Modern and Contemporary

Review

Wistful sentiments dominate the opening moments of most of the works on this collection of wind music by British composer Peter Hope. His music can be called contemporary in terms of date (all six works were composed in the space of six years, between 2009 and 2015) but in character it’s all unabashedly anachronistic. As capably written as the pieces are, one can only imagine Hope has determined that the harmonic and rhythmic language of the most conservative 20th-century composers is sufficient to his artistic needs. The writing for recorder goes even further back in time, echoing the pre-Baroque era with open parallel harmonies. He ventures into the popular idioms of jazz and klezmer styles, which sadly come off as cliché to such a jaded ear as mine. It is music that remains by the hearth in the library, caftan-wrapped, brandy snifter at hand, faithful hound at its feet. It is comfortable and, for those seeking such, comforting.

All performances are quite good, and the production is untainted by excessive reverb, the sound clean and direct. The piano balances the soloists on all the sonatas, while remaining clear and forthright. The instruments are each presented with all their idiosyncrasies, close-miked enough to catch tone-hole whistles yet not such that any warts are apparent. Kudos to engineer Richard Scott for capturing a soundscape so familiar to the undergraduate ear – that of the academic recital hall – in this case the one at Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

Review

In 1993, two Canadians – pianist-conductor Philip Headlam and pianist Douglas Finch – co-founded Britain’s Continuum Ensemble specializing in contemporary music. Here they present first recordings of works by two prominent English composers, both in their 40s but very different stylistically.

Kenneth Hesketh’s A Land So Luminous for violin and piano and IMMH for solo cello feature fragmentary outbursts, prolonged pauses and directionless meandering. In IMMH, an “imagined shamanic ritual, marking the passage from life to death,” the cellist plucks, bows, vocalizes and knocks on the cello’s body, but with no discernible trajectory. Hesketh’s three-movement Cautionary Tales for clarinet, violin and piano was adapted from his five-movement Netsuke for large ensemble. Both works ostensibly depict literary “events and characters” but offer only more fragments, silences and meandering.

Five engrossing pieces by Richard Causton follow, providing welcome contrast. Threnody for soprano, two clarinets and piano is a moody setting of a Russian anti-war poem from 1915. His 13-minute Rituals of Hunting and Blooding, two movements for large ensemble, would make an effective ballet score, with its wildly syncopated rhythms of the chase followed by the solemn initiations of hunters being ceremonially marked with their prey’s blood. Sleep for solo flute is a dignified elegy, commissioned by a widower in memory of his wife. Finally, Douglas Finch plays two atmospheric piano pieces, Non Mi Comporto Male and Night Piece, contemplative homages, respectively, to Fats Waller and Mozart.

One thumb down; one thumb up.

Review

The convergence on this disc of horn-playing composer Gunther Schuller (1925-2015) and tuba virtuoso Aaron Tindall in Concerto No.2 for Contrabass Tuba and Symphony Orchestra (2008) is highly successful. Professional French horn player Schuller’s orchestration skills and affinity for low-registered instruments are evident; at the opening the solo tuba emerges wonderfully from darkness. With the Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra under Jeffrey Meyer, Tindall gives an adept, eloquent recording of this mostly expressionist concerto. Horn-tuba affinity recurs in Dana Wilson’s (b.1946) Concerto for Tuba and Wind Ensemble (2013). It begins with an offstage horn echoing the tuba, and continues with motifs over a minimalist weave. Tindall’s melodic shaping and building together with the Ithaca Wind Ensemble in the second movement is remarkable, but unfortunately the composer’s turn to a jazz finale is awkward.

Harmonien (2006) by Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) is played here on tuba, not the original bass clarinet. Including a wealth of sounds and processes, it is a solo tour de force for Tindall. The composer’s claims of colour and time-of-day associations do not resonate with me, though. The bold Are You Experienced? for electric tuba, narrator, and chamber orchestra (1987-89) by David Lang (b.1957) would ideally be best experienced live or on DVD. Its imaginative take on the situation of having received a brain injury breaks new ground, and Tindall’s evocation of Jimmy Hendrix’s fuzz-tone guitar on the electric tuba is truly amazing!