Thomas Lyng Poulsen, Letters to Posterity, Heitor Villa-Lobos, The Solo Guitar Works

Heitor Villa-Lobos once said he thought of his music as letters written to posterity without expecting an answer. And appropriately guitarist Thomas Lyng Poulsen has entitled his recent two-CD set of Villa-Lobos guitar works as Letters to Posterity (CVM 002).

The program consists of Villa-Lobos' major works for solo guitar: The "Preludes," the "Etudes," his "Suite Populaire Bresilienne," "Valse Concerto No. 2," and his "Choro No. 1."

Thomas Lyng Poulsen has an abundance of technique which he puts to good use throughout, but perhaps most importantly he gives us a very musical reading of these wonderful works. There is expressiveness, a lyrical quality that includes a bit of rubato and a kind of lingering over the poignant aspects of the works. So the "Etudes," for example, show technical flourish but also a tenderness not always present when the music has a horserace-hurtling-to-the-finish-line freneticism.

This may not be how Segovia played the music. It is more matter-of-fact modern, with technique harnessed to the significant form of each piece, highlighting the hugely inventive and touching brilliance of the composer in a kind of directly lyrical sense.

It is for that reason a program that wears well, bringing out the nuances of the music so that you find yourself enmeshed in all its subtle and dynamic details, in the sheer visceral sonics of Villa-Lobos' intimate love of the classical guitar and its capabilities.

And so I recommend this to you without hesitation. These are essential works in Villa-Lobos' cannon and so too they are essential works for the modern guitar as we have come to understand it. Bravo.

Ingfrid Breie Nyhus, Slattepiano

I have gladly covered recently on these pages several albums by Norwegian pianist Ingfrid Breie Nyhus, all relating in various ways to folk music and its conjunction with classical music (type her name in the search box above to access those reviews). Today a new release that brings Ingfrid even closer to folk sources. The album is called Slattepiano (LAB 004). "Slatte" derives from the verb sla, which in Old Norse means to beat, hit, strike or pluck. Slatte is the term for folk music in the region, primarily played by the Hardanger fiddle. I learn this from the helpful liner notes.

And so, quite logically, Slattepiano is Ingfrid's adaptation of the traditional fiddle music to the pianoforte. Quite interestingly the 17 traditional slatte pieces are the same ones Grieg arranged as his opus 72, the "Norwegian Peasant Dances". Ingfrid's goal was to get to the core of each piece as she adapts them to the piano and its very different set of possibilities. I have not heard the Grieg lately but what Ms. Nyhus does seems much more faithful to the intricacies of Hardanger fiddle playing in the hands of a very accomplished player.

And so we get music that lays out differently on the piano from what it would be in the hands of a superior folk fiddler. The very ornate and elaborate articulations of each piece are taken much into consideration and Ms. Nyhus "pianizes" these so that the results are in the end quite pianistic, but complex and rhythmically/phrasingly most unusual for piano music as we ordinarily encounter it.

The performances-adaptations are wondrously detailed, bravura, invigorating, like a plunge into an icy cold stream. To take a rough analogy, the bends, glides and ornamentation of Afro-American blues vocalists and guitarists have over the years developed into a special piano style that has developed pianistic means, grace notes and such, to make the expressions of blues language translate pianistically. Ms. Nyhus has developed a comparable pianistic language to capture musically the elaborate double-stops, trills and embellishments of fully developed traditional Hardanger fiddle virtuosos.

The results are beautiful and rather startling in Ingfrid's capable hands. In the end it all sounds radically modern in the "radical tonality" sense. The music captures the essence of the Norwegian fiddle style to the needs and talents of Ingfrid's piano brilliance, but in so doing gives us a music that sounds like no other piano music I've heard.

It is a very absorbing album, quite fascinating and satisfying on all accounts. You need to hear this one! Ms. Nyhus is a phenomenon!

Douglas Anderson, Chamber Symphonies 2, 3 & 4

In the present-day world of contemporary composers, the genre categories can be much more fluid than they may have been in the past. So, for example, we have Douglas Anderson and his album Chamber Symphonies 2, 3 & 4 (Ravello 7923). Douglas defines "symphony" in the liner notes to the present recording as "a large work touching on a variety of musical issues, but with an underlying cohesion that pulls all the diverse ideas together by the end." And indeed that follows in these examples.

But what perhaps is slightly startling is the size of the chamber ensembles called upon to perform the works. They are quite small. No. 2 requires flute, clarinet, violin and cello; No. 3 involves flute, viola and cello; and No. 4 is a piano trio with violin, cello and piano. Once you adjust to the intimate ensembles entailed, you are ready to sit back and experience the works. They are well worth your time.

The composer describes his first chamber symphony as a student work. And so having the second through the forth chamber symphony in one volume brings us up to date with his principal efforts in this medium.

This is modern music in a sort of neo-classical mode, extensions of the Viennese School and perhaps also in line with middle-period Stravinsky, but only as a rough indicator of the trajectory and structure of the works, not fully atonal but not harmonically based in a traditional sense, either. They are filled with invention and do indeed hold together nicely.

These were written on request from ensembles that Anderson knew as colleagues and friends, who were familiar with his music. They were written in 1989, 2001 and 2011, respectively. Each was written around the melodies and harmonies idiomatic for the instruments involved, creating tone rows a la Schoenberg and subjecting them to various processes. Anderson favors row "disordering," or treatment as kinds of scales which are then modified via harmonic and serial means. There is consequentially a wider range of melodic phrase choice which allows the composer to build aesthetic sequential syntaxes that give him maximum flexibility. As a result the music does not sound especially "serialist," but more intuitive-organic, if that makes sense.

What in the end matters for us is the impact the music makes on us as listeners. And it is that which stands out. This is music of vitality and charm, a lyrical quality and long, intrinsically interesting melodic part writing.

The performances are excellent.

Douglas Anderson manages to create works that make a nod to the early modernist period yet sound thoroughly current and original. They are invigorating and yes, coherent in the best ways.

I recommend this volume strongly.

Yann Tiersen, Pour Amelie, Piano Music, Jeroen Van Veen

Yann Tiersen (b 1970) writes pleasing music for solo piano. I base that on Jeroen Van Veen's 2-CD set Pour Amelie (Brilliant Classics 95129). By pleasing I mean it in the general sense. The set presents 45 mostly very short works. They are minimalist and lyrically liquidian, with a feel that reflects an affinity with Philip Glass, but perhaps also Satie and Chopin in their flowing modes. The liners refer to this as "French nostalgic music," and at times you do hear echoes of cafe pop from years ago.

Tiersen came to prominence with his soundtrack music for Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film "Amelie" and a bit of that is included in this program. Some of it SOUNDS like movie soundtrack fare, indeed. Short, new romantic in its emotionality, no doubt reinforcing the mood of the film. I have decidedly mixed feelings about it all. And that has nothing to do with Van Veen's performances, which seem to me exactly what is called for.

Some have a quasi-banality to them that borders on new age music, but then there are pieces that add a twist of melodic-harmonic inventiveness and have something distinctively good about them. But the rest are perhaps understandably "popular" in the sense that the average listener gets a soothing, no worries ambiance that can either be minded or more or less ignored, like what "easy listening" music was for my parents' generation, a comfy chair kind of unity of gentle affect.

When the music works it can be that and well wrought. Complex modulations or heightened mood contrasts are not the order of the day, though. Once you get used to the way the music is to proceed, you settle in and, to me, get maybe one in three pieces or perhaps two that have something captivating. The rest is patently inoffensive but perhaps also bland.

And so the music goes. It will appeal to folks with jangled nerves who want something soothing. The rest of us will find things to like, surely, but things also to feel indifference towards. I could be wrong. Minimalism as it takes this sort of approach is perhaps nearing the end of its days as a serious music. The best of it develops or has rhythmic vitality and a mesmerizing way about it. Tiersen has gone the route that Glass sometimes falls into--that is, sometimes settles for simple ostinatos with a easily understood attractiveness. Tiersen at his least interesting here has that tendency. But then there will be something more substantial that breaks out and gets your attention.

So whether you should have this set depends on how much minimalism you require. There are definite moments here but otherwise I would not call this essential listening.

Ensemble Intercontemporain, Bartok, Ligeti, Matthias Pintscher

For today's post there is the famed Ensemble Intercontemporain under Mattias Pintscher performing high modern Hungarian gems by the likes of Bartok and Ligeti (Alpha Classics 217 2-CDs). The first CD covers Bartok's monumental chamber works, "Contrasts" for clarinet, violin and piano, and the "Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion." They are breathtakingly performed by Jerome Comte on clarinet, Diego Tosi on violin, Sebastien Vichard on piano for the former work; Gilles Durot and Samuel Favre appear on percussion, and Vichard plus Dimitri Vassilakis on pianos for the latter.

The Bartok masterworks come to us in definitive performances, exciting, bold and idiomatic. I have never heard them done better.

The second disk covers later masterworks by Gyorgy Ligeti, namely his concertos for piano, cello and violin with orchestra, respectively. The exacting Ensemble Intercontemporain, which Boulez after all founded and honed to a precision vehicle of expression, do not fail to realize these three revolutionary works with all the drama and power of which they are capable. They are demanding pieces that call for the very best modern practitioners. Ensemble Intercontemporain do not fail.

The Piano Concerto has a rhythmic dynamism in the opening and closing movements especially taken on by the piano, and a fiendishly whirlwind part which is seconded and contrasted by the orchestra with great effect. Hideki Nagano handles the twist and turns of the solo part with great energy and exactitude, then handles the sometimes more delicate later movements with subtlety and impeccable phrasing. This is music that shows off Ligeti's brilliance and sense of color as it demands the same from the performers. It is a wondrous pairing on all counts.

The Cello Concerto is a bit more brief--two short movements. It begins in near silence, mysteriously, with cello and hushed orchestra appearing as if out of a mist, calling for a somber lyricism that builds, ebbs and creates atmospheric landscapes. Pierre Strauch handles the subdued solo part with a singing singularity, then awakens in the final movement to a more turbulent expression that breaks out of the quietude with pointed energy and finesse.

Jeanne-Marie Conquer has a great deal more business to take care of in the solo part for the Violin Concerto. It is a tumbling virtuoso and at times extraordinarily expressive part that the orchestra punctuates with that incredible Ligetian feel for orchestral color and texture. Heightened modernist drama is the substance of the concerto and Conquer sounds wonderful.

So that is in essence what you get with this significant double-CD offering. Masterpieces performed with sympathy, power and presence. Ensemble Intercontemporain are at their best, which means that the Bartok and Ligeti works get performances that are landmark. Anyone who wants to understand the development of high modernism and wishes to hear some major twentieth century examples in definitive performances, seek no further. Every work is a revelation and we are very lucky to have such a superb ensemble to give us the experience of the music on such a high plane.

Totally recommended!

Ingrid Andsnes, 33 +1, Beethoven, Hagen

To begin the new year of posts we have pianist Ingrid Andsnes giving us a very spirited reading of Beethoven's "Thirty-Three Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli" plus the "Diabelli Candenza," recently written to precede the final movement of the variations by Lars Peter Hagen. The album is appropriately titled 33 + 1 (SIMAX Classics 1350). It was Beethoven's last work for the piano, written just after he finished the final "Piano Sonata No. 32" in 1822. It is a beautiful set of variations with all the brilliance and subtlety of his late period, as most will no doubt know.

The "Diabelli Cadenza" by Lars Petter Hagen calls for use of the e-bow on the piano strings, which creates a sustained, bowed effect with long tones that sound almost synthesized until you realize that these are the piano strings themselves. The cadenza concludes with some long chords. It is a subtle intrusion of the modern, a poignant break in the action that gives us pause, and really the opposite of a typical cadenza in that it withholds the virtuoso element altogether to give the listener an introspective inner moment before the final variation appears as if in a rematerialization of Beethoven and we are all-the-more mindful of the last minutes of brilliance. So the Cadenza sets us up with an unexpected five minutes before we reach our destination.

Is it absolutely a necessary part of everything? Certainly not. But then it does expand our listening consciousness and give us an interjection of a new tonal present.

If that was all there was to this album I'd probably not covered it. But it is an added plus to a masterful rendering of the Beethoven. Every variation is carefully sculpted and given a truly heroic-eroica reading. There is a warm, controlled passion without the sort of Liztian bombast or overuse of rubato that would make of the music more later romantic. Instead there is drama, dynamic excitement and attention to all the voicings.

Ingrid is Norwegian, the sister of pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. She most certainly makes a wonderful impression with the "Diabelli Variations." It is one of the very best performances to be had out there, articulate in every detail, very much true to our vision of late Beethoven as the brilliant yet controlled expressionist, as much a classicist in balance as a romantic in clearing a new path nearly single-handedly. And the Cadenza is a nice added touch that breaks up the music and makes you pause.

Bravo to Ms. Andsnes! Highly recommended.

Antonio Soler, Harpsichord Sonatas, Barbara Harbach, Box Set

Antonio Soler (1729-1783) may not be as well-known these days as someone like CPE Bach, but his music has a vitality that sounds right to us today. He was born in Catalan and had a successful career in Spain, ultimately as chapel master for the Royal Court in El Escorial. He was an ordained priest.

We look to his masterful Harpsichord Sonatas (MSR 1300 14-CDs), some 120 in all, for his early classical inventiveness. Barbara Harbach gives us an exhaustive, but certainly not exhausting rendition of the 120 in the recent limited edition box set.

They are a remarkable body of music, rhythmically lively, filled with clarity of form and singing melodic charm. They sound most certainly related to Domenico Scarlatti's sonatas, so much so that there has been speculation that Soler studied with him when he was tenured in Spain, but we do not know for sure.

They both have that infectiously lively approach that fills the ears and heart with great good cheer. Both sets of sonatas are at times very Spanish in their dance-like vivacity. And both grab you with their gallant quality and straightforward musical perfection.

Barbara Harbach sounds entirely ravishing in her performances throughout. She seems just right on Willard Martin's 1989 copy of an 18th century two-manual French harpsichord. And the recording has a pristine clarity of sound that goes far in making the music come alive.

If you love Scarlatti's sonatas you will find the Soler entrancing as well. Do you really need all 14 volumes? They come at a very good price, so why not treat yourself? It's music played with great verve and there is no time or mood where the music does not fit in, in my experience. It is something to cheer you in the new year ahead!