Hilary Tann, Musical Landscapes

Some music lately has taken an unabashed turn to tonal beauty. That is true of the music of Hilary Tann, as heard in chamber works on Musical Landscapes (Centaur 3357). On it we experience eight short to mid-length works written by Ms. Tann between 1984 and 2012. The works are for configurations of violin, cello and piano, alone and in various groupings.

The works sometimes refer backwards to earlier styles, from Gregorian Chant onwards, but nevertheless the musical syntax has the stamp of Hilary Tann on it throughout. Perhaps post-romantic radical tonality might be a way of thinking of the music. There is a "beyond" quality that speaks to our own times in an original way. Pianists Eunmi Ko and Albert Kim, violinist Sini Virtanen and cellist Andrew Barnhart bring out the expressive eloquence of the music with care and heartful feeling.

There is an introspective restraint at times that puts the listener in a sort of dream landscape very pleasant to experience. But the music has underlying sinew and substance.

I am captivated by the program and recommended it to you who seek new avenues in tonality today. It charms consistently without pandering in the slightest. New age it isn't. Our age it is.

Anders Koppel, Marimba Concertos, Bednarska, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Christensen

One hundred years ago the marimba was very much a rarity in classical music. Nowadays it is a staple of many percussion sections and an important member of some chamber ensembles. There are also solo pieces and concertos. Probably nobody else has done as much for the marimba concerto as composer Anders Koppel (b. 1947). There are four concertos to date, all of which can be heard on the recent volume Marimba Concertos (Da Capo 6.220595). Marimba soloist Marianna Bednarska joints the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra under Henrik Vagn Christensen for Concertos 1-4 plus a short two-minute cadenza "P.S. to a Concerto."

Koppel's music is filled with lively strait-moving momentum. Tonality is a key feature but not especially neo-anything as much as contemporary. There are slow movements here and there and a general emphasis on memorable virtuosity in the marimba part. The orchestra essentially appears mostly in a supporting role, with counterparts and thematic roles almost always in direct complement to the intricate marimba parts. The concertos are all rather recent, having been written between 1995 and 2006. They sound as fresh as they are.

Marianna Bednarska does a great job as the soloist, giving us performances with the dash and flourish one might expect. She is nearly always in motion and it is clear she was thoroughly prepared to shine as she does. The orchestra does a fine job as the perfect foil and contrasting voice in the music. There are times when the music has almost a rock feel, other times the motion suggests Asian and African and of course European elements, but all of it has an unmistakable Koppel imprint to it.

It is most essential listening for anybody with an interest in the marimba in contemporary music. But it is quite engaging and enjoyable in its own right.

Recommended!

Lyatoshynsky, Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5, "Slavonic," Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra, Theodore Kuchar

Boris Lyatoshynsky (1895-1968) is considered the father of modern Ukrainian classical music. He wrote five symphonies during his active career. They were recorded by the Ukrainian State Symphony under Theodore Kuchar and released in three volumes some time ago on Marco Polo. They are back in print on Naxos now. I covered the second volume here (Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3) the other day. I am back with the final volume, containing Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5, "Slavonic" (Naxos 8.555580).

I am happy to say that whatever reservations I may have had about the middle symphonies I do not have for the final two. The Ukrainian organization under Kuchar once again give us spirited readings, and this time thematic elements stand out in memorable fashion. Both were written late in Lyatoshynsky's career (1963 and 1965-66, respectively) and show a deft combination of expressive tonal modernism and Ukrainian folk elements. The way Lyatoshynsky puts all of it together shows the stamp of originality. There is no mistaking this music for somebody else's.

There are moments of dramatic upheaval, such as the opening movement from No. 4, reflective moments, generally in the inner movements, and some great thematic elements, such as the infectiously jaunty dance-folk motive taken up in the first movement by the orchestra as a set of developed variations and reprised more literally on chimes in the finale of No. 5.

It is music that makes its mark on your listening mind as it shows a mastery of the orchestral idiom. This is Lyatoshynsky at his best. Any Slavophile, anyone interested in Eastern European modern music will find this disk both very enlightening and enjoyable.

Recommended!

Anna Gourari, Visions Fugitives, Piano Music of Prokofiev, Medtner, Chopin

The mid-19th to early-20th centuries were in many ways the golden years for solo piano music of a thoroughly poetic pedigree. Beethoven set the bar high in his piano sonatas and the rest followed. Anna Gourari has a deep sense of those poetics and conveys to us how they lay out with three paradigmatic works on her album Visions Fugitives (ECM New Series B0017622-02).

This is her second ECM album, following on the triumph of her first (type her name in the search box for my review of the earlier one).

Prokofiev (1891-1953) provides the centerpiece of the program with the early modern masterpiece Visions Fugitives, a 20-movement, widely shifting series of "fleeting visions" that capture a world of sensation and substance, from the sound of peeling bells to the sound of the harp, in contrastingly varying moods from gentle to sarcastic, typical of Prokofiev the melodist and creator of churning mobile structures with real life. It is a work at the center of the modern Russian School and Gourari's gifts bring the music to us in the most sensitive, atmospheric terms.

From there we get a brief chestnut from Nicolai Medtner (1880-1951), his "Fairy Tale in f minor," three brief minutes of dark charm.

And to conclude the program we have Chopin's monumental Sonata No. 3 in b minor, op. 58. He was the composer who did so much to expand pianistic poeticism in his lifetime (1810-1849), paving the way for Liszt and the Russians who followed, crafting an expressive language that in many ways is still with us. Gourari tackles the complex master sonata with fire and reflective whimsy.

Gourari triumphs on this program. She handles difficult technical parts with a speech-like continuity that flows the music wonderfully well. The Prokofiev has all the mystery and movement we could ask for. She understands his at times eccentric evocative moods and gives us a reading that glows with freshness. The Chopin has a weighted depth of feeling that neither under nor overplays the sentiments so nobly and fully, pianistically expressed.

In every way Anna Gourari brings us her brilliant interpretive skills. The Prokofiev sings, the Chopin reverberates. A beautiful recital!

Nicole Lizee, Bookburners

When you think postmodern, the "anything goes" idea can have something to do with it. New instrumental combinations, new technologies, a return to tonality, though this does not always imply classical tonality, an eclectic approach to form, a disregard of separating "high" and "low" and, sometimes, the incorporation of found elements. All that serves to introduce to you Montreal-based composer Nicole Lizee and her recent CD/DVD Bookburners (Centrediscs 20514).

Ms. Lizee brings to us a full palette of sound colors and effective pomo compositional ideas, at times embodying the idea of "glitch," which involves utilizing older audio technologies in ways that involve either their intentional malfunctioning in controlled situations or their appropriation for uses they were not intended. The advent of the turntablist is an example that is widespread and needs no explanation. Nicole makes creative use of turntable virtuosity in her works at times.

The most spectacular example is the duet between a turntablist and an electric cello on the bonus DVD, for the title "Bookburners." There is here an ingenious use of selected repetitions of record sequences as motives to launch the overarching cello part. It is lyric and impressive.

"White Label Experiment" pits So Percussion with Ms. Lizee on turntables and omnichord for an adventurous environment of sound that hangs together as composition. "Ouijist" is a chamber work that haunts in its mix of alto flute, violin, double bass, omnichord and spectres.

"Son of the Man with the Golden Arms" uses percussion quartet, two electric guitars and solo drums to create a kind of exploded rock virtuosity, shards of rock identity and splinters of sound hanging together in a disjointed but very musically fascinating way. The drum part is tough but beautifully executed by Ben Reimer.

Finally we have from the DVD "Hitchcock Etudes" for piano and glitch. Soundtrack music and dialog are torn apart and reassembled in a disjointed melange that corresponds with Hitchcock film clips that are similarly treated in a synchronized way with the music to form a complete audio-visual glitch. On this one the seeing of it all adds a crucial element. I am not entirely sure that the audio alone would be nearly as effective. But that's the point, I guess.

In the end we have an impressive compositional program of music that stands out as exceptional, original, brittle and speaking to the sounds of the malfunctioning technology around us, turning it into art rather than the sort of cursing episodes one might find oneself in when you expect Aye-to-Bee continuity from your equipment.

She is an original, both lyrical and disembodied, innovative in her minimalist deconstruction, thoroughly a voice of today. An original voice in full-flower, in fact.

Highly recommended music.

Heitor Villa-Lobos, Symphony No. 10 "Amerindia," Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Choir, Karabtchevsky

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) and his music towers over the modern musical creations of South America as Brazil's greatest composer to date, the father of modern classical Brazilian music, a genuine original who speaks to us today directly and satisfyingly. His symphonies are not very well known. There are twelve in all and the Sao Paulo Symphony under Isaac Karabtchevsky plan to record them all for Naxos. Several volumes are already completed (type in his name in the search box above for coverage here), the latest a rendering of his Symphony No. 10 "Amerindia (Sume, Father of Fathers) (Naxos 8.573243). It was written in 1954 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Sao Paulo.

It is a spectacular work of great sonic impact. The Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Choir and the soloists in Leonardo Neiva, baritone, and Saulo Javan, bass, create a complex mosaic that exemplifies late orchestral Villa-Lobos at his very best. It is symphonic, yet at the same time an oratorio about the origins of the area and its early history, dealt with somewhat impressionistically but in ways totally characteristic of the later musical language of the master.

So we have the region enveloped in a state of nature, the rise of indigenous residents, the local Indians, the mythological pre-Columbian hero Sume revered by the Tamoyo, the appearance of the legendary Jesuit priest Father Anchieta and on from there.

This recording is based on a new critical edition of the symphony put together by Max Eschig for Criadores do Brasil.

The music itself reminds me most pleasingly of Villa-Lobos's later work of this period, Forest of the Amazon, originally intended as the soundtrack for the movie version of "Green Mansions" but only partially used. Like that wonderful work the Symphony No. 10 has Villa-Lobos envisioning a primal past of nature and indigenes, a choral fantasia that alludes to music of the ancient past in impressionistic ways, phantasmagorias of choral and orchestral dramatics that tend to have lively rhythmic-seismic shifts and motion. Like that work we feel the touch of the master symphonist transforming raw material influenced by his brilliant instincts into a sprawling, complex tapestry of vivid sound color and affect.

Of all the Villa-Lobos symphonies released thus far on Naxos this one stands out as a major work, a living entity of wonderful sound.

I cannot comment on how this new recording stacks up against previous ones since I have not heard them. Nonetheless I can say that Karabtchevsky and company leave nothing to be desired in their broad sweep and massive impact. It is a moving performance of a work that stands among the tallest orchestral trees planted by Villa-Lobos in his very productive lifetime.

Highly recommended.

Michael Nyman, Symphony No. 11: Hillsborough Memorial

English composer Michael Nyman has an enigmatic way about him. Every work seems to bring something unexpected to your ears. The result, for me anyway, is that there are works of his that hit me very squarely in my pleasure zone and others that do so less. It is not something that I could explain easily (especially on a Monday morning) except to say that he sometimes combines high and low and that in itself does not have directly to do with my reactions, but it is sometimes the way he does it.

Today's work holds together beautifully, for all the right reasons. It was written off and on as Nyman was composing music initially unrelated but in the midst of it all he dealt with the shock and grief following the soccer massacres of Liverpool fans in Brussels in 1985 where 41 died, and then the Hillsborough incident in 1989, when 96 Liverpool fans perished in soccer riots there.

Ultimately the music was variously transformed and added onto until this year when the Liverpool Biennial commissioned Nyman to expand the work into a fully fleshed out symphony for large orchestra, choral ensemble and mezzo-soprano. What we hear on the CD at hand is the full version. Symphony No. 11: Hillsborough Memorial (MN Records 136) gives us four contrasting sections, all coming to terms with the tragedy, in sorrow and a spirit of remembrance.

The first movement, "The Singing of the Names," features mezzo-soprano Kathryn Ridge in her role singing each of the 96 victims names to full orchestral accompaniment. It is movingly performed and written in such a way that the melodic thrust of the music, the intense and harmonically elaborate musical sequence, gives us all the feeling of grief at the senselessness. The three movements that follow are more minimalistic with repetitive structure an important element. They serve to keep both an expressive resoluteness and a mourningful sorrow alive and very much before our hearts and minds.

"Family Reflections" is the slow movement, dealing with the loss felt by the families of the victims in terms of tender anguish. It is long-formed with gently undulating repetitions in marimbas, etc., underpinning a long, winding string and choir elegy of definite beauty. "The 96" repeats a dirge like motif and the finale, "Memorial" has an unrelenting baroque-like progression that builds to a rather huge climactic outburst.

It is a piece totally worked out in harmonic tonality and as such looks slightly backwards to the sounds of classic and preclassic era requiems. Yet the intensity and continuousness of the music puts it into the post-modernist present.

Kathryn Ridge, the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Choir and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, all under conductor Josep Vicent, give us their all. A very committed performance as we hear on the CD makes the work come alive. Anything less would not have had the same impact. So we get I can only presume exactly what the composer heard and it moves us greatly.

It is one of Nyman's very best works. It cannot work as background music so if you get this plan to listen and ride the waves of grief and loss it so convincingly communicates to us. Bravo!