Carl Orff, Gisei - Das Opfer, Chor und Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin, Jacques Lacombe

Carl Orff (1895-1982) made a sharp distinction between the works he composed before and after his celebrated "Carmina Burana." There is something to be said for that, though based on today's recording he went too far when he condemned the early works in a blanket fashion.

Gesei (CPO 777 819-2), his first opera, enjoys a well put-together performance in the hands of Jacques Lacombe, soloists and the Chor und Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin. It is based on the Japanese 16th century Bunraku Kabuki play "Mirror of the Art of Caligraphy Transmitted by Chancellor Sugawara," more specifically the principal act "Terakoya" ("The Village School"), written by Takeda Izumo and three colleagues. "Gesei" ("The Sacrifice") is based on Karl Florenz's translation. The plot line is involved and for this review I will leave that for those who ultimately wish to experience the music.

Orff's disdain for his earlier works have not encouraged their revival over the years. Yet "Gesei" has a great deal to offer in the quality of its music, its nicely wrought orchestration, its dramatic arc. Admittedly this is Orff in a more eclectic period. One is most certainly reminded of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande for its orchestral mystery, and traces of Wagner perhaps.

Soprano Kathryn Lewek in the principal role of Kwan Sushai is convincing as is the cast in general. The orchestra and chorus give us a near impeccable reading thanks to Jacques Lacombe's interpretive acumen.

The music is memorable if not in any way as original as Orff's later works. It is a revelation for those who appreciate his music, myself included, and stands on its own as a worthy experience. It does not show immaturity but rather a good deal of brilliant craftsmanship. I would recommend it, especially if you are disposed toward the composer.

Ripples, Modern Chamber Music with Percussion

The spirit of adventure has in no way disappeared from the new music scene. A great example is in the anthology Ripples, Modern Chamber Works with Percussion (Navona 6033). There are five composers and works represented, each with a prominent, often virtuoso part for a percussionist.

"Broken Cycle" by Mathew Fuerst is performed by ReadyGo--Stacey Jones-Garrison (percussion) and Brad Blackham (piano). Marimba and piano begin the work with rapid post-minimalist motored patterns and then quickly segue into a fantastic set of asymmetrical figures for piano and temple block-toms, then move forward once more into vibes-piano figurations and so on.  A bracing beginning!

Heath Mathews gives us "Digressions" for Duo Zeno--Preston Duncan on sax and Scotty Horey on percussion. This work features lively interplay between marimba and saxophones in a kind of variations-on-variations mode.

Bill Pfaff's "Lichen" is more contemplative, giving a dialog to marimba and piano that is reflective, then more dramatically assertive, but always nicely turned. Sally Reid's "Three Trifles" pits alto sax and tom toms, timpani, etc. in three short movements that begin with an exotic, world flavor, then contrast with passages quietly contemplative, and finally ending with the moving and brisk, with a complicated melodic role for drums/percussion. Matt Sharrock is musical and deftly accomplished as the percussionist for these two works.

William Thomas McKinley's "A Different Drummer" was commissioned by Robert Black and the New York New Music Ensemble as a virtuoso vehicle for percussionist Daniel Druckman.  At 25 minutes this is the longest and also the more involved work of all with a long-form chamber ensemble confluence that brings to the forefront Druckman's snare drumming, marimba, vibes, xylophone, melodically malleted toms, etc.,  in an ever-shifting confluence of sound color and instrumental juxtapositions. This is music with a classical-modern-and-beyond feel, quite nicely done.

All of this involves music of contrasts, like an American Indian sweathouse, where one stays in an overheated building for a time, then plunges into an icy cold stream just outside.  It is an album of musical substance, a sense of adventure and compositional singularity. Anyone who loves percussion played well will be attracted, as well as the general modern post-modern chamber aficionado.

Good show!

The Fidelio Trio, Dancing in Daylight, Contemporary Piano Trios from Ireland

Ireland's most exciting news lately is the existence of the Fidelio Trio, a piano trio of great finesse and ability. They just completed a three-year residency at St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra, which is a college of Dublin City University. While there they performed four modern trios which they commissioned. We get to hear them play the works on the recent album Dancing in Daylight (Metier 28556).

Adi Tal, cello, Darragh Morgan, violin, and Mary Dullea, piano, show us an expressive unity and depth that matches perfectly the considerable and sometimes wonderfully subtle musical demands made by the composers involved. John Buckley's "Piano Trio" (2013), Fergus Johnston's "Piano Trio" (2011), Rhona Clarke's "Piano Trio No. 2" (2001, rev. 2015) and Seoirse Bodley's "Piano Trio 'Dancing in Daylight'" (2014) are works as memorable as they are thoroughly of our times, modern-postmodern, tonal, dramatic and evocative, alive with rhythmic vitality such that one could well imagine dancing to parts of them.

The Fidelio Trio have a remarkably pliable ensemble discipline that seems made to order for these works. Each of the three artists have beautiful tone, touch and articulatory clarity, and for each work they function with great subtlety in phrasing and making wholly present the many varied twists and turns with exceptionally musical style and grace.

Each of the four works has a gem-like brilliance that shines forth, neither ignoring the piano trio legacy of past landmarks nor paying undue attention to them, but rather plotting a distinctly personal path that is not unlyrical most times but also briskly contemporary. There is an Irish quality to all of this, as certainly one might hope, something in the capturing the past and bringing it into the very open present-day of possibilities, something in its beautifully singing qualities. This no more so than in the title work by Bodley, but it is true in general of the four works. I am keen too on the atmospheric sort of haunted quality of Buckely's Trio, which to me expresses a mood not quite of melancholy but mysteriously contemplative. But then Johnston and Clarke give us music of a high order as well.

The Irish part of me rejoices in the music, the other mutt-like aspects are impressed and no less enamored. It is a wonderful recital by a trio that breathes together as one, playing music that has both charm and musical significance. It is an exemplary disk for those wishing to explore the ultra-contemporary chamber music scene, where modernism has gone and what it can embrace, which is considerable in the hands of this talented trio and their composer brethren-sisteren.

Kudos! Bravo!

Francis Chagrin, Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2, BBC Symphony, Brabbins

We contemplate today yet another modern composer you likely have never heard of, one Francis Chagrin (1905-72), born in Romania yet spending the bulk of his life in England, prolific composer of film music and nearly completely forgotten for his serious, ambitious works.

To give us an excellent look at the unknown symphonic composer, we have thankfully the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins and their presentation of Chagrin's Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 (Naxos 8.571371).

He was born of well-to-do Jewish parents in Bucharest, as Alexander Paucher. He showed a pronounced aptitude for music, secretly put himself through a conservatory program in Zurich while ostensibly studying for an engineering degree there since his parents expected him to join the family business. He managed to contract a failed marriage and become disowned by his family for his insistence on a musical career, and fled to Paris  in 1928. There he changed his name, studied with Paul Dukas and Nadia Boulanger at the Ecole Normale and began writing music for film. With the looming war ahead and its insecurities (especially for a Jew) he then migrated to England, where he made his home from 1936 onward.

He was able to thrive there through a successful and abundant production of film scores, creating over 200 of them over the rest of his life. But it is with his concert music that his talent comes through most readily.

The two symphonies show us an original musical voice, dramatically expressive and very modern, a more dissonant and extroverted figure than, say, Hindemith, but sharing with him a kind of neo-classical penchant for unfolding, logical linearity.

The "Symphony No. 1"  was worked over a long time, from 1946-59 and again revised in 1965. It is a rather astoundingly original and expressive work, but then so is the later (1965-71) "Symphony No. 2."

The world premiere recorded performances show us nicely the dramatic arcs of his music, well orchestrated and very dynamic. Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Philharmonic give us enthusiastic readings that bring out the salient qualities of the symphonies. This Francis Chagrin, had he been able to devote his full attention to concert works, might have become one of the brighter lights of the modernist century. These works show a fully formed original master, writing moving and even exciting music.

I recommend the music to you highly, all you with an appreciation of the modern classical era, and all who are not afraid to open up to the lesser-known figures in the history of our times. Chagrin is brilliant, I would say! Or at least he shows that in the two symphonies.

Serge Prokofiev, Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 5, Vadym Kholodenko, Ft. Worth Symphony

I must admit to start this review that I appear before you today with extreme prejudice. Prokofiev's "Piano Concerto No. 2" is my favorite Prokofiev work, and I would single it out as a favorite of mine from all the 20th century modern concertos I know. Now I may be the only one that puts this music on such a high pedestal, and if that is so it is of no importance to me. A beautifully lyrical, turbulent, bitterly dark work, it speaks to me after 100 years as strongly as it did when I was dutifully getting my hands on all the Prokofiev I could back around 1971. I found an LP with Karel Ancerl and the Czech Philharmonic doing it with pianist Dagmar Baloghova in 1963 on a US budget label that re-released Supraphons. It immediately captured me and I've been listening ever since. I've never quite found a version that compared with it for its brooding qualities and the full flush of its extraordinary outbursts, that is until now.

2013 Cliburn Gold Medalist Vadym Kholodenko is the pianist, the Ft. Worth Symphony the orchestra under Miguel Harth-Bedoya. This a SACD compatible disk that brings us the Prokofiev Second as well as the Fifth (Harmonia Mundi HMU 807631).

The "Piano Concerto No. 5" is not as well known but has its own charm. Kholodenko and company do an excellent job with it and so it is here a worthy coupling with the Second.

But I am especially thrilled with their performance with that Second. It has beautiful sound. It rivals and even exceeds my old Artia LP for its idiosyncratic, gloriously melodic darkness. Now maybe I am one of those who is glad to be unhappy, but I think not. Because Prokofiev transcends the turmoil and the darkness with some of the most beautiful music I know. You come away from the work feeling that Serge has dispelled the storm clouds, that with music such as this we can carry on and be wonderfully human, somehow.

Kholodenko understands all that, I think, and manages to convey through the formidably compelling solo part that the orchestral girth and power can be coalesced and contained by the single solo voice. I wax on here but if you hear this recording a few times I think you might understand. Prokofiev especially in the early period was a master of the motor impulse rhythms that for him connoted perhaps upheaval, progress, change, industry, a modern world he occupied with a certain insecurity natural to the times. The Second captures that wonderfully. But it also has in wonderful form his melodic genius, something Prokofiev put forward beautifully throughout his career, but never more memorably than with this concerto. The melodic arc of solo part and the impassioned thrumming of the orchestral backdrop is unforgettable, to me at least.

The version contained in the new disk I would recommend as essential, and for the 5th too this disk is fabulous. Get this one!

 

John Cage, The Complete Works for Flute 2

Flautist Katrin Zenz continues her excellent explorations of John Cage in the Complete Works for Flute 2 (Naxos 8.559774). In this volume she gives us lesser-known works from the early, middle and later periods, many in first recordings. For my review article on the first volume, type "Cage" into the index box above.

The "Solo for Flute, Alto Flute and Piccolo" (1957-8) comes out of pages 133-144 of the "Concert for Piano and Orchestra," which does not have a score, but pages that can be played together or by separate instrument(s), in effect making possible many works. This realization gives us multiple flute soundings of melodic material typical of the middle period, performed nicely.

Then follows a series of earlier works never before recorded: "Solo with Obbligato Accompaniment of Two Voices in Canon, and Six Short Inventions on the Subject of the Solo" (1933-34) in a version for alto flute, piano and vibraphone arranged by Anargyros Deniosos. It has an expanded tonality, early serialist feel to it but an early Cagean earthiness, as do the following "Composition for Three Voices" (1934) in a Zenz arranged version for flute, alto flute and bass flute made possible by multi-tracking; and the "Sonata for Two Voices" (1933) arranged once again by Zenz for flute and bass flute. These are nicely modern works that happily are in first recordings in the present form.

Finally we have a 30-minute major later period work "Hymnkus" (1986), in a Deniosos-arranged version for flute, two pianos and two vibraphones. The work makes hypnotic use of a limited number of notes at any given time (all possibilities chromatically from c to d1) in seemingly an infinitely variable sequence of rhythmic entrances, with at first the sequences disjointed and sporadic, then more insistent. The music is divided into 17-tone event clusters that vary in speed and require each musician to move from one event to the next at a different rate according to the part involved, so that the overlapping universes of soundings becomes very involved and fascinating to hear. This is a more minimalist sort of Cage than we are used to experiencing. It is a first recording as well and a very illuminating one at that.

So in the end we get a good deal of unheard sonances from the early and later works and a unique, previously unheard realization of part of a well-known classic middle phase work. Katrin's flute is wonderfully played and she triumphs over some music that in lesser hands might become tedious. Compliments must also be given to her fellow ensemble mates--Tobias Liebezeit and Maxim Mankovski on vibraphones,  and Chara Iacovidou and Ludovic Frochot on pianos.

In all this is a most provocative but also very pleasurable volume of early and later high modernist Cage. Those who would like to know more about the method Cage uses to assemble each work are referred to the detailed liner notes. Ultimately the music SOUNDS well, very well, which in the end should be our main criterion for listening. That this is so is of course a testament to Cage's brilliance but also to the superlative artistry of Ms. Zenz, her thorough research that has unearthed worthy treasures, and to the artistry of her chamber-mates.

For the flute afficionado and new music/Cage enthusiast this one is invaluable and invigorating. It may easily appeal to the non-specializing listener who seeks something adventurous, too. Molto bravo!

Haydn, Symphony No. 7, Symphony No. 83, Violin Concerto, Harry Christophers, Handel and Haydn Society

When it is a matter of Harry Christophers conducting the Handel and Haydn Society, of an unbroken tradition of Haydn performances in the US for more than 200 years, you know you are in for some authentic and engaging music. And indeed that is what you get on their latest, Symphony No. 7 Le midi, Symphony No. 83 La poule, and the Violin Concerto in C major (CORO 139). This is volume 2 in their latest coverage of Haydn Symphonic gems. I waxed enthusiastic for the first some time ago here when it came out (type Haydn in the search box above) and I am happy to say that this volume continues the excellence.

There is a right-sized orchestra for authentic practice, no 120 musicians creating imposing Beethoven-Bruckner mountains of accretion. Not surprising. Gottlieb Graupner, a founder of the orchestra, was oboist performing Haydn in London before he moved to Boston. And in Harry Christophers, director of the H & H since 2008 and also of the acclaimed early music group the Sixteen, we have a master of the authentic nuances of these works. The live recording in Boston's Symphony Hall has real presence.

The "Violin Concerto in C major" is an especially nice addition, as it is not as well known as it should be. It was only published in the 20th century. Concertmaster Aisslinn Nosky does a fine job with the solo part, unfussy and direct.

And we get two excellent examples of early and later Haydn symphonies, the Seventh with its grace and uncomplicated freshness, the 83rd with its more developed dramatic complications, each in its own way superb and superbly played.

I give you my strongest recommendations for this offering. It leaves nothing to be desired.