David Lang, Love Fail, Anonymous 4

What makes one work reach out to you, another not? There are multitudes of factors, of course. All the technical elements of music and all the thematic treatments, both as story and as musical statement. They all go into it.

And so with David Lang's Love Fail (Cantaloupe 21100) there is a conjoinment of many different factors that makes me feel, after hearing the work and the inimitable Anonymous Four's performance of it a number of times, that yes, this is good.

Minimalism, which this music both is and is beyond, must stand or fall on its musical content. And stand it does, Love Fail. It's not just the Anonymous Four's performance (they are supreme in handling early music), there is something ritualistic, chant-like about the music as it presents itself in time.

It is all about love, romantic love, and it draws upon the Tristan and Isolde story as well as a series of impressions and disjointed happenstances that describe the he and she of the couple and ultimately their disconnect. Earthly life ending puts an end to earthly love in the active tense. But there of course are disconnects that can take place within an active coupling here on earth. The work has a hazy, dream-like presence so that you are left with things remembered, qualities, events, and in the end, loss, at times in terms of finely detailed focus, other times as a hazy remembrance that conveys grief as well as experiences gone, the lack of them in the present.

The music structure alternates between fairly long, flowing, sometimes contrapuntal passages and short melodic-text fragments. The fragments give you that feeling of disconnect. If there is repetition it pretty much quickly turns to variation and subtractive-additive phrasings, like old plainchant a little. And in that way you get the emotional analogy of the story in the structure of the music.

It makes for a moving experience. And as Marcel Mauss famously said about human exchange, you get a sort of total social phenomenon. Words, text and performance make of the work a widely and oddly totalized thing, even though there is at most times nothing "large" about the sound.

Part of that is that David Lang has a knack, a way of moving along in his works that gives movement within works and also between them. He stands still not at all. And this work has a kind of dramatic enveloped bell curve to it that goes from start to finish and effectively drives you the listener to experience directly a bleak but tender sadness. Loss.

Needless to say I recommend this very much. There is a timelessness, a once-upon-a-timelessness that universal story telling can give you, only it hangs together as music extraordinarily well. You are left in the end with absence and memory.

Weinberg, Symphony No. 18 "War - There is No Word More Cruel", Trumpet Concerto, St. Petersburg State Symphony, Lande

The renaissance of the music of Weinberg continues. It is quite heartening how much is coming out. So today another new one. Vladimir Lande and the St. Petersburg State Symphony give us his "Symphony No. 18" and "Trumpet Concerto" (Naxos 8.573190).

These are excellently solid performances of works well worth having. Why did the Russians especially do such wonderful symphonies on the theme of World War II? If we look to the US, nothing stands out (at least I cannot think of anything at the moment. . . "Victory at Sea"? Not a symphony.), yet Russia gave us Prokofiev's "Symphony No. 5" and Shostakovitch's "Symphony No. 7", both monumental and incredibly moving. And then Weinberg, with whom we are catching up, did a trilogy of symphonies on the theme, Nos. 17-19. Today the center of the whole, No. 18, which is aptly subtitled "War - There is No Word More Cruel".

We are (or I am) so used to and fond of the Prokofiev and Shostakovich war symphonies that the Weinberg works have to be considered at this point apart. They may not quite compete on first blush with those masterpieces, or do they?

I've been spending time with the 18th and it is as you expect an expressively somber work. It has the Weinberg long form, in a rather modern sounding harmonic palette (it is a later work, 1982-84) and begins with an orchestral movement that has a feeling of grief that is amplified in the three following movements with added chorus. It is a complex work in every way worthy of the later Weinberg and his blossoming during the thaw.

The Trumpet Concerto that is included here, from the sixties, has symphonic dimensions, a penchant for quoting Mendelssohn (and why especially the Wedding March?) and a more playful liveliness that acts as a foil to the ponderous seriousness of his 18th.

This might not be my first choice for those getting to know Weinberg, but it is nonetheless a welcome addition. Lande and the amassed choral and instrumental forces give us a performance worthy of the brilliance of the music. And at the Naxos price it is an attractive package!

Very recommended. Weinberg!

ZOFO, ZOFORBIT: A Space Odyssey, Sisask, Holst, Crumb, Lang

Concept albums can do interesting things and be lots of fun if the idea is right. The piano duo ZOFO, who we have covered before here, had a great idea and made it work. The album is called ZOFORBIT: A Space Odyssey (Sono Luminus 92178). It is a logical grouping of four compositions for piano, four hands, with the theme of space, the universe, the cosmos.

They've come up with four compositions that all address such themes, some well-known, some lesser-known, but all near-perfect for the duo. Holst's "The Planets" sounds wonderful in a duo arrangement, then there is George Crumb's "Celestial Mechanics" from "Makrokosmos IV". David Lang gets a say with the brief "Gravity" and finally the least known of the four works/composers but a good addition nonetheless, Urmas Sisask (b. 1960) and "The Milky Way".

ZOFO is Eva-Maria Zimmermann and Keisuke Nakagoshi. They combine a very together simpatico duo dynamic with a real sense of fun. The album as is usually the case on Sono Luminus comes in a set as a standard stereo CD and a Blu-Ray DVD with a 5:1 surround mix.

"The Planets" in a four-hand piano version has a kind of revelatory quality. All the notes are there (all the necessary ones) and it sounds so idiomatic and modern in an all-piano zone that it's like hearing it anew all over again. The rendition forms a definite high-water mark that will please just about anybody.

The Crumb work is given all the cosmic spatiality it deserves. The Lang has a pleasing contemplative quality. And then the surprise of the set is Sisask's "The Milky Way" subtitled "Piano Sonata op. 24 for Four Hands". It has ritual rhythmic movement in an exotic minor mode, greatly abetted by the passages where the strings are dampened or strummed. It almost sounds like gamelan music, only more cosmic.

So here we have what is a real treat. . . . something in the outer zone, eminently suited for those evenings when you don the silver space outfit, get out the Tang and head for realms unknown and far away. If there is hope for the younger generation taking to modern classical, ZOFO has found a way--making it fun! Give it to your teenager or budding toddler, even. A delight!

Aeonia, At the Door to Eternity, Music of Donald Skirvin and Eric Banks, the Esoterics

The voice was probably the first instrument. 19th century armchair speculation about the origins of everything usually asserted it. There's no reason to believe it isn't true. We may have gotten the idea from listening to the birds on a fine spring morning. No doubt it happened spontaneously among many separate groups scattered across the world. Who can say?

Whatever happened then, it is true today that we respond naturally to vocal music. A good chance to do that is provided by the a cappella Seattle choral group the Esoterics, now in their 20th year. They have a bias toward the performance of modern works, and that is much needed. They are excellent.

On their new disk Aeonia: At the Door to Eternity (Terpsichore 1513), they feature two modern symphonic suites for unaccompanied chorus. "Stars Forever While We Sleep" by Donald Skirvin (b. 1946) and "I am Among Them" by Eric Banks (b. 1969). Both works are thoroughly evocative, tonal contemporary offerings beautifully rendered by the choral ensemble.

Skirvin has been Composer in Residence for the Esoterics ever since 1998. Understandably he has composed a good number of works for chorus. The present one at hand was composed in 2009 and uses the poetry of Sara Teasdale as texts. Eric Banks is the Musical Director of the Esoterics and he too is a composer of multiple choral works. The present composition heard here was composed in 2013 and is based on poetic texts by Dan-Eric Slocum.

Each work has warmth, beauty and a sort of searchingly poetic quality handled beautifully by the 36-voice ensemble. Choral works of this sort when well sung are nearly irresistible to my ears. Certainly the Esoterics are among the foremost of such ensembles today. They give us much to appreciate on Aeonia.

Very recommended.

Matthew Burtner, That Which is Bodiless is Reflected in Bodies

The natural tonal qualities of pitched and unpitched percussion have an affinity with electronic music. Back in the day (1972) the simple little studio that was a supplement to the huge RCA Synthesizer at the Columbia Princeton Electronic Music Center had little for sound generation except an oscillator, a Moog, an electric organ and a gong. The gong of course was rich in overtones and so had a complex timbral quality that made it a great addition. Some of us remember live and electro-acoustic works Stockhausen made centered around a gong. Of course percussionists had their renaissance as an important component of high modernism in general beginning especially with Varese and his all-percussion "Ionisation" and going from there. The last 100 years have seen the transformation completed. Looking back, it is rather one of the more amazing developments in "Western" music in our time.

With all that as a backdrop I introduce to you Matthew Burtner and his electro-acoustic album That Which is Bodiless is Reflected in Bodies (Centaur). I have the sounds and the cover and not a lot else to go with as far as information. But what I find on Burtner's website and what I hear gives me plenty to talk about.

There are nine parts to the work as a whole. They vary greatly from the sonically sustained soundscape to the pulsating electro-acoustic noise-pitch poem. The prototype version was written in 2004, created for playback in the rotunda dome of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. That original version was for Tibetan singing bowl and electronics. The version we hear on the album adds a more extensive live percussion set up.

In the composer's words the work is meant to explore "notions of disembodiment through the combination of physical and virtual objects and environments".

The experience of this work is that of a cosmic sound-world, a shifting kaleidoscope of timbral presence that has a particular individual quality for each movement.

It has the ambiance of place and time. There is an engaging interaction of complex timbres, both pitched and unpitched, working together in nearly orchestral ways. If this be music (and of course it is), play on.

The adventurous electro-acoustic explorers out there should eat this one up. Nothing I've heard sounds quite like it. The singularity that is Matthew Burtner deserves your attention. Recommended!

Anne Vanschothorst, Harp, Ek is Elk

Today's CD has an ambient moodiness born of the sensitive harp playing of Anne Vanschothorst, alone, or in a duo or trio with other instrumentalists. Ek is Elk (Big Round 8932) is the title. The pieces have a gentle quality that plays upon delicate ostinato figures or other sustaining structures in the harp and in the case of the duos and trios a second (and when appropriate a third), sometimes improvisatory sounding part that no doubt is pre-arranged/composed but has a spontaneous, fantasia sort of flow to it.

There are several pieces that are co-composed by Bob van Luijt and feature the harp along with his bass, samples, effects and digi-orchestration. Other duets join Anne with the post-Milesian jazz-inflected trumpet of Saskia Laroo, Ernst Stolz on viola da gamba, and a trio with Arthur Bont on percussion and Thijs de Melker on acoustic bass.

The effect is a structured but dream-like realm of enchantment, a freely unfolding exotic sort of classical ambiance of mood and expressivity, a sort of post-ECM spaciousness.

Ms. Vanschothorst has a beautiful presence on her harp. She and her musical partners craft music to while away nearly an hour now and again to rock you gently into an internal world of well-being.

It is not modern in the cutting-edge of new conceptual innovation sense so much as a series of charming vignettes with which to furnish your inner space for a time. For that it is perfect. Most charming! It is good for what ails you.

Malcolm Williamson, Organ Music

The organ continues to find adepts and composers for the very obvious reason that it still plays a central role in liturgical services of the cathedrals of importance in the world. Malcolm Williamson (1931-2003) was both an adept and a composer of note. Raised in Australia he came to England in 1953 and made something of a name for himself as a composer there, enjoying the tutelage of Eugene Goossens and the approval of Benjamin Britten.

He became Master of the Queen's Music in 1975 and retained that position until his death. His organ music shows a bold modernism that in part comes out of Messiaen's influence but then strikes out on its own path. A volume devoted to his organ music is just out, played with panache by Tim Winpenny on the aurally spectacular organ of St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol (Toccata 0246).

The "Symphony for Organ" (1960) is the centerpiece of the recital. Surrounding works, some enjoying their first recording, date from 1955-6 ("Fons Amoris") up through 1980-1, with the Offertoire from the "Mass of the People of God".

Throughout the sound is brilliant, the performances strong and dynamic, and the music alternatingly mystical and triumphant. It shows us that Williamson was a major figure in modern organ music. Both organ aficionados and those who appreciate the harmonically enriched world of modernism will respond to this readily.

Perhaps it is one that's easy to overlook, but in its own way it is monumental!