Fantasy, Oppens Plays Kaminsky, New Music for Piano and Instruments

 

I have admired the piano virtuosity of Ursula Oppens for some time now. So it was a given for me to pay attention when in the mail I found a copy of her recent CD Fantasy: Oppens Plays Kaminsky (Cedille 90000 202). I was glad to hear it. And it turns out after multiple listens I am still quite happy about it.

Laura Kaminsky (b. 1956) has not been on my radar until now. It turns out that she writes abundantly inventive, expressionistically poised music that is neither at the edge of tonality, nor is it completely tonal-centric. It is well phrased, somewhat spicy, moody fare. It is the sort of music that improves as you listen again and again. And stylistically it is as thoughtfully beyond as any camp of New Music per se.If there are folk and mesmeric primal tonal intervallic modes, there is also dissonance and everything manages to convey a new musical sensibility in its own way.

Ms. Oppens excels in her readings of the music, from the solo intricacies of "Fantasy," to the piano four-hand maze-like animated yet introspective density of "Reckoning: Five Minatures for America" with Jerome Lowenthal. Then there are the twists and turns of the Piano Quartet (with the Cassatt String Quartet) and the formidable and expressively triumphant  "Piano Concerto" with the Arizona State University Orchestra under Jeffery Meyer. The abstract linear flow of the piano part is an amazing thing to experience, happily. And the orchestra part bolsters and carries forward the momentum in a rather profound way. 

In short we come away from this with a definitely complex and pleasurable feeling for Ms. Kaminsky's music. This is not a monolithic, single-sounded sameness that we can sometimes get nowadays.  On the contrary it is delightfully plural and open, fearless of expanded tonality or primal intervallic magic alike.

All of this music and its inspired performance totals up to an album that establishes new and stylistically worthwhile territory for a furthering of the Modern project. This is in no way a mechanical step forward as it is a nicely, directly active creative articulation that stands on its own as singular.

It is all a very good addition to the music of today. Oppens comes through and everybody puts in a remarkably consistent showing of it all. It makes me want to hear more of Laura Kaminsky, for sure. Bravo Ms. Oppens for giving us this music with, as always, the brilliance she brings to our music world. Recommended for all those who wax pianistic and modernistic. This is a substantial listen.

Markus Reuter, String Quartet No. 1 "Heartland," Matangi Quartet

The career trajectory of composer and stick guitarist Markus Reuter follows not the typical one for a classical composer nowadays, that is unless you put him with such rock-cum-classical icons as Frank Zappa. Markus started as an important member of later editions of King Crimson and then went on his own. Currently he enjoys a fertile group interaction with the all-star Prog lineup called Stickmen.

I have valued for a long while his Prog music but it was only several years ago that I and others came to appreciate his classical composing via a video and then an official, definitive recording of his orchestra blockbuster Todmorten 513. I liked that one so well I named it one of my top picks of the year when it came out. I still love to hear it.
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Look it up if you want to know more about how it moved me.

Amd now we have a follow-up in a fine recording of his String Quartet No. 1, "Heartland" (Solaire 8), as performed with precision and verve by the Matangi Quartet. The sound of the recording itself is pristine and detailed, as is the performance.

There is a very attractive kind of homespun quality at times to the music, which is  affirmed by the Heartland designation. Perhaps the sounds depict a wide-open land where the staples of life come to us, the basics, the essentials. So the music is essential, combining a kind of earthiness with a lyrical Modernity and an element that is pure Reuter in whatever sense I get from listening so much to his music. Call it Reutarian? Sure, maybe. It is his alone anyway.

There are eight dramatically varied movements that show a depictive arc and an arco poetics. He shows himself at this point very knowing of the string sounds he is after. The varied attacks and timbral subtleties are like the detailed outdoor life of ripening grain perhaps, complex yet direct. There is everyday life-tumble represented and also the quietness of yearning. The moods change nicely and we follow happily.

The Matangi Quartet sound fully immersed and subtly inspired for a heartful and smart reading of this wonderful music.

We have a winner! The music is strongly processual as well as lyric. The more you listen, the better it seems to me. That is a good sign, always.

Strongly recommended as an up-to-the-minute view of what Modern Art Music can sound like. Reuter is brilliant and innovative. Do not miss this!