| |
In general, stick to the major record labels if
you want interpretations by great artists of the core repertoire;
investigate the smaller labels if you’re interested in lesser-known
works. There’s no clearer demonstration of this than the clutch
of 20th-century music CDs that recently came my way for review.
Listening to them confirmed a number of things in my mind: first,
that there’s an extraordinary wealth of music out there to explore;
second, that CDs give today’s composers and instrumentalists unprecedented
opportunities for self-promotion; and last, that the term "20th-century
music" incorporates such a variety of styles as to be virtually
meaningless.
Simplest musical forces first: solo recital discs.
In the refreshingly direct booklet note for his CD Etude Philharmonique
(Metier MSV CD92028), Peter Sheppard Skærved
writes what I’d always felt but never dared say: "By itself,
the violin is an unsatisfactory instrument. It has a limited tessitura,
and cannot really provide bass ‘underpinning’ to melodic material.
. . . It is limited in terms of accuracy, speed and dynamics, and
has no sustaining pedal. Without the company of other instruments,
it exposes the audience to the player’s inadequacies, writ large."
But of course a large number of contemporary composers have written
important works for solo violin, among them Hans Werner Henze, whose
Etude Philharmonique is an extended version of the cadenza
from his Il Vitalino Raddopiato for violin and chamber orchestra.
Skærved has more than risen to the challenge, and no inadequacies
are exposed by his recording of this and other works by Henze, Naji
Hakim, David Matthews, and Dmitri Smirnov. He demonstrates that,
in the right hands, the solo violin can evoke a remarkable range
of moods and colors.
Ilya Gringolts, the 19-year-old Russian
virtuoso, has recorded solo violin sonatas by Hindemith (Op. 31,
Nos. 1 and 2) and Ysaÿe (Op. 27, Nos. 3 and 6), plus Schnittke’s
romantic A Paganini, for the Swedish BIS label (BIS-CD-1051).
Gringolts began his own composition career as a teenager in St.
Petersburg, and one of his prize-winning works, the Sonata Bachiana
from 1997, is also included on the disc. "Each movement,"
he explains, "has its own ‘ancestor’ in Bach’s pieces."
The playing and sound quality are of a high order, but for a listener
like me, who prefers his string sound accompanied, it was a relief
to turn to music for string instrument with piano, and six CDs of,
again, enormously varied repertoire.
Violinist Josef Suk needs little introduction
to Strings readers, but the composer of his recent two-disc
set Works for Violin and Piano (Supraphon SU 3401-2 132,
with pianist Josef Hála) may. In his long life Josef
Bohuslav Foerster (1859–1951) was a highly respected composer,
organist, and academic whose works are a blend of Czech tradition
and German Romanticism. The violin pieces (and the Suite for Viola
and Piano) collected here date from 1889 to 1945—an eventful period
in terms of the development of 20th-century music, but one that
appears to have passed Foerster by. Nevertheless, these are attractively
lyrical and romantic works, many of which have never been recorded
before. Suk may not display the flashy brilliance of a young soloist,
but the relaxed mastery of his instrument is a joy to hear—and is
surely more appropriate in works like these.
Wilhelm Klepper (born 1924) was concertmaster
of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and has composed a large number
of chamber works. Cavalli Records’ CD of his music (CCD 235) features
the Trio for Piano, Violin, and Cello (written to commemorate the
centenary of Brahms’s death), Notizen for Solo Violin, and
two works for soprano and piano. With the exception of the pianist,
Ernst Gröschel, this is very much a Klepper
Family production: the composer, naturally enough, plays
the violin; his daughter Regina is the soprano and Bruno Klepper
(presumably his son) the cellist; while Spätsommer (‘Late
Summer’) is set to a poem by the composer’s wife Rosemarie (who
also painted the portrait of her husband reproduced on the CD booklet).
Unfortunately the music, the performances, and the recording all
have a rather amateurish feel (or, rather, sound)—an impression
that was confirmed as soon as I turned to Jennifer Frautschi’s
recital of mainstream repertoire (Artek AR-0006-2). Frautschi made
her début with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the age of
16 and has since won first prize in numerous competitions throughout
the United States. On this disc, accompanied by Marta Aznavoorian,
she gives notable renditions of Stravinsky’s Duo Concertante and
Divertimento for Violin and Piano, and Ravel’s Violin Sonata and
Tzigane.
Germaine Tailleferre (1892–1983) was
the female member of Les Six, a group of Paris-based composers who,
in the 1920s, rejected the institutionalized authority of Romanticism
and Impressionism in favor of greater simplicity of musical expression.
Franco and Bruno Mezzena’s disc of her
works for violin and piano (Dynamic CDS 223) isn’t a "complete
edition"—it doesn’t include, for example, the Adagio (1924)
or Pastorale (1942)—but it offers beautiful performances of the
two Violin Sonatas, the Sonatina, and the Berceuse. Completing
the program is the Violin Sonata by Ravel, with whom Tailleferre
studied until 1930.
The 20th-century concerto repertoire recently released
on disc is no less eclectic. From Naxos (8.559056) comes a bargain
version of the 1987 Violin Concerto by minimalist Philip Glass,
played by Adele Anthony and the Ulster Orchestra conducted
by Takuo Yuasa. Those who respond to what the booklet describes
as "subjecting very small amounts of musical material—often
just a few notes—to extensive repetition" will welcome this
superbly produced disc, which also includes orchestral music from
Glass’ opera Akhnaten and part of his incidental music for
a stage production of Beckett’s prose text Company.
The violinist Camilla Wicks was born
into a Norwegian family in New York City in 1928 and returned to
Scandinavia when she was 18. Both there and in the United States
she pursued a distinguished career as a soloist. She was invited
to meet Sibelius after he heard her perform his Concerto in Helsinki,
she worked closely with Bloch on his Concerto, and she gave
the first performances of many concertante works by Scandinavian
composers. She is now also a highly respected teacher and administrator,
and from the Norwegian label Simax comes a welcome tribute in the
form of two live recordings made with the Oslo Philharmonic and
unearthed from the archives of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation:
Bjarne Brustad’s promising but uneventful Violin Concerto No. 4,
recorded in March 1968, and Walton’s Violin Concerto in a superb
performance from September 1985.
David Ward-Steinman’s works are tougher
nuts to crack, but there is much to enjoy in the premiere recordings
of his Cello Concerto (1964–66) and Cinnabar Concerto for
Viola and Chamber Orchestra (1991–93). Although both works appeal
immediately through their boldness and directness of communication,
they were inspired by abstract visual images—in the case of the
Cello Concerto, the paintings of Mark Rothko. "The soft-edge
color rectangles of his canvases that seem to float so magically
and timelessly in space suggested a sonic backdrop that would serve
as a foil for the dynamic counterpoint of the cello," the composer
explains in the booklet note. "I envisaged the cello moving
in that sound space, dynamic against static sheets of sound—the
color blocks—that would iridesce through subtly shifting instrumentation."
Personally, I responded to this disc in purely musical terms, and
I imagine that most listeners will do the same. Excellent, full-bodied
sound, and committed performances from Howard Colf (cello)
and Karen Elaine Bakunin (viola) with the Moravian
Philharmonic Orchestra of Olomouc, conducted by David Amos (Fleur
de Son FDS 57946).
Finally, two discs featuring California-based violinist
Karen Bentley. She and Bruce Hanifan have
conceived, performed and recorded Ariel View (Bruce Hanifan
Productions 6 4181-91111-2 1), a disc of ten gentle and soothing
tone poems for violin and piano (for "piano" read also
"sampler and percussion") inspired by the famous character
in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. To order, contact Bruce Hanifan
Productions at PO Box 341292, Los Angeles, CA 90034 or hanihouse@earthlink.net.
Bentley is also the soloist in Stuart Diamond’s
fascinating Konzerto, which the composer describes
as "the reimagining of the great romantic violin concertos
of the 19th century" (Electronic Artists Records EA 102A).
In almost every sense a "traditional" Romantic violin
concerto, the big difference in this work is that the orchestral
accompaniment is electronic and features synthesizers and MIDI sequencing.
The third of the four movements is the weakest musically and it’s
where, despite repeated hearings, I always lose interest in the
piece; but this is nevertheless a concerto of great beauty and inventiveness.
The other work on the CD is Diamond’s Succubus, a six-movement
tone poem for violin (Karen Bentley again), soprano (Kerry
Walsh) and electronic orchestra. Both this disc and Ariel
View demonstrate that a contemporary electronic sound can be
married to traditional "classical" musicianship; and I
wouldn’t be at all surprised if they encourage your kids (or your
students) to persevere with their own violin practice when nothing
else inspires them. Try casually playing the music in your car on
the school run, or just before the lesson starts, and see what reaction
you get.
Excerpted
from Strings
magazine, August/September 2001, No. 96
|
