Paul Richards, Fables, Forms and Fears

Paul Richards is a younger composer (b 1969) (younger than I am anyway) and judging by his CD Fables, Forms and Fears (Meyer Media MMO7008) one of the more accomplished and interesting of his generation.

The CD presents seven of his compositions, written between 1996 and 2003. They are each in their own way quite eventful and inventive. They range from solo pieces ("The Great Octopus," for solo guitar) to small chamber configurations ("Hypercube" for percussion and piano; "Cypriot Structures" and "Falling On Lobsters in the Dark" for violin, guitar and piano; "Rush Hour" for horn and piano; and "Asphalt Gypsy" for violin and guitar) to larger groupings ("A Butterfly Coughs in Africa" for clarinet choir).

In all of it we hear Richards's own brand of neo-classical modernism, tempered sometimes by the motor-impulsive qualities of minimalism, but sans the repetition. It is music that bears the stamp of very solid compositional craftsmanship but also the lucid spark of inspiration. You do not hear the moments of less-than-inspired passagework that you might in a lesser composer. The thematic material is engaging and the development of it filled with drama and musical logic.

The artists involved in these recording acquit themselves very well. There are some excellent performances all around. The Duo 46 configuration of Matthew Albert Gould on guitar and Beth Ilana Schneider-Gould on violin, with or without the addition of Nathanael May at the piano, gives character and well-executed dynamics to the pieces they grace. But everyone puts in sympathetic readings, from Kenneth L. Broadway on percussion and Paul Basler on horn to the piano work of Kevin R. Orr and the University of Florida Clarinet Choir.

This may have been out for a few years, but it's well worth tracking down if the music-as-described sounds interesting to you. It's a CD that does not stint on musical content, yet has much charm as well.

McCormick Percussion Group, Concerti for Strings with Percussion Orchestra

Works for a solo string player and percussion orchestra are hardly a standard commodity in the concert world. The McCormick Percussion Orchestra programs five of them in a recent release (Ravello 7820). I suspect none of them are headed for the standard repertoire any time soon. Then again, unless things change, only a handful of recent works will do that in the era and not always for reasons of musical merit.

Of course the modern percussion orchestra is capable of a great deal more than the ricky-tick, slap and bing-bang-boom of some of the pioneeing percussion ensemble works of the last century. The music includes tone-centered as well as sound-centered instruments, and of course even the sound-centered instruments have greater or lesser degrees of pitch depending upon tuning and manner of attack. So the percussion orchestra has all the qualities of a conventional orchestra in terms of both sound color and the possibility of pitched confluence, but with a special character, and that is shown here convincingly.

The composers and works at hand on this anthology make full use of the double character of such an orchestra.

The fit between string soloist and orchestra runs the gamut between fully integrated and contrasting (in timbres and textures). Michael Sidney Timpson's Donxidongxi, Concerto for Zheng and Percussion Orchestra perhaps has the most fluid affinities between the two, especially since the Zheng is played with a plectrum and has a more percussive sound in general.

Nonetheless, no work presented here is without interest. Baljinder Sekhon's Lou for cello and orchestra, Stuart Saunders Smith's Nightshade, for violin and percussion orchestra, David Liptak's Concerto for Viola and Percussion, Daniel Adams's Camouflage for Contrabass and Percussion Trio all have their fine moments.

There are percussion outbursts that will give pleasure to those who appreciate such things, there are sound coloristic moments and there is a world-music flavor to be heard now and again.

What counts is that none of this is music by rote. Each piece is a world unto itself. If none of them quite seem in the league of great masterpieces of the 21st century, the entire program will give you some unusual and pleasing moments.

Appreciators of large percussion ensembles that dwell in the realm of "pure" music (whatever that means, exactly) will find this a happy listen.

Alejandro Rutty, The Conscious Sleepwalker

Alejandro Rutty's disk of new music coming out of the tango, The Conscious Sleepwalker (Navona 5870) brings on some fascinating and well-done compositions for saxophone quartet, tango ensemble, chamber ensemble and orchestra. He joins the ranks of some notable others who have worked flirtatiously or extensively with the form, from Stravinsky to Piazzolla. This is music, however, very much on Rutty's own terms.

The Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra, aka A Future of Tango starts things off with some very engaging music. It's modernist-eclectic in the way Frank Zappa's more "serious" compositional work was, in that it draws on the music in the air around the composer and melds it into something personal.

The Conscious Sleepwalker Loops for orchestra at the start seems to veer away from the overt adaptation of the tango form to focus on a kind of symphonic poem of distinct interest, but even here the tango melodic-rhythmic feel makes itself known sooner or later.

The rest of the program continues to unveil Rutty's unique stylistic amalgam with various configurations from sax quartet to large chamber ensemble.

At no point do you feel like this is music of a derivative sort. Rutty has his own way which is neither avant garde nor strictly tied to tango. His music has a logic and charm all of its own and it captures the ear throughout. Recommended.

Nick Vasallo, Monuments Emerge

Here we have a fascinating collection of compositions by Nick Vasallo, Monuments Emerge (Innova 821), covering the period between 2007-2012.

Since I am ill today I will not go into much detail. Asian (taiko drumming and more) influences, modern classical (minimalism and modernism) and some heavy metal elements (toward the end notably) combine in ways that have a kind of organic seamlessness.

The results are convincing, forward-looking, well constructed, and original.

Behzod Abduraimov, Prokofiev Sonata No. 6, Liszt, Saint-Saens

Piano recital disks can go a number of ways. The key is "recital." This generally means that it is first and foremost the pianist who is on display. The what of his program is perforce secondary to the artist as performer. So you generally get a mixed bag of compositions. If the pianist is exceptional, all falls into place. If not it can be hodge-podge time.

Thankfully the piano recital disk on tap for today is by a young pianist with a dashing muscularity. Behzhod Abduraimov, at 21, takes on some virtuoso romantic-early modern showpieces--works by Prokofiev, Liszt and Saint-Saens (Decca).

The Prokofiev Piano Sonata No. 6 forms the centerpiece of the program. It is a work he does quite well. Apparently Prokofiev is a composer with which Abduraimov has much affinity. When he won the prestigious London International Piano Competition in 2009, he garnered much praise for his performance of the composer's Piano Concerto No. 3.

The 6th Sonata in Abduraimov's hands most certainly comes alive. He attacks the work with the sort of determined motor brashness and alternating tenderness the work demands. It is quite an impressive performance.

His rendition of Danse Macabre (in the Liszt/Horowitz piano version) takes on an exhilarating aggressiveness as appropriate, and alternately works out the staccato-legato contrasts in the less driving passages with a sure touch and a subtle, orchestral discernment of lines.

The two Liszt works come off well also. The madly careening Mephisto Waltz No. 1 gets the full bravura showmanship that impresses for its youthful exhuberance. The slow movement of Liszt's "Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude" comes together with a long, lingering poeticism that captures the mood of the piece with plenty of finesse.

Bezhod Abduraimov leaves a powerful impression with this recital disk. He is a pianist with marvelous technique and a broadly sweeping dynamism and drive. The listener can't help but be carried inexorably forward with the excitement of his approach. Listen and you will be drawn into his maelstrom most willingly.

Robert Schumann, Piano Quintet, Op. 44, Piano Quartet, Op. 47, Alexander Melnikov and the Jerusalem Quartet

Robert Schumann was a gifted composer who did his best music at intermittent periods of his career. His was not the grand Beethovenian progression from height to height. One of his most fertile periods was 1842-3, when he composed some of his very best chamber music, notably the Piano Quintet, Op. 44 and the Piano Quartet, Op. 47. A new recording of these works by Alexander Melnikov and the Jerusalem Quartet has just emerged (Harmonia Mundi 902122) I have been communing with my muse lately by giving the disk a spin.

These are exceptionally imaginative works, filled with brilliant invention, melodious themes, rhythmic vigor and a lack of romantic self-indulgence. They are played with lots of style and dynamic thrust by Melnikov and the Jerusalem Quartet.

In addition to the symphonies, the best of the solo piano works, the Piano Concerto and the best of his lieder, this is indispensable Schumann. With the performances at hand, one cannot go wrong. There may be more Dionysian versions from the days of the 78 and LP. This more present-day Apollonian version brings out the thematic brilliance without wearing its emotions on its proverbial sleeve. It isn't without warmth. It does not gush either. You hear the music clearly without undue amounts of supercharged phlegm and neo-Victorian vapors. So it is certainly a version to have.

Andreas Staier, Beethoven, Diabelli Variations

The time length of a CD can allow for things that generally would not be done during the LP era. A good case in hand is Andreas Staier's recording of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations (Harmonia Mundi 902091). Staier not only tackles the full set of variations Beethoven penned, he begins with a selection of the variations submitted at the time by 50 other composers. So there is one by Schubert, one by Mozart's son, an eleven-year-old Liszt, Kreutzer, Kalkbrenner, etc.

This makes for fascinating listening and helps situate the 33 by Beethoven. Maestro Staier gives a properly discerning interpretation of the whole lot, played on an instrument that by the delicacy of its upper register must have been manufactured sometime in the 1800s.

Given the additional composers' variations this is a good version to have. Staier gives a vigorous, sensitive but not overwrought rendering that sounds quite right to my ears.