Modern and Contemporary

07 Quatuor BozziniAldo Clementi – Momento
Quatuor Bozzini
Quatuor Bozzini CQB 1615 (actuellecd.com)

Review

Italian composer Aldo Clementi (1925-2011) created using rigorous methods. Most of his works include canon (strict imitation) in a number of different ways. Clementi’s music is reserved and enigmatic in style, suggesting musical structure without being obvious.

One entrance to this difficult work is unaccompanied renaissance choral music. Otto frammenti (1978-97) is based on the 15th-century French folk song, L’homme armé, the cantus firmus (structural voice) of many renaissance masses and motets. Each fragment in the work uses a section of L’homme armé. The string quartet members play without vibrato suggesting the sound of viols. I find the effect mystical; even more so is Momento (2005), which draws me into sustained attentiveness to still intervals and chords in a sparse tonal landscape. Long consonant fifths and thirds glint out and shine, and the perfect fifth (that strings tune to) seems iconic for Clementi. The composer’s journey was a long one. By contrast, the much earlier, more chromatic Reticolo: 4 (1968) has a quick steady pulse involving both pizzicato and bowed notes that set up unexpected jazzy syncopations.

The Montreal-based Quatuor Bozzini are ideal interpreters of Clementi’s music. For example, in Satz 2 (2001) their mastery of intricate non-vibrato and sul ponticello (near the bridge) effects is striking. Champions of new music performance at a high level, with an international reputation and their own Collection QB recording label, this is an ensemble well worth experiencing.

08 George Sakakeeny BassoonFull Moon in the City
George Sakakeeny, bassoon; various Oberlin ensembles
Oberlin Music OC 15-05 (oberlin.edu/oberlinmusic)

George Sakakeeny is a professor of bassoon at the Oberlin Conservatory and a virtuoso soloist with significant works commissioned for him, including the Larsen and Schickele pieces on this disc. His tone is full and well-rounded, with excellent intonation and a secure upper register, and he receives able support from Oberlin ensembles conducted by Timothy Weiss and Raphael Jiménez. Of the disc’s four well-crafted pieces, all by established American composers, I found the Bassoon Concertino (2014) by Augusta Read Thomas (b.1964) especially clear and coherent in tonal language. It is based on three modernist paintings; the melding of tones and tone clusters in Part 2: Wassily Kandinsky: Sky Blue is particularly appealing. Russell Platt (b.1965) brings out the instrument’s lyrical qualities well in Concerto for Bassoon and Strings (2008), but I think errs toward nostalgia sometimes. Attractive bassoon lyricism also permeates the intriguing Full Moon in the City by Libby Larson (b.1950), which evokes an urban pre-dawn stroll. Bits of popular songs about the moon appear in different guises, and the lush string writing gives a nod to noir style. (I associate this also with old late-night TV movies!)

The nature of Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra (1998) by Peter Schickele (b.1935) is indicated by the work’s movement titles: Blues, Intermezzo, Scherzo, Song, and Romp. This engaging work demonstrates the composer’s legendary wit and timing, along with deft orchestration and musical imagination to spare.

01 Pierrot LunaireSchoenberg – Pierrot Lunaire; Max Kowalsky – Pierrot Lunaire
Ingrid Schmithüsen
ATMA ACD2 2734

Review

Arnold Schoenberg’s celebrated 1912 song cycle Pierrot Lunaire is justly regarded as a masterpiece of his mid-period atonal works. Don’t let the bogeyman of atonalism scare you away; this is an extremely compelling work that exudes an atmosphere of exuberance and playfulness. Originally conceived to be performed by an actress and an ensemble of five instruments, the vocal quality that Schoenberg calls for in this multifaceted jewel of a work is unique: not quite sung, not quite spoken, but somewhere in between. The texts consist of 21 poems by the Belgian symbolist Albert Giraud in the German transliteration by Otto Erich Hartleben published in 1892. Many others have set these texts to music, including the persecuted composer and lawyer Max Kowalski (1882-1956), whose cycle of 12 of these poems included here were conceived and published in the same year as Schoenberg’s. Kowalski’s charming and supple settings are cast in a neo-romantic style and are conventionally sung.

Having presented the work some 70 times during her career, it’s fair to say that soprano Ingrid Schmithüsen has become the very embodiment of Pierrot and delivers an admirably nuanced account of Schoenberg’s opus. In most cases this complex work involves a conductor; here however, it is clear that the soloist is calling the shots (and incidentally owns the recording copyright). This emphasis on the voice no doubt explains the frustratingly recessed sound of the ensemble, which left me pining for the vivid instrumental presence in just about every other recording I’m familiar with, notably the outstanding 1971 LP by Jan DeGaetani. By contrast, the Kowalski song cycle with pianist Brigitte Poulin is perfectly balanced.

02 ShoujounianNoravank: Petros Shoujounian – String Quartets 3-6
Quatuor Molinari
ATMA ACD2 2737

Composed to mark the centenary of the Armenian genocide, Noravank’s title is derived from a homeland monastery that was Petros Shoujounian’s inspiration. Its 14 sections, divided into string quartets of three, three, three and five movements, are symbolically named after rivers and are based on liturgical chants.

Quartet No.3 was the most affecting for me, through its tiny echoes of melodies and treatments heard in Morricone’s Gabriel’s Oboe and Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel; it concludes with the provocative Dzoraget. The contradictions of Quartet No.4’s depressive second movement, the energetic third and Quartet No.5’s lamentoso first movement brought to mind the power of nature and the current plight of evacuated Fort McMurray folks – if that’s not the musical equivalent of theological proof-texting. The balance of Quartet No.5 and all of No.6 more overtly reflect the influence of eastern folk songs, both in the keys and the lilts they comprise. Another memory of song, from Chopin’s “Raindrop” Prelude in D-Flat Major No.15 Op.28, is heard in the onomatopoeic burbling waters of the Vedi.

This CD was suggested to me, a Pärt fanatic, as a possibly similarly contemplative recording. While these aren’t tracks for mindful meditation, there is an introspective quality to all the movements. Maybe the invoked theme of migration is apt, after all: fires, oppression, the liturgical life – these all involve movement and change. But this introvert was soothed rather than discomfited via the talent of the Quatuor Molinari, who commissioned this work that is ultimately about renewal. Fine liner-note editing and the eponymous cover photograph round out a very marketable product.

03 Finding a VoiceFinding a Voice: The Evolution of the American Sound
Walden Chamber Players
Independent (waldenchamberplayers.org)

Review

This new disc from the Walden Chamber Players features compositions which might be described as the linking species of the American music family tree. Ably performed here are works by little-known composers (Marion Bauer 1882-1955), lesser-known works by composers well known (Aaron Copland’s Threnodies), and works by modern composers who write close enough in time to us that they might remain in our blind spot (Ned Rorem).

Rorem is best-represented here, and rightfully so – after all, he is a still-living and underappreciated American composer whose healthy sense of deference to American musical heritage is best exemplified by his Ives-tinged The Unquestioned Answer (2002). But it is actually Virgil Thomson’s ghost that looms largest over this recording. In the middle of the 20th century, Thomson achieved more infamy as cantankerous critic than fame as a composer. As far back as 1944, he took aim at the cult of the warhorse, noting that “the enjoyment and understanding of music are dominated in a most curious way by the prestige of the masterpiece.” In that same essay, he wrote, “this snobbish definition of excellence is opposed to the classical concept of a Republic of Letters.”

These words could serve as this disc’s manifesto; it demands that we re-evaluate these works which might have otherwise been lost to the murk of history. They may not be capital-M masterpieces (whatever that actually means), but they are nonetheless worth hearing.

04 FinnissyWAM
Michael Finnissy; Michael Norsworthy
New Focus Recordings FCR157 (newfocusrecordings.com)

While it may not move you to tears or laughter, the music of Michael Finnissy should hold you in a kind of rapt fascination, like an elaborate mechanism with multi-coloured parts moving according to mysterious laws. This new release features American clarinetist Michael Norsworthy. The composer provides the piano accompaniment; also performing are violinist William Fedkenheuer and the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble.

Brief liner notes by the composer offer some helpful information: his substantial Clarinet Sonata unfolds calmly, the piano part presenting a cantus firmus derived from a late Beethoven piano sonata (Op.110). There is no obvious link, but each bar of the original is presented in retrograde (but presumably in the original order) while the clarinet line swans about lazily above. The second track, for E-flat clarinet, two pianos and two bass drums, uses a chance element: though the material is defined, its synchronicity is not. The E-flat colour is shocking; one at first wonders if Norsworthy has forgotten his better reeds at home.

Track three introduces cat screeches (yes, literally) and still more chance elements. I do believe my allergies were acting up so I found it hard to concentrate. I kept waiting to sneeze at the next feline interjection. As cute as the kitties are, I preferred the jazzy final track with wind ensemble: Giant Abstract Samba is fun.

Just as Finnissy recomposes  Beethoven earlier, on the title track his musical source is Mozart. He obviously has no fear of vengeful ghosts seeking him out. WAM moves the performers on- and offstage, a theatrical effect somewhat diluted on record. You’ll hear the violin and later the clarinet at a distance at different moments. I have no idea what it all means, but it’s…fascinating.

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