Karin Haussmann, Works for Ensemble, E-MEX Ensemble, Christoph Maria Wagner

German composer Karin Haussmann (b. 1962) has as her starting point the creation of sound in its new music essence. Works for Ensemble (Coviello Contemporary Deutschlandfunk COV 91410) gives us a nicely varied assortment of five of her recent works as played with detailed attention by the E-MEX Ensemble under Christoph Maria Wagner.

These new works have flow, much attention to timbres and spatial unfolding within a realm of high-modernist abstraction, but without especially showing a standard pointillistic influence via Darmstadt and the serialists. The compositions generally unfold theatrically and evocatively without having detailed literary analogs. Haussmann creates abstractions that convey meaning without relying heavily on extra-musical thematics, though often based on one or more coloristic, gestural or conditional principles as starting points. But make no mistake, there is nothing cold or clinical about them.

The opening work on the CD, "Two Movements for Piano and Ensemble" (2008) makes use of jagged figures in the piano while the ensemble has moments where it "breathes", sounds continuous figures in a kind of breath-like flow. In the second movement the ensemble moves away from responding to the piano and more to articulating varied forms of periodicity while the piano widens its role to a mysterious series of clusters and utterances, all metaphoric of how a balance wheel functions in a mechanical clock. The music has a magical quality.

"a fuoco lento" (2009) premiered at a culinary event, hence the literal meaning of the work's title, "at a low flame". Haussmann conceived of the work as initially limited like a kind of entree made of a few key elements, ingredients as it were. The note b-flat, the bowed and striking of metallic objects by the percussionist, both are are key elements that the composition works around.

The solo organ work "con flessibilita" concerns itself with the various sound resources, the various manuals and the two Venetian swells available to the organist. Haussmann successfully gives the organ a flexible tone-color quality which makes of the organ a more permeable, plastic color-wheel of sorts.

"Four Movements for Cello, Accordion and Ensemble" (2010-2011) works further with the ideas developed in "Two Movements". The sound capabilities of the cello and accordion were chosen to create contrasts that the ensemble reacts against. The soloists take on the role of "recoloring" the music through exerting influences, as the composer says, which brings the ensemble into a kind of timbre-oriented dialog. So we have clusters in the accordion, for example, versus sustained multiphonic tones in the cello, and so forth.

"Quartet" (2000) finishes off the program with trumpet, flute. cello and piano sounding, in the composers words, as a single instrument. Haussmann experimented with trumpeter Marco Blaauw in creating "disaltered chords", richly harmonic, rough multiphonics that tend to beat with variable periodicity. The quartet gives a four-instrument analog of the disaltered chordal sound.

All these various concepts put into play by the composer results in some striking music, high-modernist yet freshly concocted into striking sound color worlds that make the music particularly contemporary, of our time.

It is music that will be appreciated by the adventurous modernist. Time spent acclimating oneself to the new worlds of sound pay off with a very rewarding experience.

Andrzej Panufnik, Concertos, Symphonic Works Vol. 8

The centennial of Andrzej Panufnik's birthday (1914-1991) has brought us a spate of rather remarkable recordings, many covered here (type his name in the search box above for those). Today, another. This one is Volume 8 in the Deutschlandradio Kultur series of "Orchestral Works", namely a compendium of three Concertos (CPO 777 687-2).

All three are from his fully mature, later period, a Violin Concerto from 1971, Cello Concerto from 1991, and Piano Concerto from 1961/1972/1983. The Konzerthausorchester Berlin under Lukasz Borowicz sound fine indeed and give the music a characteristic flourish that seems right. The soloists rise to the occasion.

The Violin Concert was written originally for Yehudi Menuhin. Panufnik tried to emphasize spiritual and poetic possibilities rather than pyrotechnics, building long melody lines for the violin using simple intervallic relationships--basically the major and minor third of a triad in well-conceived permutations. The violin soars above the string orchestra throughout. The work has a somewhat moody character but brings to us a singularly singing quality well realized by soloist Alexander Sitkovetsky and the orchestra. It is in its own way a masterpiece, once of Panufnik's most appealing.

The Piano Concerto is more virtuoso-oriented, with poetic qualities, bravura and at times an almost jazzy immediacy, especially in the rousing, restlessly modulating perpetual motion of the final movement. Ewa Kuplec excels in the piano role, with great energy and poise. The first movement was newly composed in 1983, the rest thoroughly revised in 1972.

The Cello Concerto is the latest of the three works, written in 1991 with Rostropovich in mind, who gave the premier. The music is conceived as a sort of structural palindrome, though to the naked ear it all sounds through-composed. Raphael Wallfisch renders the solo cello part with grace and intensity.

So we have another volume in the series, one of the very best. The three works do much to convince us how Panufnik never flagged, went his own way, and lit up the musical world with his own brand of brilliance when all was right. These concertos are sterling examples of that and the performances leave nothing to be desired. Very recommended.

Monteverdi, Vespri solenni per la festa di San Marco, Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini

Vespri solenni per la festa di San Marco (Naive) reconstructs and celebrates a Vespers service in the Basilica of Mantova, San Marco, such as it would have been performed during Monteverdi's lifetime. This in honor of the 30th anniversary of Concerto Italiano, conducted by Rinaldo Alessandrini, one of the principal Monteverdi exponents of our era.

Alessandrini knew what such a liturgical service contained, so it was a matter of making choices from the Selva morale e spirituale collection. The recording at hand contains a complete Vespers; there are other selections that would have been possible; this choice seemed to Alessandrini a good one. Apparently he plans to record the complete "Selva" in the coming years, and this is a first step toward that.

The set comes with a bonus DVD documentary by Claudio Rufa on Alessandrini conducting Monteverdi.

Musically we have some very beautifully stirring Monteverdi done in the authentic manner.

I would heartily recommend this one for any early music enthusiast--or those wishing to explore the genre with something exemplary. It is primo Monteverdi.

Carter Pann, The Piano's 12 Sides, Joel Hastings

I've gotten a nice boost upwards into the compositional world of Carter Pann (b. 1972) with his latest CD The Piano's 12 Sides (Naxos 8.559751). Joel Hastings gives us very enveloping, vibrant renditions of the 2011/12 title opus plus a number of shorter works, all but one enjoying their world premiere recording here.

Pann has an ultra-musical pianistic outlook and the works, especially the hour-long title suite, have a kind of plain air post-impressionism about them, modern yet with a lyrical eloquence that suggests Debussy and Ravel but in extension, as Carter Pann music, with some excitingly contemporary elements, all sounding especially well as piano music.

"The Piano's 12 Sides" gives us a series of 12 vignettes, each filled with light and color. "Soiree Macabre" gives us an old-time, jazz-stride-related refrain surrounded by ruminations and eruptions. "An Irish Tune", the final number in the suite, is in fact Carter's lovely take on "Danny Boy". All of it gives your ears and your musical psyche a lift with beautifully modern harmonies, cascades and adventures into imaginative piano realms.

"The Bills" (1997) and "The Cheese Grater" (1996) have modern ragtime-early jazz feels influenced by his studies with WIlliam Albright but given a Carter Pann spin. They are very fetching and filled with elan.

The final "Your Touch" (1997) is in fact the cadenza from his "Piano Concerto No. 1" and leaves us in a thoughtful mood.

Maestro Pann has a wonderfully lyrical and sometimes almost puckish outlook that bears our attention very well and strikes one as thoroughly contemporary, even though he has one eye on the past and what he sees he transforms and reshapes to his own vision. Joel Hastings plays these works as if he were born to them. He has just the right combination of touch and cool, yet impassioned power to make the performances truly characteristic.

I must say I find this one much to my liking. Any lover of the thoughtfully poetic qualities of the pianoforte as developed by the more dazzled and dappled composers and performers over the last century will find this something familiar yet fresh, a delight.

Frederic Rzewski, Four Pieces, Hard Cuts, The Housewife's Lament, Ralph van Raat

American-born Frederic Rzewski (b. 1938) has roots in improvised as well as composed music. He was a pioneering founder member of Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) along with Richard Teitelbaum and Alvin Curran in the '60s, a cooperative ensemble that created exploratory improvisational music which spanned the gap between free jazz and new music; it also notably featured live electronics along with conventional instrumentation. They were one of the first who covered this territory and helped spawn an avant garde hybrid that continues to be important today, especially in Europe but in the USA as well.

He is a virtuoso pianist and of course a composer, initially studying with Sessions, Piston and Babbitt among others, then making his way primarily in Europe.

His piano solo compositions are especially well-known. "The People United Will Never Be Defeated" is one of the more popular, having enjoyed a fair number of recordings over the years, including one by pianist Ralph van Raat, who also is the pianist on the new release discussed here.

Four Pieces, etc. (Naxos 8.559759) features three compositions/suites covering a wide span of Rzewski's output from 1977 to 2011. "Four Pieces" (1977) finds the composer in an expressive, tumultuous mode typical of his music of that period. "Hard Cuts" (2011) is in three movements and joins pianist van Raat with the chamber ensemble Lunapark for a fascinating quasi-concerted work that has expressive chromatics joined with well-configured, continually forward moving modern harmonic transformations-modulations in an edgy mode. In the final movement "Like Bees" it turns to a bee's nest buzz of drones that builds outward to a high modernist return to open tonality.

"The Housewife's Lament" (1980) takes an anonymous, Beethovenesque tune from the mid-19th century and constructs a set of very exploratory variations around it.

It is all exemplary Rzewski, a composer never comfortable to remain in formalist high-modern expression, but ever searching for stylistic linkages with the past, the world and the future. Ralph van Raat has the technique and a temperamental affinity with Rzewski that makes each of the three works sing with energy and panache.

The volume serves as a good introduction to the composer for those who do not know him well. Rzewski afficionados will welcome the volume, too.

Quite recommended!

Kenneth Fuchs, Falling Man, etc., Roderick Williams, JoAnn Falletta, London Symphony Orchestra

Anyone living life around New York especially will no doubt recall exactly what they were doing and their experiences on the morning of 9-11. Those outside the immediate area will do the same, but perhaps with less of the kinetic shock those nearby felt. It was a horribly defining moment for many of us, a moment that changed everything one way or another, for some a loss of personal innocence, a rite de passage into an afterward at least initially of twilight and loss.

Composer Kenneth Fuchs has come to terms with this via Don DeLillo's novel centering around the tragedy and its aftermath, Falling Man. Fuchs has composed a number of works based on the theme, but now we get to experience the principal one, aptly titled simply Falling Man (2009-10) (Naxos 8.559753), for baritone (Roderick Williams) and orchestra (JoAnn Falletta conducting the London Symphony Orchestra).

It is a moving work that sets to music the opening passages of DeLillo's novel dealing directly with one man's experience on the streets during ground zero. The baritone describes the horror of the scenes the character witnesses while the orchestra comments mournfully but even somewhat mysteriously, as in a dream, the unfolding of those moments.

It is a masterful work, in its own way a kind of analog to the Hindemith-Whitman work "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", on the horrors of the Civil War and the death of Lincoln. Both are requiems in their own way. Both filter the immediacy of the horrors through a mediation and meditation of poetics, music and memory.

Roderick Williams gives us a definitive performance that is seconded by the greatly poetic reading of the score by Falletta and the London Symphony.

Companion works on the disk contrast well. Both are also for baritone--and a pared-down chamber ensemble. The first, "Movie House" (2007), gives us a number of poems by John Updike that evoke vividly the optimism of the '50s. Concluding the disk is "Songs of Innocence and Experience" (1977), an earlier work based on the William Blake poems, including of course "The Tyger". Both remove us from 9-11 by moving back in time, two other eras with their different moods, and in a way to Blake summing up the process of knowing what one knows (or intuits) after the loss of innocence.

Would I personally have set "The Tyger" in the way Fuchs does? No, but it works anyway. Fuchs was just setting out and the mood he sets for the poem is perhaps a bit more innocent than it would have been had he done it right after 9-11.

This a mere parenthetical comment. The three pieces work exceptionally well together regardless. Fuchs is in every way a fully developed composer-personality of today. These three works in the masterful hands of Falletta and Williams, in the carefully dream-like performances of the London Symphony Orchestra, come through as works we can ill afford to ignore.

Kenneth Fuchs sums up something about being alive right now in the three works taken together. He speaks to our age as a direct contemporary, neither overstating nor understating, bringing us a very musical-poetical portrayal of where we have been and where we are.

On that basis I would say that this disk is pretty near indispensible for those wanting the new music as it lives for us right now. Kenneth Fuchs captures that, and thanks to the beautiful performances we can live inside of it here, as we live the aftermath of what came before.

Naji Hakim, Hakim Plays Hakim, The Schuke Organ of the Palacio Euskalduna of Bilbao, Vol. 1

Organ music of high caliber occupies a special place in the classical repertoire. The people who know it well and listen intently to it are a group somewhat set apart from the regular stock of folks, in that they aren't as typically mainstream as the average classical aficionado. But the great organ music deserves as much attention as any of the other genres, so there is no musical reason why that is the case.

Take the music of Naji Hakim (b. 1955), for example. He studied with Jean Langlais, which puts him firmly in pedigree with the French Organ School, that begins with Franck, through to Vierne and all the way up to Messiaen. Hakim's music does indeed have a great symphonic wholeness to it that typifies the school. But judging from his first volume of his music as played on The Schuke Organ of the Palacio Euskalduna of Bilbao in the Hakim Plays Hakim series (Signum Classics 389), he also excels in scherzo-like levity at times. But at any rate it is music that needs to be heard.

The current volume contains seven compositions, several in multiple movements, the 13-part "Die Apostel" (2011) being the most unusual in that it is written for organ duet, and accordingly his partner Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet joins in with him on the recording.

All of it maintains interest via Hakim's excellent command of the forces of the modern cathedral organ, its power and its color contrasts, and his inventive writing. His short but very virtuoso-istic "Ave Maria" based on Schubert's well-known melody has definite clout. But there are other, beautifully contrasting moods represented here, from the varied "Esquisses Gregoriennes" (2006) to the majestically swirling vortex of his "Toccata" (2011).

The organ sound is spectacular, as well recorded as it is powerful, and Hakim's music sets it through its paces. The music has at times some pretty modern sounding harmonies, which puts Hakim in our time. But he also has a nice sense of the French tradition that comes out along with a certain playfulness now and again and just a touch of his Beirut heritage.

This is a volume organ enthusiasts will value. It is not avant high modernism, as you may have gleaned from my description, but it is a collection of well-constructed music from an original organ voice of importance today.