Arcanto Quartet and Olivier Marron, Schubert, String Quintet Op. 163

The Schubert String Quintet Op. 163 is a work that has long been at the top of my chamber music favorites. It has such a folk-like quality yet it is emblazoned by the melodic-harmonic compositional-developmental hand of the master. Every movement has its own distinctive character mixed with commanding presence, and there is an idyllic, quasi-pastoral character to it, at least to my ears. I never tire of it.

The Arcanto Quartet and additional cellist Olivier Marron have made a rather ravishing recording of the work (Harmonia Mundi) which was released yesterday. I am enthralled with it.

Such a crisp, stately, passionate yet musically insightful rendering I have not heard in previous versions. Plus the audio is very natural yet vibrant.

All Schubert lovers, you must hear this. I am thankful to have it!

J. S. Bach, Isabelle Faust, Solos and Partitas for Solo Violin, Vol 2

Like most listeners it took a little while for me to come to the intimate Bach, the Well-Tempered Clavier, the unaccompanied solo pieces for violin and cello. As time went by I came to treasure these works highly. This is Bach in a "pure" state, unconcerned with audience, writing for himself, the musicians who were to play the music, and the great beyond.

His Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin are beautiful examples of Bach in this sense. Isabelle Faust presents us with her second volume of the works in a just released CD (Harmonia Mundi).

There is grandeur, tenderness, and the thrill of intelligent velocity in Ms. Faust's hands. The phrasings make clear the ornament from the main stem of the lines when applicable. Each piece gets a fresh articulation according to the mood and pull of the music.

It's beautifully played Bach, perhaps miles from the old Joseph Szigeti recordings I still have on LP from my student days, but quite understandably so. Isabelle Faust is in every way as expressive as Szigeti, but of course she has her own sound, which all-in-all may be better for this music than Szigeti's was. Faust's is a glorious performance, thrilling to hear.

Coro Allegro, Awakenings

There are Monday mornings when I wonder why I do what I do. Such was this one. But then I put Coro Allegro's Awakenings (Navona 5878) on my player as I begin to write up today's reviews and I am reminded forcefully that I do this for the music, the artists, the composers.

Coro Allegro is a choral group for members and friends of the gay community and they are very good. The disk features two major works by contemporary composers from Massachusetts (Coro Allegro work out of Boston): Robert Stern's "Shofar, an Oratorio in Four Parts" for soloists, chorus and instrumentalists; and Ronald Perera's "Why I Wake Early: Eight Poems of Mary Oliver for Mixed Chorus, String Quartet and Piano."

Both works are well wrought, somewhat eclectic, and performed with vivacious zeal. They show two composers well worth hearing, very comfortable working in the choral genre, soloists of world class ability, and a choral group of superlative skills. Bravo Coro Allegro. Bravo Artistic Director David Hodgkins.

John Cage, As It Is, Alexei Lubimov, Natalia Pschenitschnikova

This month John Cage would have been 100 years old. There are celebrations of his music going on all over the world and new release are burgeoning in commemoration of the anniversary.

One of the more interesting is the release As It Is (ECM New Series B0017198-02) which will be out in the states this September 25th. It's Alexei Lubimov on piano and prepared piano, Natalia Pschenitschnikova on vocals for a program of some of the more intimate gems in Cage's oeuvre.

The artists have selected judiciously from Cage's body of music to come up with some of the more tonal, quasi-ethnic-folk-like ambient music for voice, prepared piano and piano, alone and in combination. It's Cage at his more directly accessible, much of it early, all of it pioneering.

Lubimov, Pschenitschnikova, and producer Manfred Eichner bring out the resonance of these miniatures in ways that stand out. Some have the quirky simplicity of Satie, the prepared piano pieces have a gamelan-like quality often remarked upon but brought to the fore in the ECM production style. Natalia's vocals emphasize the direct simplicity of the vocal lines. Alexei (who championed Cage's music as early as the '60s in his native Russia) brings out the exotic and enchanted qualities of the keyboard parts.

This is a great collection of Cage as a model of post-modern sensibility. It is not as concerned with the high modern works of his middle period. As a result it should form a wonderful introduction to Cage for those who have not yet accustomed themselves to the more abstract Cage.

It is a very well-performed collection of some of his most directly engaging music. And so it is very much recommended. You can pre-order the CD at Amazon for delivery later in the month.

Kim Kashkashian, Kurtag/Ligeti, Music for Viola

Unaccompanied solo string music is in many ways something normally seen as more for the cognoscenti than the average listener, especially when the music is modern. Now why is that? It's not a music of bells and whistles, by nature, excepting perhaps Paganini's unaccompanied violin works. It can be music of a high level of difficulty for the performer and it shows that performer in a bare spotlight, so to say. There is nothing inherently formidable from a listening standpoint, but the listener must accomodate his or her ears to the solo sound and ambiance.

These thoughts occur to me as I listen to Kim Kashkashian's Music for Viola (ECM New Series B0017196-02), a solo viola recital which is due to hit the streets on September 25th. It's two works of a singular focus: Gyorgy Kurtag's "Signs, Games and Messages" and Gyorgy Ligeti's "Sonata for Viola Solo."

This is music of a very serious sort. Both composers revel in the unique sound qualities of the instrument, and both seek to make a deeply concentrated series of melodic-harmonic poetics by getting inside the viola's voice as it were. Ligeti's work has a slightly more brilliant palette than Kurtag's. Both pieces work together to provide a kind of fit that contrasts nicely. Ligeti's is the more noteful and overtly expressionistic of the two works; Kurtag's the meditatively more profound, perhaps. It's exemplary high modernism of the later sort in both cases.

Kim Kashkashian brings out the essence of both works, which depends on alternations of sound and space in a way perfectly well suited for the ECM trademark sound. Every note most certainly counts in both cases and Kim gets a hard-edged yet exploratory tone that seems totally to fit the mood(s) of the music. Attention to detail makes all the difference here and her finely articulated variations in tone, attack and timbre bring out the nuance and subtlety of these works in brilliant ways. It's hard to imagine a better performance.

It is not light fare, to be sure. But the more you listen the more you appreciate Kashkashian's performance and the weighty quality of the compositions. Bravo! You can pre-order the CD at Amazon.

Gian Luigi Diana, Cristalli Sonori

Gian Luigi Diana was an integral member of the electro-acoustic offerings Laghima and Blurboxer that I covered last month.We take another look at his music today with the solo album Cristalli Sonori (Setola Di Maiale SM 1890).

As with the previous recordings we have electro-acoustic music devoid of cliche, in the form of the unexpected. Again, it's in the realm of spontaneous composition and combines Gian's well-thought-through sound universes with real-time acoustic instruments: Patrick Holmes on clarinet, Porra-Boy, flutes and slide guitar, Lisa Dowling, double bass, and Bojan Z. on sax and clarinet, each entering for a segment or two.

This is soundscaping without a lot of sustain or drone and more concerned with sonic events that follow one upon another in a kind of narrative flow. The early work of AMM, MEV and Il Gruppo sometimes comes to mind, but as precursors more than as models.

It's avant music of a singular cast and will appeal to the patient follower of new sounds. You must let the sequences unfold in time and you will find a rewarding experience in the offing when you do.

Mobtown Modern Big Band, The Re-(W)Rite of Spring, Stravinsky, Arr. Darryl Brenzel

When Darryl Brenzel decided to arrange Stravinsky's The Rites of Spring for jazz big band, he committed himself to no easy undertaking. The orchestral score of course is complex in itself. How to get it into idiomatic big band form, get solo routine backdrops, get it to swing?

It called for no less than a rewrite of the entire score, and now we have it in our hands as a CD, The Re-(W)Rite of Spring (Innova 824). The Mobtown Modern Big Band realizes the new charts, no small feat, but it comes off well.

Of course The Rites of Spring is a seminal work of modernism. It has become an icon, a bellwether in the development of rhythmic and multi-melodic complexities in new music. To fiddle with an icon is potentially volatile business. What Darryl Brenzel has wrought may not appeal to everybody, in part due to the above factors. But there is no denying that he has succeeded on his own terms.

I find the funk-rock version of the final section a bit unconvincing. How to get it all to rock out and keep the rhythmic dynamic? He does not excatly go that route but rather more or less straightens out the kinks, and I think it's a pity he doesn't leave more of the asymmetry. But that is my own personal quibble and it is overshadowed by the overall impact, which is very strong.

So he sometimes simplifies the rhythms to get it all to swing, he adds transitional passages not a part of the original score, he writes idiomatic big band figures as backdrops to soloing routines, all with the idea of getting this into big band stylistic shape. One might quibble with what he does or how he does it. But taken as a whole he succeeds in getting the essence of the work to fly as big band music, and that is quite an accomplishment.

The band sounds great. If you meet this music half-way, you'll find much to savor. Brenzel has taken on a Herculean task and made it all work. It is something you should hear whether you come out of the jazz camp, the modern classical camp, or like me, you straddle the fence and appreciate what's good out there irrespective of labels.