eine Violinsonate (1971/75) concentrates on the violin's heroic potential to soar melodically and exultantly into realms of pitch and velocity, to enter special musical universes all its own. Like Phantom it is in concertante style, with brilliant violin writing that Tianwa Yang attacks with impressive energy and verve.

The final work, Uber die Linie VII (2006) is for violin alone. This is the world premiere recording. It has a restrained rhapsodical quality with periodic eruptions of passion. The intervals utilized and the understated yet plaintive quality give the work a sort of searching, longing quality to my ears. Once again Yang takes the work on beautifully.

Rihm is one of our most important present-day modernists and this disk shows him in an excellent light. The dedicated musicality of Yang and Rimmer bring the works alive in all the right ways. The music covers a wide period of Rihm's output. Each work is significant, essential Rihm. An impressive recording!

Thierry Pécou, Tremendum, Ensemble Variances and Percussions Claviers de Lyon

Sometimes the experience of a new composer is like opening a gift from someone you do not know. As you unwrap it a picture emerges of what you are getting but the first moments are filled with mystery. I felt a little like that when I first listened to the music on the CD at hand: Thierry Pécou, Caribbean composer, and his CD covering Tremendum (Harmonia Mundi) and five other chamber works.

Ensemble Variances and Percussions Claviers de Lyon do a capital job realizing the music, and the music is quite different.

There is a bit of high modernism, minimalist phrasings put in new contexts, and some of the idiomatic vernacular of Caribbean and Latin American rhythm and melody, transformed in ways one might not anticipate.

It's very original music and so less easy to describe than the usual case. And there does not seem to be one Pécou style at work. Some of the pieces have an engaging motor rhythmic quality, especially those that feature the marimba and/or mallet percussion prominently, others have a kind of ritualistic feel to them, some at times exemplify a pomo modernism-meets-the-world quality.

This is his third recording for Harmonia Mundi, and in some ways I feel like I am walking in on the middle of a conversation, that the previous music might help me understand the developments that have led to these works.

But even without that background I feel I am in the presence of a rather extraordinary music sensibility. And I feel the better for having listened to this disk a number of times. It's one of those situations where I have an incomplete knowledge, and so an incomplete experience of the composer. I will say that the music is of a high level of interest. Recommended for those looking for the new in new music.

Marika Hughes' "Afterlife Music Radio:" 11 New Pieces for Solo Cello

Marika Hughes has put together a program of 11 new and newer pieces for unaccompanied cello, Afterlife Music Radio (DD001). It sounds on occasion as if there may be just a little overdubbing going on, but otherwise, there is Marika, her cello, a few microphones and your ears involved.

Marika tends to play with a modernist vibratoless attack, but she is quite expressive on a dynamic and timbre-variational level. Of the composers, I recognize one from the jazz world (Nasheet Watts). Beyond that the names are not familiar to me. This of course does not mean anything in itself, except perhaps the new music is provided in part by new or new-ish composers.

What counts though of course is the music and its performance. Marika comes off well and the program has a sometimes bittersweet stoicism that suites the new millennium in many ways.

Listen and revel in the rich tone of Ms. Hughes' cello.