Modern and Contemporary

As We Are
Julian Velasco; Winston Choi
Cedille CDR 90000 213 (cedillerecords.org)

Julian Velasco is a saxophonist, collaborative artist and educator raised in Los Angeles and now based in Chicago; Winston Choi is a pianist with a huge list of performances around the world who grew up in Toronto. As We Are features Velasco on alto, tenor and soprano saxophones in a series of dramatic and engaging works. 

Come As You Are was written by Stephen Banks as a four-movement suite dedicated to members of his family; it contains references to “African-American sacred music” which adds a poignancy to each piece. Amanda Harberg’s Court Dances which reference “16th and 17th-century court dances, were initially influenced by the “syncopated bounce of a squash ball.” The intricate interplay between Choi’s piano and Velasco’s light and precise soprano saxophone in the first movement, Courante, is exciting in a delightfully frenzied manner. 

Animus (Elijah Daniel Smith) combines some multi-phonics with tape accompaniment; Velasco’s performance is sensitive and controlled. Liminal Highway was premiered in 2016 for flute and electronics but composer Christopher Cerrone revised it for saxophone and, after hearing Velasco perform, decided he was the artist to play it. The sections with percussive pad work are particularly intense and magnificent. As We Are is an exciting album of contemporary music for the saxophone performed with passion and precision.

Richard Danielpour – 12 Etudes for Piano
Stefano Greco
Naxos 8.559922 (naxos.com/Search/KeywordSearchResults/?q=8.559922)

Outside of certain musical circles, Richard Danielpour may not exactly be a household name, but the credentials of this 66-year-old American composer are impressive indeed. Born in New York of Iranian-Jewish descent, he studied at Oberlin, the New England Conservatory and ultimately, the Juilliard School. Since 1997, he has been on the faculty of the University of California at Los Angeles. Like many composers of his generation, Danielpour began writing in a serial style, but later adapted a more accessible “quasi-tonal” idiom. Among his enormous output are a number of pieces for solo piano including a set of 12 Etudes, the Piano Fantasy and two transcriptions from an opera currently in progress, all of which are premiered on this Naxos CD by the Italian-born pianist Stefano Greco.

The Etudes are miniature gems (each never more than six minutes in length) and what strikes the listener most immediately is the appealing range of contrasting moods – from the  perpetuum mobile of the first, the stridency of the fifth (do I hear echoes of Prokofiev?) and the languor of the sixth and ninth. Throughout, Greco demonstrates full command of this unfamiliar repertoire.

The Piano Fantasy is based on the final chorus of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and is a true fantasy with its abruptly contrasting tempos and dynamics. The piece demands considerable virtuosity at times, but again, Greco meets the challenges with formidable technique. 

Rounding out the program are the Lullaby and Song Without Words which show yet another side of Danielpour’s compositional style. Gentle and unassuming, these short pieces provide a fitting conclusion. Kudos to both Naxos and Greco for bringing to light some music that definitely warrants greater investigation.

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.

Listen to 'Hommage à Kurtág' Now in the Listening Room