Marga Richter, Dew-drops on a Lotus Leaf and Other Songs

Marga Richter (b. 1926) graduated from the Julliard School, studied with Bergsma and Persichetti, received her MA in 1951 and came to some prominence with a number of compositions featured on the old MGM Classics label in the '50s, and then while remaining quite productive fell into some obscurity. However her music deserves our attention.

We get to hear some of her songs on the CD Dew-drops on a Lotus Leaf (Red Shift TK 435), featuring the tenor William George and pianist Andrea Lodge. "Dew Drops" consists of a 39-song cycle completed in 2002. On the compilation are five more works, "Sarah Do Not Mourn Me Dead" (1995), "Wild Moon" (2009), "Two Shakespeare Sonnets" (2007) and "Two Chinese Songs" (1952). This is a nice start on this part of her legacy, and apparently there are at least two more CDs worth.

Of the 160 compositions we only get a glimpse with what is currently available via recordings in print. I did cover her orchestral CD Poetic Images Beyond Poetry on this blog last March 5, 2013.

The songs often have a brooding quality, sometimes very expressively chromatic, key-centered, contemporary without being exactly avant garde. William George handles the songs quite well. They sometimes cover a very wide range (the cycle is for tenor or counter-tenor) but he manages to span it all rather incredibly.

The music has much to offer and bears close study. I am very glad to have the volume to hear repeatedly. Marga Richter is an American composer that needs to be re-evaluated, performed more often, appreciated. This compilation of her songs and the orchestral CD referred to above are a beginning. Listen to this one and hear for yourself. Recommended.

Missy Mazzoli, Vespers for a New Dark Age

The new in new music is ever blossoming. It never stops. Today, a somewhat sterling example of all this, with Missy Mazzoli and her Vespers for a New Dark Age (New Amsterdam). It is a chamber ensemble work in a post-minimalist zone, with texts based on the poetry of Matthew Zapruder. The texts are a cry to a God who does not seem to respond, set in the midst of a world that does not fulfill the desires of the poet. Hence a Dark Age, literally an age of darkness. The "vespers" are therefore not of course in the sacred tradition yet there is something ritualistic about it all nonetheless.

The music is scored for a modest sized chamber group, ensemble Victoire for the recording, which includes two keyboard-electronics players (one Missy herself), violin, clarinet, double bass, guest artist Glenn Kotche on percussion and three singers, Martha Cluver and Mellissa Hughes, sopranos, and Virginia Warnken Kelsey, alto. The vocal performances are quite beautiful, in keeping with the haunting quality of the lyrics and Ms. Mazzoli's approach to them. The music is fascinating, post-minimal with something of an early music element combined with a present-day zeitgeist. The vocal ensemble sometimes sounds quite reminiscent of Steve Reich's vocal treatment in "Tehillim" but expanded upon in its own way. There is a general tonal ambiance that when added to a rock-oriented drum set (not continuous) puts it in a very contemporary zone somewhat removed from high modernism per se and more post- in orientation.

The music has plenty of melodic-harmonic content, which by generally staying away from minimalist repetition while showing plenty of invention gives it originality and memorability. The keyboard-electronics bring to the music on occasion a fullness that belies the mid-sized chamber sound, in the way that the addition of an organ in earlier music does. The eight movements are varied in moods, reflecting the texts but having in common a feeling of loneliness that comes out of alienation, I suppose you could say. It is music to ponder upon, well-conceived and performed with spirit.

As a bonus there is a remix by keyboard-electronician "Lorna Dune" Krier of Mazzolli's "A Thousand Tongues." Deidre Muro is the special guest on voice and Victoire once again were involved in the initial music tracking. I've never heard the original mix of this work so I cannot comment on the remix. The keyboard element is central, with washes of harmonic motion colored by solo instruments. The vocal part is haunting in how it comes through to the listener as from another world. It is most intriguing and moving, certainly.

So that's my take on the music. Missy Mazzoli has an excellent sense of sonic color and a fluid lyrical darkness, one might say, infused with a tenderness and humanity coping with what seems like a cold world.

I do think you should hear this, you who wants to keep current with the very latest musical unfoldings. Missy Mazzoli shows her very own musical sensibilities yet has deep roots in the recent past of the present. Listen.

Prokofiev, Symphony No. 3, Marin Alsop, Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra

Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953) wrote some of his brashest, most modern music in the later days of his first Russian period and in the days when he had residency in Paris. Of course this was before his second and final period in Russia when he was subjected to Stalin's iron-fisted "social realism" dictates and wrote music that was somewhat more restrained, though beautiful nonetheless.

Marin Alsop and the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, in the midst of their notable Prokofiev symphony cycle, give us a measured reading of his Paris-era Symphony No. 3 (Naxos 8.573452). It was adapted from his opera The Fiery Angel of the mid-twenties, which never was staged then, and in fact was never performed in full until 1955. The opera itself is a daring work and the symphony takes on much of the thematic material for an equally daring symphony.

Included on the CD is a vivid performance of Prokofiev's "Scythian Suite" of 1914-15, taken from his ballet "Ala and Lolly," which was also never performed as such, being seen as not danceable. The Suite was a reworking of the music as it stood for concert performance.

A bonus of this set is the short symphonic sketch "Autumn," composed in 1910 and revised in 1915 and 1934. It shows us a more lyrically expressive side of Prokofiev (the liners mention the influence of Mussorgsky) in its first blush and nice to have in this performance.

The "Scythian Suite" and the "Third Symphony" are prime orchestral examples of Prokofiev the committed modernist, whose music had a bit more in common with Stravisky's "Rite of Spring" than perhaps later on, though the originality, the melodically striking, the motor impulse dynamism and the sure handling of orchestral forces put the composer solidly on his own turf.

I have heard more savage, emblazoned readings of both works, on LPs long out-of-print, mostly from orchestras in the former Soviet Union. But Alsop and the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, true to form with the other performances in the complete symphonic cycle thus far, give us a very balanced and nuance reading of the pieces. They can be brash when called upon, yes, but also can handle the more subdued, lyrical passages with care and feeling. Really, of course, both sides are essential in understanding the Prokofiev of this period.

The Symphony and the Suite are masterpieces of this part of Prokofiev's oeuvre. If you don't know the music this is a very good place to start. If you are well-familiar with the works already these versions will give you another take on it all and so are worth having for that.

Beautifully bold Prokofiev, played with intelligence and passion! No need to hesitate, especially at the Naxos price.

Douglas Knehans, Lux Dei, New Works for Choir, CCM Chorale

The repertoire for sacred music for choir has such an all-pervasive history about it that new works often reflect the past-in-the-present to a higher degree than in some other genres. That is true in a rewarding way on the release of new works for choir by composer Douglas Knehans, Lux Dei (ablaze ar-00021).

It is not that the music does not sound contemporary-modern. It does. But there is an element of tradition that pervades the music as well.

The CCM Chorale under the direction of Brett Scott, with Christina Haan accompanying on the organ for one work, sound very good and give the music its full due.

There are six works on the program, covering nearly 25 years. All but one are sung in Latin, which is part of the traditional element. There is less counterpoint than you would hear in early music and the harmonies are modernly tanged.

In all we get Knehans' "Panis Angelicus," "Three Psalms," "Epicideum Hathumode," "Two Looks at Silence," "Missa Brevis" and "Symbolum Apostolorum."

All bring out the S-A-T-B timbral beauty inherent in a first-rate choral ensemble. Knehans gives us much to appreciate and contemplate. He is a composer with a very apparent affinity to the choral mode and at the same time shows us a mastery of his craft and an inspired result.

The music is not so much post-modernist in any self-conscious way. It is neo-contemporary if you will, extending the choral tradition to the present without resorting to stylistic contrasts. The music is whole and not easily pegged to a particular camp. That most certainly helps us appreciate Knehans on his own terms.

Recommended.

Dallapiccola, Complete Solo Piano Music, Complete Music for Violin & Piano

I have come to realize that I have not been exposed enough to the music of Luigi Dallapiccola (1904-1975). He was one of Italy's most original voices in the 20th century. I have been listening to the very captivating release Complete Music for Solo Piano & Violin and Piano (Brilliant Classics 94967), all nicely presented on one CD volume by pianist Maria Clementi and violinist Luca Fanfoni.

They cover the period 1942-1956 and so take the middle ground in his compositional development. They all show a melodic inventiveness and a serious demeanor, but also in the earlier works a sort of playfulness I honestly did not expect to hear from the composer.

We begin with "Tre episodi from Marcia," based on his ballet by that name originally written in 1942-3. The transcription for piano was put together by Dallapiccola in 1947.

The "Sonata canonica after Paganini" (1943) shares with "Tre episoda" a kind of bright exuberance, and a tonally grounded centrality, but in this case makes use of Paganini themes, somewhat well disguised until the final bars.

With "Due studi" (1946-7) for violin and piano we get more of a tonally expanded, modernist Dallapiccola, dramatic, gestural and brilliant in an essentialistically terse manner.

"Quaderna musicale di Annalibera" (1952) for solo piano is dedicated to his daughter. Eleven studies feature cannons and 12-tone structures for a musically moving modern approach that is the Dallapiccola most of us know better than the earlier incarnations. It is complex, refective and especially well played by Ms. Clementi.

The final work in the program, "Tartaniana seconda" (1956), is contrapuntal and tonal, giving the violinist and pianist music that stands in relation to the Italian virtuoso violinist-composer Tartini. The music has a delightful baroque-in-modernist virtuoso vivacity that to me is quite difficult not to love.

In all we have music that is very worthwhile, excellently performed, and captures a Dallapiccola who is always inventive and follows his musical vision in works that are not simply either modernist or neo-classical. They belong to his era surely, but they do so in sometimes surprisingly original ways.

An excellent program. Highly recommended.

Yotam Haber, Torus, Chamber Music 2007-2013

Not everything contained in our world is written in our books, to paraphrase Shakespeare. When new music is very new, that can especially be the case. Composer Yotam Haber, Holland-born and Israel-, Nigeria- and Milwaukee-bred, is such an example.

He writes music that is beyond minimalism, though shares some of its traits; repetition is very secondary when present. There is more linear development. We can hear a good cross-sample of his chamber music from 2007-2014 on the album Torus (Roven 10015). There are five works in all and they illuminate various aspects of the composer's way. The chamber group Contemporaneous and the Mivos Quartet do the performance honors with sensitivity and skill. The title work "Torus" (2007, revised 2014), a string quartet, is perhaps the tour de force, with sometimes extraordinarily frenetic passages contrasted with quietude. It is mostly tonal but has the trajectory and rhythmic abstracted quality of a Ligeti work--though in its particular, original way.

"From the Book of Maintenance and Sustenance" (2014), scored for viola and piano, is the most recent work. It is a somber, dirge-like piece that has a notable Jewish tinge at first, then spatial qualities and extra-tonal embellishments of modernism. It ultimately segues into more elaborate developmental passages. It is a most moving moment.

"We Were All" (2012) is scored for vocal group and chamber ensemble. It is more episodic and contrasting than minimal, though it combines a minimal timbral mixture with brief repetitions and a contemporary chamber sound.

"On Leaving Brooklyn" (2004) has its own way with vocal quartet and violin, combining the two elements of "We Were All" but in a more elemental mode.

"Last Skin" (2012) brings in dramatic gestural sounds and sound blocks for strings with a very contemporary-modern slant.

So there we have it. This is music of imagination and high interest, a very contemporary development of factors that most squarely places us in the present with personal syntheses of the developments of the past 50 years. It shows us a Yotam Haber who is carving his own niche in contemporary music. The performances are rather brilliant and worthy of the music. Recommended.

Joby Talbot, Path of Miracles, Conspirare, Craig Hella Johnson

Acclaimed choral ensemble Conspirare under the direction of Craig Hella Johnson brings us music in a contemporary post-modern realm with the music of English composer Joby Talbot and his epic Path of Miracles (Harmonia Mundi). It depicts a pilgrimage along the Camino de Compostela in Spain.

What is most intriguing about the music is how it combines early music choral styles with modernism and tonal post-minimalism.

The performance is inspired, the music neither entirely typical of other composers who utilize early music aspects (such as Part) nor the minimalist-and-beyond enclave of contemporary composers. It combines various aspects in its very own way, remaining very much in the sacred music realm without following the typical path.

It is beautiful, stirring and unexpected. Conspirare give the music their own impeccably angelic way, something for which they are justly celebrated. Very recommended.