Modern and Contemporary

Wanderings
Andree-Ann Deschenes
Independent (aadpiano.com)

The peripatetic pianist Andree-Ann Deschenes, possessed of a most wonderfully restless creative instinct, has put her prodigious musicianship on the line once again. She could be forgiven, of course, for plunging herself – body and soul – into the that tumbling ocean of Brazilian rhythm. The album that results is titled Wanderings although, truth be told, this is anything but an aimless journey into the musical heartland of a country brim-full and flowing over with the most extraordinary rhythm-driven musical culture.

Displaying the mind of a wizened musical apothecary Deschenes knows exactly where to go for the ingredients that make from this music a potion so potently magical that listeners are – in one elegantly executed rippling rhythmic phrase of her left hand – permanently seduced to enter her world of “brazilliance.” This she fashions out of hands that are delicate enough to lend themselves to the wondrous colourscape of Brazilian melody and harmony – powerful enough to handle the sinewy rhythm of the forró and the maracatu, even the mysticism of capoeira. 

The pianist reveals an intimacy with the poetics of Brazilian music that often eludes even the most well-meaning musicians. Moreover, she assiduously avoids the well-worn route to Brazil, taking, instead, the road less travelled. Music such as Andanças (Cassio Vianna), Chardi Kala (Jasnam Daya Singh), Two Moons (Bianca Gismonti), Nalad Ochun (Jovino Santos Neto) – and especially – Tanguinho (André Mehmari) suggest that Deschenes bears the mark of a maverick.

American Counterpoints
Curtis Stewart; Experiential Orchestra; James Blachly
Bright Shiny Things BSTC-0200 (brightshiny.ninja)

I’m writing this quickly so I can get back to hearing the music of Julia Perry (1924-1979) and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004), the two absurdly neglected Black American composers featured on American Counterpoint. Included is a brief finale from Curtis Stewart, the violin soloist for several tracks, with orchestra leader James Blachly co-curator of the album.

Both composers were recognized and successful to a degree in their lifetimes. So why does one hear about Barber and Ives and Copland and Bernstein but not Perry and Perkinson? Guess. 

It sure isn’t because they weren’t excellent at their craft. Just compare the first cut, Perkinson’s Louisiana Blues Strut: A Cakewalk with his Sinfonietta No.1 two tracks later. It would be impressive to have either piece in one’s catalogue, but having the range shown by owning both puts one in the company of the greats. With his skills in conducting and performing, the obvious comparison is with Leonard Bernstein. Two maestros, one celebrated, the other overlooked. The neo-classical Sinfonietta opens with a Sonata Allegro movement in which Perkinson deploys counterpoint that might put Copland’s to shame (but evokes Hindemith); the third movement, Rondo-Allegrf furioso, doubles down on rhythmic energy; in between he summons Romanticism à la Samuel Barber in Song Form: Largo. 

Then there’s Perry, who composed in a thoroughly modernist and individual style, had studied with Luigi Dallapiccola and Nadia Boulanger, but went largely unregarded by mid-century audiences. How audacious, to write a serious string orchestra work, Symphony in One Movement for Violas and Basses, sans violin and cello voices. Astonishing dark colour, beautiful and sad or angry utterances. All respect to Perkinson, who achieved material success as a commercial composer, but Perry’s light is brighter, or deeper. 

Fine playing by Stewart and the Experiential Orchestra. Great disc.

Samuel Jones – Three Concertos
Joseph Alessi; Jeffrey Khaner; Michael Ludwig; Boston Modern Orchestra Project; Gil Rose
BMOP Sound 1095 (bmop.org/audio-recordings)

“My music always has a lyrical basis,” writes American Samuel Jones (b.1935). That’s evident as three superb soloists join with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project conducted by Gil Rose.

Montreal-born Jeffrey Khaner, principal flute of the Philadelphia Orchestra, ranges from haunting plaintiveness to breathless exuberance in Flute Concerto (2018). Lament memorializes two brothers – Jones’ and Khaner’s. Interludio is a cheerful scherzo. Dream Montage – The Great Bell: America Marching incorporates familiar patriotic tunes, Jones’ hymn The Great Bell Rings for All and a jubilantly ascending, final flourish from the flute.

New York Philharmonic principal trombone Joseph Alessi brings mellow tone and technical wizardry to Jones’ Trombone Concerto, subtitled Vita Accademica (2009). The trombone represents a university student and Jones has composed what he calls “a universalized ‘Alma Mater’ and a stylized ‘Fight Song’.” Andante vigoroso is warmly sentimental; Romanza: Andante amabile is a tender love song. Chimes launch Allegro moderato, the student’s triumphal graduation.

Violin Concerto (2014) begins darkly. Andante con moto features ominous, softly throbbing timpani, grumbling winds and menacing orchestra tuttis, the violin alternating between a sombre, upward, yearning melody and agitated downward figurations, all ending in tentative serenity. In Larghetto con moto: Largo cantabile the violin sings a long-lined, sweetly nostalgic melody over a gentle chordal cushion. Allegro inquieto ed appassionato mixes rapid violin passagework with yet more extended lyricism. Michael Ludwig, former Buffalo Philharmonic concertmaster, brilliantly masters the expressive and virtuosic extremes of this splendid concerto.

Russell Hartenberger – Arlington
Ryan Scott; Russell Hartenberger; Various percussionists
Nexus Records 11053 (russellhartenberger.bandcamp.com/album/arlington)

Despite Ionisation (1931), that great work for percussion by Edgard Varèse, and many other fine works by the great Michael Colgrass, David Saperstein, Henry Cowell and Charles Wuorinen (to name but a few), literature written specifically for percussion remains relatively rare. One reason could be that outside of contemporary blues and rock ensembles with prominently featured drum sets, in classical music, string instruments are often called upon to play pizzicato and col legno battuto to simulate percussion.

But the paucity of literature is not the reason why we must praise Russell Hartenberger’s disc Arlington; for it is a disc where melody, harmony and certainly rhythm are all celebrated in abundance. Hartenberger is a composer and a virtuoso percussionist as well. A founding member of Nexus, he is also what you may call a musical anthropologist who has mined the art and sculppure of percussion of drummers from West Africa and Europe and Indigenous drummers from the Near and Far East to North and South America.

However, it is not simply uncommon scholarship that informs the two large works for percussion on this disc. Hartenberger’s works seem not simply designed to show off the instruments that play them but also to illuminate the music itself: Arlington rises above being a funerary tattoo to celebrate the spectral spirits dancing in the rarefied air above every tombstone. The symphonic Red River is a large-scale musical metaphor that gushes with exuberance celebrating earthly life in all its protean variety.