Gerhard Frommel, Piano Sonatas Nos. 1-3, Tatjana Blome

If one listens to music with a sense of discovery and adventure for years, one sooner or later comes across musicians and composers who for whatever reason are not well-known to the general music-loving world, yet repay your listening attention with worthwhile fare.

Such a person is composer Gerhard Frommel (1906-1984), most specifically in a new recording of his Piano Sonatas Nos. 1-3, performed by Tatjana Blome (Grand Piano 606).

Part of the reason may well be that he did not follow the avant garde tendencies of his era. His music does not veer toward atonality, there are no 12-tone rows to be found, serialism is not a factor. But one does not feel a lack of any sort when listening. The piano sonatas on the disk at hand are well put-together, inventive examples of idiomatic modern piano music that abound in thematic material of an attractive sort, pleasing developmenal passage work and a memorable quality in general.

His music is not anti-modern. I hear elements of Stravinsky's rhythmic drive and melodic singularity, a bit of the whimsy of Satie, sometimes a bit of the abstract modulatory harmonic quality of Hindemith, impressionistic elements. . . this is not the music of a reactionary, nor is it a hodgepodge or pastiche. Frommel's sonatas have a maturity of voice and sense of eventfulness that tempt me to call out the name as a discovery, a neglected voice, someone whose reputation needs reviving. Alas for now all I have to go on are these three very charming sonatas, played with sympathy and sensitivity by Ms. Blome.

Regardless of what the rest of his music may be like, surely the Frommel of this recording will find a welcome among those who love the music of the 20th century and do not mind going off the traveled road to find something. That this is. Recommended.

Jorge Luis Prats, Live in Zaragoza

Cuban pianist Jorge Luis Prats made quite a name for himself 30 years ago as an artist of great promise, then virtually disappeared. It turns out he chose to remain at home with his family rather than embark on a world adventure that would have put him in a semi-exile situation.

He is back after all this time with touring and a rather stunning recital recording, Live in Zaragoza (Decca 00289 478 2732).

The self-imposed seclusion has not diminished his talents. He embarks on a program of Spanish and Spanish-American classics with dash and a beautiful flamboyance fitting to the music. The two disks cover his renditions of Granados's "Goyescas", Villa-Lobos's "Bachiana brasileira no. 4 for piano," and then a second disk of encores covering Farinas's "Alta Gracia," Cervantes's "Danzas cubanas," and Lecuona's "Malaguena."

He has a beautifully dynamic rubato style, a flair for dance rhythms, a wonderful touch and an interpretive way with the pieces that brings out the salient aspects of each passage with a poetic grace.

This is bravura pianism from start to finish. Welcome back, Maestro Prats.

Frances E. Fairman III, Diurnal Thoughts, Four Works for Orchestra

Today we look at something that came out late last year, by a composer who may not be fully known but nevertheless writes music of merit. Francis E. Fairman III's Diurnal Thoughts (Navona 5863) contains four of Fairman's orchestral works: "The Fox," "Diurnal Thoughts," "New York Taxi," and "Concerto for Clarinet" (with Richard Stoltzman as soloist).

Judging by these pieces Fairman writes tonal music of a tone-poem-painting, descriptive sort, perhaps a bit on the impressionistic side, music that well could have been written 100 years ago and not seemed outlandish by contemporaries.

That having been said, there is charm in this music, and light-heartedness. Stoltzman does a fine job with the Concerto and the music is generally well-played by the Slovak Radio Symphony, the Moravian Philharmonic, and the Warsaw Philharmonic.

This may not be essential to your modern orchestral collection, but it makes for a most pleasant diversion.

Erdem Helvacioglu, Eleven Short Stories, for Prepared Piano

Ever since John Cage's "Sonatas and Interludes" and selected other works, the prepared piano has been a part of the modern concert music landscape. Lately especially there seems to be a surgence of compositions for the altered piano.

One of the very best is Erdem Helvacioglu's Eleven Short Stories (Innova 245), an 11-part suite for the instrument that includes various sequences for the conventional sounding of the prepared piano plus a variety of inside-the-piano playing techniques.

The music is less of the percussion-orchestra-in-a-box that Cage so brilliantly favored in his Sonatas, and more a meditation on sound color, a soundscape for the instrument with evocatively quiescent soundings that relate to the Satie-Cage-Crumb exotic-lyrical lineage, as the work nicely establishes Helvacioglu's contribution to that general line of musical thinking.

And as the press sheet notes, there is a mutual resonance between the instrument's possibilities, the composer's sensibilities and his Turkish roots.

It's music for a rainy day, a sunny day, a brown study. The suite's titles suggest a series of short stories that make the music a kind of soundtrack for life's experiences. Your life's experiences, if you open yourself up to the music.

An excellent diversion that succeeds on a purely musical level as it forwards sound poetry of rich associations.

Dvorak: Zigeunerlieder, Songs & Duets, Genia Kühmeier, Bernarda Fink and Christoph Berner

Anton Dvorak. Nearly everyone learns to pronounce (or mispronounce) his name in connection to his "New World Symphony." That is, in the States. I have a friend who was at one time a cashier for Sam Goody's, a retail NY Area record chain who at the time were full-line oriented. One of the questions they asked him in the interview was, "Who wrote the 'New World Symphony'?" Presumably a vacant stare, the answer "Beethoven" or "DI-voRACK" might have cost him a job, but he knew.

Of course Dvorak did a great deal more in the way of good music: numerous other symphonies, string quartets, solo piano works, etc. Then there are his lieder. They aren't as well known but are quite nice. Harmonia Mundi is releasing this month a selection of Zigeunerlieder, Songs & Duets (Harmonia Mundi 90281). Soprano Genia Kühmeier holds forth on the "Ziguenerlieder" (Gypsy Songs); mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink puts her personal stamp on the "Biblical Songs;" both perform the "Moravian Duets." Christoph Berner provides sensitive accompaniment on piano throughout.

The Duets were well received when introduced and helped Dvorak get early recognition. Kühmeier and Fink sing them with great charm and spirit and they are quite worthy of our appreciation. The Gypsy and Biblical songs are somewhat more straightforwardly romantic in compositional execution, but do have much appeal. In the hands of the performers they come alive.

The disk is a must for anyone who wants to explore Dvorak in some depth. The performances most certainly leave nothing to be desired. They are excellent. To look into ordering, copy and past the following URL into your browser: http://www.amazon.com/Dvorak-Zigeunerlieder-Songs-Genia-Kuhmeier/dp/B006OW80YQ/ref=tsm_1_tp_un_it

Todd Reynolds, Outerborough

The thought expressed in Friday's review, that we currently enjoy a period of experimentation and innovation in contemporary concert music, continues on today with new music by Todd Reynolds, as heard on his recent 2-CD set Outerborough (Innova 741).

In this case we have as on Friday's Ethel recording the incorporation of rock and world music into a quasi-post-minimalist modern concert stance, but also a bit of electronica, what sounds like improvisation and, perhaps most importantly, live electronics.

The advent of the laptop computer and live electronics software like Ableton Live has opened up avenues of expression that the virtuoso violinist and music thinker/composer Todd Reynolds has capitalized on.

The CD set covers a wide terrain. CD I centers around Todd's own inventions and compositions. He plays violin, of course, but also viola, electric guitar, electric bass, and kick drum, and vocalizes as well. It's cushioned and forward by a live electro-acoustic environment that creates multiple effects and allows Todd to build chamber and quasi-orchestral densities of voices, partly by loop-building means, partly I assume by multiple tracking. The results are fascinating--moving, very musical short works that travel along with rhythmic-dynamic momentum and yet have a kind of transcendent lyricism thanks to Todd Reynolds's beautiful violin playing and fertile invention. The disk closes with "Icy Sleeves of Green Version 2.0," his memorable recomposition and improvisation around the beautiful old standby "Greensleeves."

Disk Twe realizes performances of compositions by Todd plus an illustrious gathering: Phil Kline, Michael Gordon, Paul de Jong, Michael Lowenstern, David T. Little, Nick Zammuto, Ken Thomson, Paula Matthusen, and David Lang. These are pieces where Todd gets involved in collaborative efforts with the composers, both on the strictly compositional level and in terms of production and added instruments, depending on the piece at hand. The music here too engages but often in ways that show the varying intentions and musical goals of the collaborators and understandably is not as unified in overall thrust. Nevertheless there is much to explore and much of it is very good. All of it is thought-provoking and exceptional, each in its own way.

I hear that Todd Performed at the indie rock festival SWSX in Austin this year. That's of course an indication of how the music should and does appeal to those outside the strictly classical claque, as well it deserves.

The album is an important one--very accessible yet very new. It's something any musical listener should appreciate. Bravo.

Ethel, "Heavy:" Avant Metal and Other Iconoclastic Post- Works for String Quartet

We are in a period of experimentation and flux for modern concert music, no less so than in the '60s if you look for it. The Kronos and Turtle Island String Quartets have experimented for some time with the incorporation of rock, jazz and world musics (with their handmaiden minimalism) into the quartet repertoire. The quartet Ethel is another one of the groups that has dedicated themselves with success and acclaim to the new explorations and they give us their latest traversal of unusual works in this vein on their release Heavy (Innova 820).

This is their third album since their formation 14 years ago. It's a wildly unpredictable ride through the newest new compositions by Don Byron, John Halle, Julia Wolfe, John King, Raz Mesinai, David Lang, Kenji Bunch and Marcelo Zarvos.

Heavy is well-named. The music sometimes has the weight of amp-overloading metal, with insistence and torque. Other times there are lighter, more ethereal sounds to be heard. Blues-rock-ethnic tonality spiced with dissonance and tonal/textural contrast, repetition and change, themes taken from Thelonious Monk and Marvin Gaye, and a general post-classical attitude are what you hear and feel.

It's bracing, it's healthy, and the quartet plays with edgy brio and subtlety combined. It is what New York is, the center of creation (if you'll have it) where anything goes if it is done well. And this is a fine example of the now that New York remains. And it is done well. Very well indeed.