Modern and Contemporary

Alexandre David – Photogrammes
Quatuor Bozzini; Plaisirs du clavecin; Orchestre de l’Agora
Collection Quatuor Bozzini CQB 2434 (collectionqb.bandcamp.com/album/alexandre-david-photogrammes)

What distinguishes the music on this disc – particularly the final work, Photogrammes – is the manner in which music is created by applying dramatically a new, decidedly spectral, musical chromatograph (à la Gérard Grisey) of colours and tone textures. This is evidence of the highly fecund intellect of composer Alexandre David. Lest this idea of “musical chromatography” makes this sound as if the music were expelled from the innards of a machine, it should be made eminently clear that conventional acoustic instruments have been used to make this striking music.  

Spectacularly, David has emerged from the tradition like a man with a resonant hallelujah and a dramatic epiphany. All the conventional tools of music are clearly present here – melody, harmony, rhythm – complete with surprising tempi, startlingly moody accelerando and ritardando, the lot. 

However, what is notable about David’s music is that gone are the melodic, structural and harmonic hooks that have been expressively blunted through overuse. David has tossed all of this dross overboard, rebuilding his music from what might – or mightn’t – be left.

Nanimissuat Île-tonnerre – with text by the Innu poet Natasha Kanapé Fontaine and throat-singing melded into the chorale – is the most riveting moment on the disc. This is not easy music to nail. But Orchestre de l’Agora, with Nicolas Ellis conducting, shepherds these crack musicians through David’s masterly opuses realising his ideas faithfully, without compromising his sound-world.

Listen to 'Alexandre David: Photogrammes' Now in the Listening Room

Almost As Soft As Silence
Christopher Whitley (solo violin, free improvisation)
Independent (christopherwhitley.bandcamp.com/album/almost-as-soft-as-silence)

Is there a perfect composition to showcase one of the finest violins in the world? Violinist Christopher Whitley was inspired to record some free expressions with his 1770 Taft Stradivarius violin (on generous loan at the time from the Canada Council Instrument Bank) for a shorter, 30-minute disc of what could best be described as love poems to the violin. Recorded in one single take, unedited, each miniature composition reflects the relationship between the violinist and his prized loan and the resonance of the St. Stephens church in Belvedere, CA. Whitley, a stunningly versatile performer with everything from classical, new music, improvisation, jazz, folk and rock in his skill set, takes a breather to play freely, thoughtfully, and authentically, allowing the instrument to sparkle unadorned. Whitley chooses to record the miniature compositions in single takes, one leading to the other almost as gestures. The title track almost as soft as silence is a mere sparkle at 15 seconds long, whereas the others such as seven and a5 b5 g5 range between two to four minutes of divine simplicity, allowing the instrument to breathe, and capturing the essence of both artists – the player and the maker. The album recording was videotaped and is available on YouTube, but I found listening was even better on its own.

This album was perfect scoring for the snowstorm raging outside my window; wind sweeping in gestural gusts kept perfect pace with the sonic explorations. Less about technical wizardry and more about a duet between player and instrument, in a sense it felt more like being back at the beginning of the life of the 1700 Stradivarius. Without the clutter of pyrotechnics or dramatic composition, we have an intimate and pure setting to enjoy the offering, like fine morsels of cheese without the bread.

Fluid Dynamics
Rachel Lee Priday; David Kaplan
Orchid Classics ORC100323 (orchidclassics.com/releases/orc100323-fluid-dynamics)

What strikes me the most about this album is the sheer beauty of the music. Flowing, poetic, immeasurable, visceral and cinematographic, the music is an alluring ode to what lies deep within. The collaborative musical/visual project of violinist Rachel Lee Priday, oceanographer Georgy Manucharayan and six contemporary composers is beaming with imagination and curiosity. Manucharayan’s job includes studying the motion of the oceans and the reasons for it, and in the process he makes experimental videos of these fluid dynamics, using classical music to amplify the movements. It is out of his work that the idea arose to pair the commissioned pieces with selected videos, resulting in a stunning project whose depth is best experienced in live performances.

Rachel Lee Priday’s playing is captivating and intense. Virtuosic, with clear direction, and the imagination and sonority of an exceptional artist, Priday reflects the dance of the ocean effortlessly and naturally. All but one of the compositions are written for solo violin and require an exceptional amount of stamina and energy in performance. Four are commissioned for this project while the remaining three are earlier commissions by Priday.

The album opens with Gabrielle Smith’s Entangled on a Rotating Planet, a wild, energetic, mesmerizing piece. Waterworks by Paul Wiancko, inspired by the energy of a whirling red vortex, brings in a masculine, rhythmical pulse. Convection Loops by Cristina Spinei and Three Suns by Timo Andres are consummately poetic; witnesses to the vastness and colours of the oceans. In addition to two lovely compositions by Leilehua Lanzilotti, ko’inoa and to speak in a forgotten language, the last piece on the album, Violin Sonata by Christopher Cerrone, featuring David Kaplan on piano, is an edgy expedition into a sonic palette.

sedgeflowers MANTRA
HereNowHear
False Azure Records FAR no.2 (falseazurerecords.com/2024/12/06/no-2-sedgeflowers-mantra)

Aleatory approaches to art, where chance and randomness play a central role in determining the outcome and direction of an object (material, musical or otherwise), is a 20th-century creative technique that found legs in literature (the cut-up technique of William S. Burroughs and John Lennon), as well as music (perhaps most famously associated with John Cage’s Music of Changes). Said technique is also associated with the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Often, however, his work utilizing this method is overshadowed by his seminal electronic compositions (Studie I and Studie II) that have made a more pervasive cultural impact, influencing everyone from Aphex Twin, Thurston Moore and Sonic Youth, Miles Davis, Frank Zappa and the Grateful Dead. 

What is sometimes lost in the application of the labels “controversial,” “modernistic” and “groundbreaking,” that are so often attached to Stockhausen’s output, is the fact that many of his pieces are also beautiful, accessible and imminently listenable. This is particularly so when performed by the talented young piano duo of American Ryan MacEvoy McCullough and Canadian Andrew Zhou. Recording for False Azure Records at various points between 2018 and 2022, this newly released album pairs Stockhausen’s famous 1970 Mantra (which utilizes a 13-note tone-row) with two new “companion” compositions by John Liberatore and Christopher Stark, for a satisfying listening experience. 

With McCullough and Zhou doing double-duty on both piano and various cymbals and hand percussion instruments, this beautifully recorded and mixed double-CD offers a welcome introduction for anyone interested in the music of Stockhausen, or in the exciting new talents of these fine pianists.