Modern and Contemporary

Jörg Widmann – Violin Concerto; Antiphon; Insel der Sirenen
Christian Tetzlaff; Swedish RSO; Daniel Harding
Ondine ODE 1215-2

Orchestral works by contemporary German composer Jörg Widmann (b. 1973) receive fine readings here. Widmann is a virtuoso clarinetist who understands the orchestra’s newer sonic resources and has a performer’s sense of the dramatic. The title of Christoph Schlüren’s liner notes, Hedonism of Danger, indicates another aspect of this composer’s voice.

The one-movement Violin Concerto (2007) has roots from the later 20th century German neo-Expressionists back to Alban Berg. Overall the work is the antithesis of “cool” – the violin writing is intense with broad lyrical gestures and sharp contrasts. Tetzlaff’s tone is rich in the lower registers; harmonics are ethereal and intonation reliable. Harding’s orchestra stays sonorous in extreme registers, never submerging the soloist’s voice in its natural soundscape.

I particularly like Insel der Sirenen (Island of the Sirens) of 1997 for violin and 19 strings. It re-imagines the episode in Homer’s Odyssey as experienced on a rickety boat in the harsh seascape, with periodic squeaks, honks and rustling over tremolando waves. The solo violin “siren’s” vibrato is wide and glissandi wider; other sirens are high-pitched and the atmosphere is menacing.

Antiphon (2007-08) for full orchestra is the most hard-edged and dissonant work. Abrupt, aggressive gestures such as sharp attacks and crescendi suggest a post-industrial world where things are battered and torn at. In both this and the preceding work, innovations of Schafer, Penderecki and Ligeti are excitingly transformed by and for a new generation in a new millennium.

Concert Note: Widmann is featured as composer, conductor and clarinetist when New Music Concerts presents ”A Portrait of Jörg Widmann” on April 18 at the Betty Oliphant Theatre.

Rosenthal – L’intégrale pour piano
Stéphane Lemelin
ATMA ACD2 2587

While Manuel Rosenthal earned his greatest success as a conductor over the span of his long lifetime (he died in 2003 a few weeks short of his 99th birthday) he was also a composer of considerable merit, writing in an affable, neo-classical style. For whatever reason, his output for solo piano is comparatively small, all of it written between 1924 and 1934, and it is presented in its entirety on this ATMA release featuring pianist Stéphane Lemelin.

With his affinity for French music, it seems appropriate that Lemelin should be the one to unearth this relatively obscure repertoire. He studied with Karl Ulrich Schnabel and Leon Fleisher and since 2001 has been on faculty at the University of Ottawa.

From the gentle opening chords of the Huit Bagatelles from 1924, it’s clear that Lemelin is very much at home with this music. His playing is refined and elegant, ably capturing the ever-contrasting moods of these musical miniatures. And it’s this sense of kaleidoscopic variety that makes these pieces so engaging. The brief Valse des pêcheurs à la ligne (The Angler’s Waltz) is all pastoral tranquility, while the suite Les Petits Métiers from 1934 is a musical description of various occupations, ranging from the striking chords of the “Le Maréchal-ferrant” (The Blacksmith), to the staccato frenzy of “La Petit Télégraphiste” (The Telegraph Operator). Do I hear echoes of François Couperin? Lemelin handles it all with great panache.

While Rosenthal’s piano output might not be deemed “great music,” it nevertheless has a charm all its own, often combining elements of French salon style with the more progressive tendencies of Ravel and Milhaud. Lemelin is to be commended for bringing to light some intriguing 20th-century repertoire that might have been undeservedly forgotten.

Ligeti – Violin Concerto; Lontano; Atmosphères; San Francisco Polyphony
Benjamin Schmid; Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra; Hannu Lintu
Ondine ODE 1213-2

It’s not just the terrific performances on this disc that make it so appealing. The programming of four iconic works by Hungarian composer György Ligeti offers a handy overview of the orchestral music of one of the most imaginative, idiosyncratic, influential and enjoyable composers of the past century. Ligeti was a loner, but his music was embraced by leading avant-garde composers and featured in popular films like 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The big draw here is violinist Benjamin Schmid’s energized performance of the majestic Violin Concerto, a late work from 1993. There are plenty of thrills, especially in the virtuosic cadenza. But what makes this performance so memorable is the way Schmid and conductor Hannu Lintu find the ideal balance between Ligeti’s angular modernism and his heartfelt lyricism.

The earliest work here, Atmosphères, from 1961, still fascinates – that such an apparently static work can be so gripping. The surface is all glassy smoothness. But Lintu takes us deep into the colours and textures swirling underneath as they emerge and recede.

By the time Ligeti wrote San Francisco Polyphony, in 1974, he was working with recognizable melodies, layering them in new and exciting ways. In his delightfully idiosyncratic booklet notes Lintu admits that “successfully executing the trickiest sequences in San Francisco Polyphony requires not only skill but a generous helping of good luck, too.” It sounds like everyone involved in this marvellous disc had plenty of both good luck and skill.

Concert note: Hannu Lintu conducts the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall on March 20 and 22 in Solen by Matthew Whittall, Symphony No.5 by Sibelius and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.5, with Angela Hewitt as soloist.

Nebula – solo piano music of Heather Schmidt
Heather Schmidt
Centrediscs CMCCD 19613

Throughout musical history, the term “pianist-composer” is one that has been used all too liberally – usually it’s a case of either-or. So when someone such as Heather Schmidt comes along, we tend to sit up and take notice, for she truly excels on both levels. Her newest disc, Nebula, on the CMC label, is the first opportunity for the public to enjoy her pianistic talents at performing her own solo music, while demonstrating just how well the description pianist-composer applies to this Calgary-born artist.

Schmidt studied piano and composition at the Juilliard School and later at Indiana University, where she was the youngest student to earn a doctorate degree. Since then, she’s been the recipient of numerous honours, including three consecutive BMI awards and two from SOCAN.  Most recently, a move to Los Angeles with a focus on the creation of film and television scores has revealed yet another side of her talents.

In creating Nebula, she explained that it was her aim to capture the special connection between composer, performer and audience and as a result she deliberately included works with a wide range of styles. Indeed, contrast is a big part of this disc, and her music demonstrates a myriad of influences. Pieces such as Silver Tides and Serenity are nocturnal and atmospheric while the “Fugue” from Twelve for Ten is a robust contemporary interpretation of a baroque form. In contrast, Shimmer owes something to the French Impressionists, while the technically-demanding Nebula is bold and impassioned. Throughout, her flawless technique goes hand-in-hand with a deeply-rooted sensitivity.

Bravo, Ms. Schmidt, you’ve proven that you are indeed a rara avis, a fine pianist who also happens to excel at composition, and Nebula is an example of some fine solo contemporary musicmaking on many levels.