Monteverdi, Madrigals Book 8, Delitiae Musicae, Marco Longhini

Throughout my life the music of Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) has become increasingly central to me. Of course he was one of the beacons of early music. Although his music reflects his times there has become a point to me where his music stands alone, apart from the era, like Bach for a later period.

Feeling like I do I welcomed the chance to review a new version of Madrigals Book 8 "Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi"  (Naxos 8.573755-58) by Delitiae Musicae under the direction of Marco Longhini. The four-CD set manages to luxuriously include all the madrigals plus the lengthy 48 minute "Ballo delle ingrate."

Delitiae Musicae approaches the music with loving care and period rigor. The Ensemble vocale features nine singers used in varying combinations. Included are two countertenors and a boy soprano in keeping with performance practices. The Basso continuo comprises some nine players, including baroque harp, two theorbo and so on. Then as called for there is the Ensemble di viole da gamba (with soprano, contralto, tenor, and bass instruments). Finally there is the string section per se, the Ensemble di archi barocchi, with eight instrumentalists.

Throughout the course of the program, the continuo is a constant, the singers are assigned solo, duo, and other small configurations in contrast with the tutti passages. Similarly the ensemble instrumental groups appear variably according to the demands of the score.

The sensitive timbral period dimensions of the music bring to us an authentic and beautiful sound. All come together in varying combinations for a sterling performance in all its facets. This is later Monteverdi in full flower, with contrapuntal imitation contrasting with homophony in various Montervedian ways. As the composer states in his introduction to Book 8, the music addresses the "agitated," the "soft" and the "moderate" in ever varying sequences. Contrasts too are ever present between the "theatrical" and those numbers that are more purely musical, that are to be "sung" more than enacted.

The resultant whole that is the sequence of Book 8 has a richness and inventiveness brought out wonderfully well by Delitiae Musicae. The full effect of the totality is cumulative. By the time you come to the end, you feel you have grasped the extraordinary beauty and character of later Monteverdi with a period faithfulness that brings out the wealth of expression that marks out Book 8 as exceptional in itself.

The Naxos price just adds to the desirability and attractiveness of the set. It is a near ideal performance of music one must dwell within for a time to make it live for you. Once you do that, you are transported!

Highly recommended.

Howard Hersh, Dancing at the Pink House

Howard Hersh is a composer with lots of ideas, inventiveness, and an open stance as to how to position stylistically. I reviewed and loved his album of keyboard music, Angels and Watermarks (see post of March 27, 2015). The Piano Concerto showed him to be very adept and original in his "post" approach to long form, and the solo harpsichord works gave us a more intimate view.

Now we get a lot more music on the strictly chamber side of the coin, Dancing at the Pink House (Snow Leopard Music 201). The five compositions all show Hersh off as a musical poet not satisfied to remain in place, but ever to move forward.

"Madame's Tavern" (2014) opens the program with Mary Rowell on violin playing against a "phantom choir" of 15 pre-recorded violins. It is a sort of mini-concerto with a wealth of inventive signposts in a continually moving matrix both expressive and beautiful in a sometimes relatively hard-edged yet evocative manner. It leaves an impression of a lively musical mind, restless but elated.

"Loop" (2006) pits cello, piano and vibraphone in a mysterious, ostinato based blend that opens up another vista and breaks through to it with a forceful, then gentle plein air traversal. It is a landscape we simultaneously sense an uncanny deja vu with but then find much that rejuvenates our living within it. A ravishing work.

"I Love You, Billy Danger" (2012) gives us 12 minutes of solo piano music. It is a sort of aural tongue-twister with a dashingly bold modernistic flourish to it. This is quite involved and difficult to play pianism which Brenda Tom tackles heroically and effectively (as she so capably and brilliantly did on Howard's last album). It rolls forward inexorably and memorably, then abruptly hushes, only to pose a series of quiet questions, all of which have emphatic answers. Then gradually the question itself becomes the answer as it morphs into full thematic flower and onwards from there.

"Night" (2013) takes us into trio territory again, this time with clarinet, marimba and percussion. The clarinet part projects outward in a sort of post-Gershwin jazzy way. The marimba puts down a mobile wooden flooring of sorts that enables the clarinet to bound forward. The percussion subtly punctuates and colors. Momentum takes a hold with a more rhythmically vibrant marimba part that then opens up to quieter realms again.

"Dancing at the Pink House" (2006) deserves its title status with clarinet-piano folk-modern-vernacular expressions with a quietly driving motility of a dance-like sort. Ultimately the dance calms and opens up to a more lyrical introspection, ultimately to return to the motion of body-in-movement,  and in the end to take on a quotation from "America the Beautiful." Unforgettable, this is.

And that is the whole of it, or as much as I can touch upon in this framework. It is music that holds a place in your musical memory as something with a very personal, original fingerprint. It is music that continually underscores its presence in the contemporary United States, yet transcends that rootedness too with a music anyone can appreciate who has the ear to do so.

Very worthwhile! Hersh is a voice.

Toshio Hosokawa, The Raven, Charlotte Hellekant, United Instrumentation of Lucilin, Kentaro Kawase

Toshio Hosokawa is one of the premiere living Japanese composers. I have covered his music before (see the September 23, 2014 post and also that from November 3, 2011). Today we have The Raven (Naxos 8.573724), a modern-oriented work for mezzo-soprano (Charlotte Hellekant) and chamber orchestra (United Instrumentation of Lucilin under Kentaro Kawase).

It is based on Edgar Allen Poe's iconic poem. A full recitation of that is followed by Hosokawa's work, which in turned is presented in the form of a traditional Noh drama.

The music is spacious, sombre, mysterious and more or less high modernist in its sprawling expanded tonal rigor. The dark mood has a musical analogy, which is sure-footed and very atmospheric.

Mezzo-Soprano Hellekant and the United Instruments of Lucilin give us a detailed and carefully expressive reading of the work.

Poe's poem and its raven-centered theme appealed to Hosokawa for its similarity with Traditional Japanese tales, which often focus on plants and animals in dialog with human subjects. He felt that it readily lent itself to Noh dramatic treatment. For The Raven work Hosokawa transforms the narrative human subject from man to women, which also is consistent with Noh tradition. To the Western listener such elements are not readily apparent so much as there is a cogent use of aural spaciousness that Noh music shares with this work.

The composition is dedicated by the composer to Hellekant and United Instrumentation. The close rapport between music and performers is apparent and a large factor in the success of the disk. One at this point could scarce imagine a better reading.

It is a rarified music of great dramatic heft. One is given yet another chance to appreciate the breadth and scope of Hosokawa's poignant music vision. All interested in Japanese modernism today should hear this one. It is revelatory and absorbing.

Pompa-Baldi Plays Roberto Piana, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Piano

It is never out-of-place in my listening habits to be introduced to a very modern and modern tonal pianistic composer as played by a very talented and musical pianist. This makes me a happy camper. That is the case with Pompa-Baldi Plays Roberto Piana (Centaur CRC 3563). Roberto writes for the solo piano like he really loves it and respects too the contemporary proficiency level that is state-of-the-art today. Piana works inventively and imaginatively to create very memorable modern works that have beautiful movement built in, an almost Satie-esque disarming directness, and plenty of modern spice as required though also a sophisticated harmonic-tonal playfulness.

Antonio Pompa-Baldi plays the "25 Preludi Pittorici" and the "Piano Sonata" like he was born to them. All require an integration of very evolve technique into a varied and very communicative sense of form and motival freshness.

Pompa-Baldi brings out the lyricism with care and great artistry. The quasi-impressionist dazzle and the dynamic motility of these works engage strongly thanks to the near-ideal performances. I cannot imagine that those attending to this music with care will not find much to intrigue and please.

It may be one of the sleepers of the year. Gradually you realize you are in the presence of a contemporary greatness. By all means, spend some time with this one and see if it does not grow on you!

MIND Music, Music Related to Neurodegenerative Conditions, Adams, Malone, Mendelssohn, Strauss

A most unusual volume today. MIND Music: Music Related to Neurodegenerative Conditions (Divine Art 25138) gives us four compositions on two CDs. It was an outgrowth of a concert given by clarinetists Elizabeth Jordan and Lynsey Marsh in honor of their two parents who died in 2014 from complications arising out of Parkinson's Disease. The concert was to raise money for Parkinson's UK.

This album was conceived in the same spirit. Its proceeds will go to Parkinson's UK as well. All four works on the program have something to do, as the title suggests, with neurodegenerative afflictions.

Felix Mendelssohn died at age 38, probably of a subarachnoid hemorrhage, which is sometimes linked to Parkinson's. His "Concert Piece No. 1 in F Major, Op.113" for clarinet, basset horn and orchestra has nothing directly to do with his ultimate end, nor need it. It apparently came about via Felix's craving for Bavarian dishes, which were unavailable to him while he lived in Berlin. A deal was struck with the father-son clarinet soloists Heinrich and Carl Baermann. They would prepare two of Felix's favorites, steamed dumplings and sweet cheese strudel, and he would at the same time write them a concert piece they could perform on tour. Hearing the work so nicely performed by Jordan, Marsh and the Northern Chamber Orchestra, I would imagine that the clarinet duo were on the winning end of the deal. It is a delight to hear.

The work that follows, Richard Strauss's "Sonatina No. 1 in F Major for 16 Wind Instruments 'From an Invalid's Workshop'" was a product of the period following Strauss's completion of the opera "Capriccio" in 1942, after which he vowed to compose no more. He broke that vow regardless with some very beautiful music. The Sonatina was one such work, written while Strauss suffered from a series case of influenza and also was in depression, the latter in part because of the wartime destruction of the Munich Court Theater, which had important associations for him. The music is bracing and in turn regretful. The performance is quite worthwhile to hear.

The central work of this program to my mind is John Adams' "'Gnarly Buttons' for Clarinet and Small Orchestra."  It has much to do with his clarinet-playing father, who succumbed to Alzheimer's. The music is magical, with ordered variations on cellular motives but also a sort of quasi-naive, folk quality that reflected his father's involvement with marching band music (as well as jazz and classical). His decline is reflected in the music as well.

Kevin Malone's "The Last Memory" for Solo Clarinet comes out of his experience with his father and the degeneration from Alzheimer's he endured. His father's struggle to differentiate from current events and the memories of past events has thematic implications in the realization of the work for clarinet and digital delay as a sort of mind as echo chamber, where past memories recur in the mind again and again, creating an internal state as strong or even stronger than external real-time presence. It is a haunting work and well done for all that.

In sum this is very worthwhile music. The Adams work alone is worth the price of admission. Yet all of it fascinates and pleases. And you will be helping Parkinson's UK!

So go for it.

Terry Riley, Dark Queen Mantra, Stefano Scodanibbio, Gyan Riley, Del Sol String Quartet

Without a doubt composer Terry Riley has been one of the most important composers of our time, creating the iconic "In C," arguably the most influential and appreciated composition in the rise of so-called minimalism, and then going on to follow his own muse, ever broadening his outlook in a body of works that retain high interest and embrace innovative approaches to this day.

Dark Queen Mantra (Sono Luminus 92215) presents the title work written in 2015 for guitar (Gyan Riley) and String Quartet (Del Sol String Quartet). It is followed by the 1983 quartet work "The Wheel and Mystic Bird Waltz" and Stefan Scodanibbio's "Mas Lugares (su Madrigal di Monteverdi)" (2003).

The Scodanibbio "Mas Lugares" combines minimalist motor-propulsive forwardness with starkly effective re-presentations of a Monteverdi Madrigal. It is a deft intermingling of string color and repetition versus through composition.

Riley's "The Wheel & Mythic Birds Waltz" stands midway between "In C" and the title work. It is motor-rhythmic and cyclical-repetitive in a much looser way than Riley's earlier work and that of typical proto-minimalism. It is clear hearing the 1983 composition that he had well begun to distance himself away from the trance underpinnings of the initial music yet still remain melodically vibrant in his special way.

The "Dark Queen Mantra" of the title further realizes the movement away from the trance-inducing early work that we still hear vestiges of in the "Waltz." "Mantra" turns it further towards a continual development and a horizontal melodic openness. It positions itself mid-point between quasi-Indian modal form and classical-structural considerations. It is fully freed from the trance-over-time change of "In C." It does all of this in brilliant ways very much characteristic of Riley's overall lyric thrust. It is a work of honest yet baroquely complex beauty!

When we weigh all three works on this CD program we come away satisfied that some important post-minimalist music has reached our listening selves in enlightening and pleasurable ways. Kudos to all concerned!

Horatiu Radulescu, Piano Sonatas & String Quartets I, Stephen Clarke, The JACK Quartet

Apparently there have been shifts in the outlook of Romanian composer Horatiu Radulescu (1942-2008): his Romanian period, the "plasmic music" of his post-Romanian days (during the first part of his residency in Western Europe), and the final phase, which worked at times within more traditional forms, albeit in very personal, idiosyncratic ways. The latter is represented in the first volume of Piano Sonatas and String Quartets I (Mode 290). The JACK Quartet and pianist Stephen Clarke nicely do the honors for the program.

For this initial installment we hear the "String Quartet No. 5, Op. 89 'before the universe was born'" (1990-95) in first recording. Its sprawling sonic panorama of harmonics is hardly traditional except as accommodated to string quartet instrumentation.

The piano works heard here on the other hand at first have a more straightforward simplicity about them. The Romanian folk-like diatonicism-plus disarms on the "Piano Sonata No. 5, op. 106 'settle your dust, this is the primal identity'" (2003). Yet it is something more than a primality.

The "Piano Sonata No. 2, op. 82 'being and non-being create each other'" (1991)  is more overtly modernistic though at times folk-like as well. There is a post-Messiaenesque deliberateness that nevertheless has Radulescu's personal stamp on it, as it were. The first movement has widely spaced, powerful sonarities. Movement two uses mixed modalities and a held right pedal to represent "Byzantine bells." The third movement has an ostinato in 15 with fragments of earlier works quoted in the right hand. 

All-in-all this is a most promising start to the series. All the works have a special idiomatic quality to them, an around-and-back melding of modernism and a whispy suggestion of archaic antiquity as filtered through Radelescu's musical vision.

I recommend this one warmly to you.