Modern and Contemporary

Subtractions
Greg Stuart
New Focus Recordings FCR348 (newfocusrecordings.com)

American percussionist Greg Stuart’s practice embraces improvisation, electronics and the classical experimental music tradition. At the same time he actively bucks conventional solo percussionism by cultivating an anti-virtuoso performance mission, a stance related to his focal dystonia which limits his motor function in one hand.

This seeming limitation has, however, served as a springboard, inspiring Stuart to explore alternative soloist paths, specifically in developing meaningful collaborations with several composers.

Subtractions reflects Stuart’s personalized mastery of the contemporary percussion idiom in works by composers Pisaro-Liu (side by side) and Sarah Hennies (Border Loss). The album highlights a particular sonic focus: the magnification of intimate sounds through layered recording. Electronic sounds and field recordings also make appearances.

Hennies’ 22-minute Border Loss explores irregular percussive textures, granular, swarm-like sounds and slowly shifting arrays of timbral categories. Sometimes the music evokes the crackling of a fire. Other times high-pitched bells and wind chimes add pitch elements, though waves of sonic continuity are always the focus here.
Pisaro-Liu’s side by side is in two parts, the first scored for bass drum and cymbals, the second for vibraphone and glockenspiel. There is a kind of aural alchemy at work here. Part I is characterized by the sounds coaxed from the skin of the bass drum and a deliciously slow crescendo on a rolled cymbal, morphing into rich near-orchestral static textures. To this listener, Part II’s aphoristic melodic phrases on the two sustaining metallophones conjure a peacefully contemplative atmosphere. It’s a welcome respite during these challenging early days of winter.

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Hommage à Kurtág
Movses Pogossian
New Focus Recordings FCR347B (newfocusrecordings.com)

Nonagenarian György Kurtág is ranked among today’s foremost composers by many. Despite its often enigmatic qualities, his music falls squarely in the European classical music lineage, particularly the branch represented by his illustrious 20th-century Hungarian composer-predecessors Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály.

Kurtág’s individual movements are typically quite brief, yet despite compression, expressively complex. His style is gestural and at the same time lyrical. Though his music is never overtly sentimental, he systematically indulges in homages in his titles.

On Hommage à Kurtág, American violin virtuoso Movses Pogossian, a Kurtág specialist, presents a brilliantly played recital featuring the composer’s Signs, Games and Messages for solo violin. The substantial 16-movement work is a masterwork of exuberance and subtlety, displaying the enigmatic qualities that distinguish the composer’s unique voice. As music critic Alex Ross once insightfully observed, it is “dark but not dismal, quiet but not calm.”

Honouring the concept of homage in Kurtág’s music, Pogossian commissioned Californian women composers Aida Shirazi, Gabriela Lena Frank, Kay Rhie and Jungyoon Wie. They contributed terse works of considerable poise to the album, proving that Kurtág’s aesthetic spirit is alive and well among younger composers.

Bringing his program back to Kurtág’s deep Hungarian roots, Pogossian gives a committed reading of the Melodia movement of Bartók’s autumnal Sonata for Solo Violin. He concludes with a very satisfying, passionate, live rendering of Kodály’s expansive Duo for Violin and Cello with cellist Rohan de Saram.

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Stephen Barber – Earth
Eric Huebner
New Focus Recordings FCR340 (newfocusrecordings.com)

Stephen Barber is a composer who splits his time between New York City and Austin, Texas. He composes music for TV and film and has extensive roots in pop music, but he is also a serious composer of art music and this disc is a collection of 13 of his short character pieces for solo piano. Barber studied composition with John Corigliano and it shows: his music is complex, his language is contemporary but the results are highly descriptive. Each work on this disc has an evocative title, some of them self-explanatory like Fireflies and Twilight in Tahiti, others more abstract like Stop, a tribute to Wayne Shorter, and Opium-White Fur, based on the writing of author Jardine Libaire. There are moments of real beauty in Easter, a tribute to J.S. Bach, and Earth, a meditation on the state of our planet. 

One of the most striking pieces is about the Trump presidency: a dark and quirky combination of crude, lurching chords, repetitive outbursts and some fascinating effects with the sustain pedal. Barber is certainly not the first composer to try to appeal to both pop and “serious” listeners but he succeeds particularly well without sacrificing too much complexity or depth. All the works are performed by contemporary music specialist Eric Huebner, the New York Philharmonic’s pianist and a teacher at SUNY Buffalo and Juilliard. Huebner’s playing is masterful and entirely convincing: flawless technique, clear voicings and impeccable timing.

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Hugi Gudmundsson – Windbells
Áshildur Haraldsdóttir; Hildigunnur Einarsdóttir; Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra
Sono Luminus DSL-92259 (sonoluminus.com)

This collection of chamber music by Hugi Gudmundsson takes its name from a quintet he wrote in 2005 for the World Expo in Japan. Scored for bass flute, bass clarinet, cello, guitar, piano and electronics, it is typical of the music on this disc: thoughtfully constructed, concise pieces for unusual combinations of instruments. Gudmundsson is one of Iceland’s leading composers and the excellent performers here are all members of the Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra. You might expect music from Iceland to be introspective, complex, a bit dark, perhaps, but with a certain Nordic affinity for clean lines. Gudmundsson’s music has all of this, with some surprises, of course. 

Lux (2009-2011) is for solo flute with a pre-recorded accompanying track all based on flute sounds; Áshildur Haraldsdóttir’s performance is expert and convincing. The opening track on the disc, Arrow of Time from the 2019 quartet Entropy for flute, clarinet, cello and piano, is unusual for its quickness and for its repetitive, minimalist-style chords. One of the most delightful surprises occurs in Foreign, the last movement of Equilibrium IV: Windbells where there is some tangy and very satisfying microtonal interplay between guitar and piano. 

Some of the most effective writing comes in a cycle of five songs for mezzo and chamber group, sung with a liquid expressivity by Hildigunnur Einarsdóttir. The cycle is based on Old Norse verses from Hávamál, and Gudmundsson achieves a suitably organic, primitive atmosphere. I particularly enjoyed the oboe solo by Julia Hantschel in the second song and the last song’s use of drones and timbral trills.