CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk

Provided by Lancaster E-Prints 60 Tempo 60 (237) 60–71 © 2006 Cambridge University Press DOI: 10.1017/S0040298206000222 Printed in the United Kingdom

 

ELLIOTT CARTER: Dialogues1; Boston Concerto; Cello Concerto is dedicated to Carter’s wife Helen, and Concerto2; ASKO Concerto3. 1Nicolas Hodges (pno), has a literary epigraph from William Carlos 2Fred Sherry (vlc), 1London Sinfonietta, 2BBC Williams’s poem ‘Rain’ whose images of the Symphony Orchestra, 3ASKO Ensemble, c. Oliver fragility and flow of water have affinities with Knussen. Bridge 9184. Richard Crashaw’s ‘bulla’ (bubble), the key image for Carter’s monumental yet far from monolithic In my review of Vol. 6 in Bridge’s Carter series Symphonia: Sum Fluxae Pretiam Spei (1993–7). (Tempo Vol. 60 No. 236, p.75) I complained of the The mixture of delicacy and energy in the missed opportunity for pairing the Violin Boston Concerto, set into a finely-balanced Concerto with the Cello Concerto. Yet I have to structure which runs for almost 17 minutes, acknowledge that this latter work fits very well makes this a particularly successful example of into the chronological scheme adopted for Vol. 7. Carter’s late style. Dialogues for piano and Nor, this time, can I object to any incongruous chamber orchestra, which followed a year later, is juxtapositions of early and later pieces. The four no less absorbing, with meditative moments – works included here span a mere four years pauses for thought? – bringing light and air to the (2000–2003) and, given that Carter was 91 in music’s predominantly abrasive, caustic December 1999, they provide a more powerful arguments. record of late creative vitality than any other All these performances benefit greatly from collection on disc. the supremely perceptive involvement of Oliver Only the earliest piece, the ASKO Concerto Knussen, and the quality of solo and ensemble (2000) has been issued before; it accompanied the playing is outstanding throughout. The recorded 2003 release of Carter’s one-act opera What Next? balances for Dialogues and the Cello Concerto take (ECM 1817) in a studio recording made in 2001 by care not to spotlight the soloists at the expense of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra under intricate orchestral detail: perhaps a little too Peter Eötvös. The Bridge recording is actually much so in the case of the Cello Concerto, though earlier than that – the Amsterdam world première the textures here – despite the valiant efforts of (26 April 2000) – and launches Carter into the 21st Fred Sherry and the Knussen-directed orchestra – century with a characteristically knotty (but far are particularly difficult for the ear to unravel. from grim) play on the contrasts between a Dialogues is less adamantine, and hearing it soon ‘whole’ comprising 16 players and various after the superb performance of the Piano subgroups. Running just over 10 minutes in this Concerto by Nicolas Hodges, conducted by performance (the Eötvös lasts a little longer) it Knussen, during the BBC’s Carter Weekend actually makes a more substantial impression creates the fervent hope that Bridge might than the Cello Concerto (2001), which is twice the arrange to issue that – with other orchestral length and, perhaps for that reason, can’t escape works from the same event – as soon as possible. all accusations of a dutiful busy-ness in its faster Arnold Whittall episodes, as well as of a general tendency to textural opacity. Most memorable in the Cello Concerto is the stark distinction between the penultimate Tranquillo, which seems to enter a state of mesmerised repose, and the concluding Allegro JOHN TAVENER: Schuon Lieder. Patricia Rozaro (sop), fantastico, which reverts to restless open- Gillian McDonagh (temple bowls), The Schubert endedness. But there’s an even more potent Ensemble. Black Box BBM1101. juxtaposition of disparate states at the end of the Boston Concerto (2002), where a short section Despite its hour-long duration, John Tavener’s marked Maestoso – molto espressivo, notable for its Schuon Lieder (2003) shows a mastery of the well-nigh Bergian melodic yearnings, gives way miniature, since none of its 19 songs lasts more to an even shorter coda restoring the work’s than five minutes. The delicately-scored settings predominantly febrile character. The Boston of poems by the Sufi mystic Frithjof Schuon

http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 08 Dec 2010 IP address: 194.80.32.10   61

feature solo soprano, piano, string quartet and Scholars, the piece was commissioned by four Tibetan temple bowls. Many of the texts Symphony Hall, Birmingham, completed in 1999 celebrate divine love and their joy is lovingly and was to have opened the Hall’s 2002–3 concert mirrored in Tavener’s musical response. season. Postponed at the last minute, its belated The first song features artless, child-like debut four years later gave the impression that vaulting piano figurations clipping through most of the participants had moved on. This is gauzed string harmonics, providing glorious true musically, in Tavener’s case: with its simple, accompaniment to the soloist’s soaring line, stark voice, Tribute to Cavafy predates the punctuated by gently resonating temple bowls. composer’s recent embrace of all world religions The second song, marked ‘Monumental’ is and Western musical developments and belongs recognizably from the same pen as The Veil of the to his more austere ‘Greek Orthodox’ phase. Temple (2001), Schuon Hymnen (2003) and Shûnya The centrepiece, ‘Voices’, was the indisputable (2003): new vistas are opened up with every highlight. In between the narrator’s dramatic transcendental harmonic shift. The crystalline declamation of Cavafy’s literary descendants and clarity of the liquid piano trills in Song III is purely the Biblical record of Christ’s genealogy, the Schubertian; elsewhere, J.S. Bach, Webern and choir, together with a smaller group of singers Messiaen are consciously alluded to. There is far placed at a distance, chanted verses with more to the cycle than mere eclecticism, however. increasingly intensity. The semi-chorus sopranos The twelfth song, the emotional core, is an negotiated notes well above the stave with skill extended, heartfelt setting of an early poem by and purity, whilst the basses plumbed equally Schuon, written in response to an unhappy love- impressive sepulchral, subterranean depths. affair which drew him closer to God. Oriental Mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly’s radiant solo exoticism suffuses Songs VIII and XVI, whilst the line was distinguished by its ecstatic, swiftly- last song, ‘Ein Lied’, is particularly memorable for repeated-note echoes. The gradual paring-down its child-like tenderness, feminine delicacy and of the multiple lines to leave the basses intoning poignant sense of journey’s end: ‘The heart will the one syllable ‘God’ was an especially melt in ultimate love - For all eternity’. imaginative, lucid finishing touch. The settings are interspersed with brief, Nothing else in the work quite matched this wispily austere, scuttling canons for string quartet level of invention, though there were many in rippling quintuplets, based on material from individual effects to admire, including the chorus the preceding songs, casting new light on them. monolithically intoning the words on an ancient The omnipresence of the temple bowls lends a tomb while the narrator tries to decipher them. ceremonial air, highlighting the sacred nature of The outer layers of the piece were identical: a many of the poems. folk-like choral setting of ‘Days of 1903’ in Patricia Rozario exults in the soaring upper Cavafy’s original Greek. On its first appearance, reaches of the solo part and the vocal writing is the choppy, heavily accented, staccato soprano ideally suited to her luminous, otherworldly line called to mind a theme from Ennio tones. The Schubert Ensemble offer sensitive Morricone’s film score for The Mission; its support, frequently heightening the emotions of smoother restatement rounded off both the the solo line. They take centre stage in a haunting, section, and the work itself, in a yearning purely instrumental Postlude where the piano contemplation well suited to words describing a recalls the melody of the opening song and takes lost love. over the quintuplets from the strings in a closing The Tallis Scholars, under Peter Phillips, gesture of reconciliation and harmony. Schuon demonstrated phenomenal breath control in Lieder is one of Tavener’s most enchantingly extended passages demanding sustained alluring works and the recording, as is bright and sonorities and Vanessa Redgrave brought a clear as the performance. The intimacy of mesmerizing presence to her key role as narrator; chamber forces suits the personal nature of the but on first hearing, Tribute to Cavafy didn’t appear composer’s idiom perfectly and has inspired him to amount to more than the sum of its varied and to fashion a vibrant spectrum of rich textures. frequently engaging parts. Perhaps the truth is In contrast to the freshness and palpable sense that Tavener has produced such a wealth of of artistic renewal and growth in Schuon Lieder, a rapturously beautiful and musically interesting more prosaic feeling of completing unfinished work since his newfound ecumenism, exemplified business hung over the world première of by Schuon Lieder and The Veil of the Temple, that Tavener’s Tribute to Cavafy for speaker, solo earlier pieces now suffer by comparison. soprano, choir and percussion (bells and Tibetan bowl). Featuring Vanessa Redgrave and The Tallis Paul Conway

http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 08 Dec 2010 IP address: 194.80.32.10 62 

Schoeck’s evocative Klanggründe, the sonic SCHOECK: Penthesilea, op. 39. Yvonne Naef (mezzo- foundations, have the power to match the most sop), Renate Behle (sop), Susanne Reinhard (sop), Ute outlandish effects Kleist devised. The unusual Trekel-Burkhardt (con), James Johnson (bar), Stuart orchestration includes two pianos as well as ten Kale (ten), Cheyne Davidson (bar), Imke Büchel (speak- clarinets in various registers. The violins are er). Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno, Basle Symphony restricted to four solo instruments. The music Orchestra c. Mario Venzago. Musiques Suisses MGB which accompanies Achilles’s loving CD 6232 (2-CD set). pronunciation of Penthesilea’s name is coloured by tuned glasses stroked with a bow. A stierhorn rings out before Achilles’s challenge to the This recording from the 1999 Lucerne Festival Amazon queen. was made in conjunction with Swiss Radio and One of the most striking aspects of Schoeck’s originally appeared on another Swiss CD label. It composition is the highly differentiated use of follows a pioneering LP recording of Othmar speech. Usually this is punctuated by orchestral Schoeck’s long one-acter under Zdenek Macal, chords, although sometimes the accompaniment also with a Lucerne Festival cast, and the single- is more extended. Moreover there’s an CD digital remastering of a performance which intermediate stage between frei gesprochen and Gerd Albrecht conducted at the 1982 Salzburg fully notated recitative, a stage where the rhythms Festival. Schoeck’s Penthesilea was first performed but not the pitches are notated. (Conventional at the Dresden State Opera in 1927. In its subject- time-signatures appear only briefly.) Schoeck’s matter it recalls the dream-states of Debussy’s uncertainty about the audibility of his spoken Pelléas et Mélisande and the violence of Richard passages is reflected at that point where the Strauss’s Salome. Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle is Amazons, after rallying their troops, return to the another obvious forerunner, not least in matters fray. Here the score offers two priestesses of vocal style: the music springs from the verbal alternative deliveries, the notes to be sung ‘only if rhythms and accents. But Schoeck went his own the speaking voice lacks penetration’. way by adapting a century-old text in blank verse. Not surprisingly, one modern German The German dramatist Heinrich von Kleist production of Schoeck’s Penthesilea skirted the gave a radically new complexion to an Ancient technical difficulties by engaging a double cast of Greek story. Set against the background of the speakers and singers. In Lucerne’s semi-staged Trojan Wars, the usual version has it that Achilles version, the main characters continue to oscillate kills Penthesilea in battle and then falls in love between speech and song. But in collaboration with her body. Kleist turns the situation virtually with Hartmut Becker the conductor Mario on its head. First, his Amazon queen breaches a Venzago restores to the cast the character of an tribal rule by seeking Achilles out on the Amazon Oberste or group-captain: one of the battlefield. Having unseated Penthesilea from her Kleistian supporting roles which Schoeck’s horse, Achilles throws down his weapons. The libretto omits. This speaker has not only some queen is rescued and lapses into unconsciousness. lines that Schoeck gave to other Amazons, but When she comes to, she is told that Achilles is her also a few of the many lines of narrative he prisoner, but not that this is true only figuratively. discarded. (The CD booklet doesn’t tell us so; it An idyllic love-interlude is fraught with tragedy. does, however, include the German libretto in The Greek warrior once more challenges Becker’s adaptation.) Also in the avowed interests Penthesilea to combat. Her love abruptly turns of verbal clarity are Venzago’s rhythmic into hatred: as Achilles advances to meet her retouchings to Schoeck’s score. unarmed she unleashes her dogs, and her suitor is The title role is awesome. ‘Half fury, half torn from limb to limb. Recovering from a grace’ is Achilles’s summing up of Penthesilea. sustained trance, she kisses his maimed body, Dramatic power needs to be complemented by surrenders her own weapons and dies of a broken lyrical richness, and Yvonne Naef displays all the heart. vocal qualities required. James Johnson’s bullish The score of Schoeck’s Penthesilea is not Achilles packs a punch, lacking only that wit symphonic; it has been aptly described as musical which Kleist bestowed on the character (and stagecraft. Schoeck’s achievement was to find his which, in the opera’s first recording, was captured own correlates for Kleist’s extraordinary by Roland Hermann). The parts of the Chief polarities and ambiguities, beginning with the Priestess and Prothoe, Penthesilea’s principal harmonic pillars in the opening bars. Essential companion, are sung with eloquence. In the non- elements of the work are stated in the martial Schoeckian part of the Oberste, Imke Büchel orchestral prelude. And throughout the piece, declaims her lines so raspingly that you want to

http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 08 Dec 2010 IP address: 194.80.32.10   63

hand her a glass of water. But in the epilogue her harmonic patterns: a comparison with the early speech finally acquires a human softness. Mario Toch symphonies of the same period shows some Venzago draws compelling performances from striking similarities, although it isn’t clear if they his Czech choir and Swiss orchestral forces. knew one another’s music. (Unlikely, as by this Evidently much thought had been given to tempo time Toch was resident in the USA.) The relations, and for me the most outstanding mysterious chorale figure of the slow movement feature of Venzago’s reading is the treatment of bears testimony to Saygun’s affinity with those passages marked feierlich. As suggested by Gregorian chant, overlaid with beguiling oriental Schoeck’s previous opera Venus, passion, for this inflections. The Second Symphony (1957) shares composer, is as solemn as it is tempestuous. many traits of the First, but the larger orchestra, Herein lies the crucial difference between greater use of colour and freer rhythmic Schoeck’s Penthesilea and Expressionist opera. structures and dance episodes point the way to his The contained sorrow which the crazed queen maturing style. voices in her lucid moments has perhaps no All of Saygun’s music is infused with harmonic musical equal. and tonal ambivalence which gradually evolved Peter Palmer from a cool classical style into a highly decorated Byzantine language: this finds full expression in the Third Symphony (1961), at nearly 40 minutes the longest of the five. This work enjoyed some international exposure, culminating in a SAYGUN: Symphonies (complete); Violin Concerto1; 1 memorable recording of a live performance at the Suite for Orchestra. Mirjam Tschopp (vln), Leningrad International Music Festival in 1988 Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz c. Ari Rasilainen. 3 conducted by Fyodor Glushenko. Both that CDs available separately: CPO 999 819-2 (Symphonies recording and the present version capture the 1, 2), 999 968-2 (Symphonies 3, 5), 777 043-2 (Symphony electrically-charged, densely-argued orchestral 4, Violin Concerto, Suite). dialogues of the first movement. Cascading ostinati and clarion brass summonses yield to Turkish music of the 20th century is often spoken shimmering landscapes of low woodwind and of in terms of the ‘Turkish Five’, a group of strings, illuminated by celeste and glockenspiel. composers which included Necil Kazim Akses The mysterious chorale figuration frames the (1908–99) and Cemal Resid Rey. The most slow movement, another closely-wrought important member of this group by far, and very threnody of enriched polymodal fabric. Like probably Turkey’s finest classical musician ever, is other modernists Saygun favours complex metres Ahmed Adnan Saygun (1907–91). His musical and irregular intersections of tempi which mirror legacy and international reputation ranks his often elusive harmonic evolution. alongside that of Ernst Toch, Honegger, The Violin Concerto (1967) and the Fourth Tcherepnin, Tansman and Wellesz as a major Symphony (1976) share many similarities with the bulwark of the central European modernist Third Symphony, but the dark-hued Concerto is tendency. It is gratifying indeed that the music of more in the nature of a symphonic dialogue: this fascinating figure, whose cultural roots were rhetorical orchestral versicles are met with delicately suspended between the West and the responses either by soloist alone or with uneasy Near East, should now have been subject to a major promptings from groups of instruments, exploration by CPO (at the time of writing a sometimes in an awkward rhythmical gait. In the double CD of the complete String Quartets is slow movement the soloist ploughs a lonely poised for release, also by CPO). furrow, with little approbation from the Saygun’s early years were spent in his native instrumental ensemble except for the occasional land and his thorough study of Turkish folk music animated exchange. The large orchestra informed his own compositions, but the three dominates rather than dwarfs, and it does so too in years he spent in Paris (1928–31) brought him into the Fourth Symphony, a very Gothic work. Indeed direct contact at a crucial time with the music of the opening movement (which like most other Stravinsky, Bartók and of course the French Saygun first movements contains the essence of impressionists. His music of the 1930s and 1940s the whole work) is perhaps Saygun at his most featured several operas on Turkish themes, concentrated: the powerfully-built structures and including a large oratorio, Yunus Emre. It wasn’t heavily fortified foundations are the components however until the early 1950s that Saygun wrote of an imposing and impressive edifice. his First Symphony. It is a wondrous blend of neo- By the time he wrote his Fifth Symphony classical structure and embellished tritonic (1984), Saygun was in his late 70s but the neo-

http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 08 Dec 2010 IP address: 194.80.32.10 64 

classical architecture, rhetorical demeanour, certain amount of Brahmsian syntax, while the unresolved ostinati, tritonic dilemmas and rich cello presents a dodecaphonic elaboration, and colour are still very much in evidence. This is an the piano alternates very dense and very bare excellent series by CPO to add to their sections, quoting opaquely from Brahms’ trios. memorable cycles of music by Milhaud, Wellesz, The result is a gorgeous, lyric, half-tonal reverie, Frankel, Searle, Petterson (and now Sallinen). We and the Fibonaccis create a beautiful clouded are treated yet again to their very high texture, but I must admit I wanted more: more engineering and performance standards. It is hard definition and differentiation of materials, more to think of many other enterprises under way at characterization and urgency in the playing. It’s the moment which have brought so much rare tempting to turn a piece like this into an evocative and valuable music to the fore, and very great soup, but isn’t it more interesting to keep the credit is due all round. various ingredients al dente? Independence Bret Johnson Quadrilles fares better: it’s the same principle of simultaneous independent parts, applied to more sharply differing materials and divided into five distinct sections (the quadrille dances) that alternate chromatic and tonal textures. This is BARRY: In the Asylum. CLARKE: Piano Trio; Etude; music written in the true chamber spirit of Independence: Part 1; Island; Isolation. FINNISSY: In stiller domestic enjoyment, and here the Fibonaccis’ Nacht; Independence Quadrilles; Necessary and More characterization comes alive with variety and Detailed Thinking. Trio Fibonacci. NMC D107. humour. Finnissy’s third contribution, a witty miniature Trio Fibonacci’s new disc of Barry, Finnissy and entitled Necessary and More Detailed Thinking, Clarke looks on paper a provocative sounds like sexed-up serialism (think Boulez juxtaposition, and so it proves: listening to these under the bedclothes); a rather piquant three very different (not to say antithetical) juxtaposition, perhaps, with the very serious musical personalities placed cheek-by-jowl is as High Modernism of James Clarke. Compared uncomfortable as it is stimulating. It’s also rather with Barry and Finnissy, Clarke’s pieces here seem understated as a programme: trios and solos, no both traditional and quite conventional, with major statements, all three composers indulging their Romantic spin on modernist complexity and the intimacy of the medium in a series of their predilection for dark, brooding emotional ruminative essays. and dramatic situations. This is well-mapped Even the normally excitable Gerald Barry is territory, and Clarke only partially avoids the relatively becalmed, though his trio In The Asylum pitfalls of gestural and structural clichés that has its moments of more characteristically strew his path. The Piano Trio begins in a maniacal energy. Unfolding episodically from a fascinating half-world of tonal chimeras and sequence of tantalizingly plain (even catechistic) glinting strings, but soon diverts into stock repetitions of a chromatic phrase in the violin, it rhetorical manoeuvres that drown the piece in feels like a very thorough cut-up of something portentousness. The piano piece Island, however, else; its material, rhythmically stiff and sustains an oppressive heaviness that hangs over proceeding principally by non sequitur, is either the whole work until a stunning moment of arrayed palindromically across a section or dawning releases new colours. Other solo pieces, repeated over and over with ever-changing for violin and cello, are perhaps less individual but instrumentation. The overall effect is attractively allow the other Fibonaccis a chance to shine. low-key, as if the music being (dis-)assembled like Overall, this disc does the group proud: serious, a jigsaw puzzle in thoughtful calm. Perhaps this is complex music played with style, technical the calm of the asylum (the laconic programme excellence and musical empathy that betokens note isn’t giving much away): certainly the piece real star quality. Let’s hope they continue to has a fascinating air of eccentric studiousness. explore such challenging repertoire. The cutting-up and transforming of tonal James Weeks materials also inform Michael Finnissy’s trios In stiller Nacht and Independence Quadrilles, though more explicitly so and to quite different effect. In stiller Nacht is a ‘derangement’ of Brahms’s SKALKOTTAS: Ballet Suite: The Sea; Four Images; Greek folksong arrangement, in which each instrument Dance in C minor. MITROPOLOS orch. SKALKOT- independently presents ‘different views of TAS: Cretan Feast. Iceland SO c. Byron Fidetzis. Brahms’s manner or style.’ The violin preserves a BIS-CD-1384.

http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 08 Dec 2010 IP address: 194.80.32.10   65

SKALKOTTAS: Piano Concerto No. 21; Tema con The Sea is a much larger and stronger work Variazioni; Little Suite for strings; Four Images. 1Geoffrey than the Images, cast in 11 numbers which Douglas Madge (pno), BBC SO c. Nikos illustrate a succession of scenes as if from a frieze. Christodoulou. BIS-SACD-1484. After a sturdy Moderato maestoso prelude, the music moves through a series of episodes It is a curious irony that, having finally displaced depicting naturalistic or supernatural aspects of Byron Fidetzis’ pioneering recording of the Greek the sea, whether sailors (as in the second and Dances – played by enthusiastic if unpolished fourth pieces, ‘The Child of the Sea’ and ‘The players from the Urals – with their own (BIS-CD- Trawl’), a tempest (the third, ‘Dance of the 1333/4, reviewed in Tempo 199) BIS should draft Waves’), sea creatures (Nos 6 and 7, ‘The Little him in to take charge of their recording of Fish’, ‘The Dolphins’) and a mermaid, who Skalkottas’s superb late ballet, The Sea (1948–9), becomes – along with Alexander the Great – the and in Iceland, moreover. But the Icelanders have focus of the final quarter of the ballet. The music already made a substantial contribution to the is, like the vast majority of Skalkottas’s output series: the quality of ensemble and sheer pizzazz from 1944, tonal with a broadly nationalist of their playing are undeniably greater. They flavour. In the notes, Kostis Demertzis notes the clearly relish the unusual idiom and the joie de resonances of some mainstream Western musical vivre that is characteristic of all the pieces on the exemplars in parts of the score; British listeners in first of these two latest additions to this particular will pick up hints (entirely enthralling series. subconscious on Skalkottas’s part, I am sure) of Skalkottas’s theatre scores have been a major Arthur Bliss, in best Things To Come mode, in the feature of the orchestral issues in BIS’s series, central ‘The Dolphins’. What emerges is a work with those for (or extracts from) The Mayday Spell, of great charm but rather less intellectual rigour The Maiden and Death and The Gnomes previously than the composer’s more abstract concert featured.1 Fidetzis’ disc includes two more, one – works; it is noticeable, for instance, how static The Sea – intended as a dance score, the other harmonically the music in The Sea is compared to (1948) – originally titled Little Dance Suite and Four his serial pieces. How The Sea would work on the Greek Dances for the Ballet – being perhaps a study stage as a consequence is an open question. for the larger work, although ironically it reached Fidetzis’ couplings included an updated Greek the stage under its final title of Four Images. The Dance in C minor and Skalkottas’s student (1923–4) change of name was well advised as these are not orchestration of Dimitris Mitropoulos’ vibrant in any way a continuation of the great sequence piano piece Cretan Feast of five years before. of Greek Dances. Rather they are – as the original Although the two men had very different artistic titles suggest – structurally simpler pieces meant missions, Mitropoulos approved of his for choreography while the earlier sets were compatriot’s arrangement sufficiently to conduct celebrations of the composer’s folk heritage its première in 1926 (and of course conducted (albeit refracted through his personal aesthetic). other scores of his). As Demertzis comments, the Their agricultural subjects, different for the most C minor Greek Dance Dance is a very different part to the evocations of place in the larger set, proposition to those in the set of 36, almost a emphasize the difference in expressive purpose, in throwback to an earlier manner: indeed, to the a not-quite-seasonal cycle (autumn to autumn, very type of dance, typical of Brahms or Dvorˇák, perhaps): the ‘Hay Harvest’ leads via ‘The that one imagines Skalkottas particularly wanted Sowing’, ‘Wine Harvest’ (aka ‘The Vintage’) to to avoid in the 1930s. From the orchestration, the what was originally called ‘Dance of the Grapes’ C minor Greek Dance is believed to date from 1949, but by Fidetzis ‘The Grape Stomping’. Curiously, but whether this is another example of Skalkottas the Four Images also appear on BIS’s other new attempting a less personal style late on (hard to release, conducted by Nikos Christodoulou, imagine why, when the other Greek Dances had where the finale is entitled ‘The Wine-press’. been such – indeed his only – popular success) or a Christodoulou catches the Bacchic fervour of the rejected off-cut from somewhat earlier is a mystery. third and fourth movements more than Fidetzis, While the first of these discs is (largely) relaxed although the minute-long difference in their and entertaining, then the second is the more performances is due mainly to the latter’s much challenging and satisfying. The major component slower tempo for ‘The Sowing’. Why the Images is the Second Piano Concerto in a dazzlingly alone should feature twice in the series is not virtuosic account from Geoffrey Douglas Madge, explained in either booklet. accompanied by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The work’s fearsome technical demands, like 1 BIS-CDs -954, -1014 and -1364 respectively. those in the First and Third Concertos, seem to

http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 08 Dec 2010 IP address: 194.80.32.10 66 

hold no terrors for either soloist or orchestra who, under Christodoulou’s sensitive, purposeful CECILIA MCDOWALL: Seraphim; Dance the dark streets; direction, provide a well-shaped interpretation Dancing fish; Not Just a Place; Dream City; The case of the that suggests they had been performing the piece unanswered wire. Kathryn Thomas (fl), Catriona Scott for years. Just listen to the opening Allegro molto (cl), Suzanne Willison (hp), Tippett Quartet, Orchestra vivace to hear what I mean, but better still is the Nova c. George Vass. DUTTON Epoch CDLX 7159 ensuing Andantino. If the marking suggests something trifling or insignificant, what emerges This highly recommended disc builds on the off the page in Madge’s hands is far from it: a success of Dutton’s superb collection of choral complex, ambivalent movement (not least the works by Cecilia McDowall (CDLX 7159), way it plays tag with sonata form, the base distinguished by a strikingly reflective setting of structure for the other two movements) full of the Magnificat and a sumptuously alluring Ave rapt textures and fantastical landscapes. The maris stella. concluding Allegro moderato is perfectly Written in memory of Adam Raphael, proportioned to provide the concerto with a fully Seraphim (2001) is a brightly-hued concerto for satisfying, yet energetic finale – bearing out Hans solo trumpet, strings and percussion. In the Keller’s famous view (after the 1954 première opening movement, ‘Blow your trumpets’, airily broadcast by the BBC) quoted in the booklet, that textured strings chatter in half-Baroque, half-jazz the music is ‘as romantic as all full-blooded music, language, supporting the flexible trumpet solo, and as classical as all great art’. played with admirable technical security and As if that were not enough, the disc – issued as poetic sensibility by Paul Archibald. The central a Super Audio CD – adds two further works (plus, ‘Angells’ is hauntingly memorable, with eerie, as already mentioned, the more incisive of the ethereal whispering bowed crotales and string two accounts of the Four Images): the delightful harmonics hovering above delicately searing Little Suite for strings (1942) and Tema con semitonal clashes between solo violin and muted Variazioni (1949), which seems to be the last music trumpet lines. The worldly finale, ‘Imagin’d Skalkottas penned, intended as the fifth Corners’, is predominated by the soloist’s movement of the Second Orchestral Suite arpeggiated figures, punctuated by tom-tom (previous sections of which have appeared interjections. Increasingly florid solo lines drive already in the series2). The orchestration of the the work to a decisive conclusion. final 66 bars was left unfinished (the booklet Dance the Dark Streets, a concerto grosso for contains a brief note on the straightforward task strings and piano obbligato, was inspired by of completing it.) This was to be no interlude- poems about aspects of Scottish weather. In type structure, however, in the manner of, for ‘Haar’, McDowall captures the drifting, looming example, the variation middle movement of quality of a chilly sea-mist, whilst the closing Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony (sublime as that is). movement dispels the mist with a bracing wild Rather, Skalkottas’s piece is self-contained and wind. Amid the wafting paragraphs of the finale, compressed, its 11-minute timespan suggesting a the music relaxes for a tellingly wistful passage. composition of much larger dimensions. The Just before the final gusty bars blow out the Andante theme and three variations (Allegretto; music, there is a brief recollection of the previous Moderato; Allegro ritmato) function more like small movement’s mood of ominous calm, a quietly movements – not unlike those in Hindemith’s The effective gesture. Four Temperaments – than variations per se, in the A Russian fable by Ivan Krylov led to Dancing manner of, say, Elgar’s Enigma: the whole fish, for soprano saxophone and strings. The movement has the feel of a suite in itself as much soloist plays a fragment of Russian folksong in the as being the component of one. Indeed, it is opening section, and this recurs as the piece longer and weightier than the Little Suite, whose gathers momentum, progressing from flowing three movements, Allegro – Andante – Allegro vivo, tranquillity to frenetic dancing. Conceived as a are in an atonal style, but one free of note-rows or single beautifully-controlled accelerando, it ends formulaic patterns. This is atonality with its most with a vigorously propulsive jig. Amy Dickson’s listener-friendly face on. It is splendidly played, as saxophone solo is alert to every shift in the music’s are all the works on the disc, and the sound is character, supported responsively by George Vass spectacular. and his players. Guy Rickards Conceived in homage to Astor Piazzolla, Not Just a Place is a highly-charged single-movement 2 The opening Ouvertüre Concertante on BIS-CD-954 and the structure for violin, double bass and strings. The fourth movement, Largo Sinfonico, on BIS-CD-1014. tango opens with an air of repression, desolation

http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 08 Dec 2010 IP address: 194.80.32.10   67

and loneliness with the two soloists, a seemingly This winning release offers finely polished and odd couple, locked in imitative writing. They well-recorded accounts of some of Cecilia gradually untwine as the music marshals itself for McDowall’s most compelling pieces. The life- a final dance of defiance. Double bass slaps, affirming, restorative strength of her direct and stabbing accents and riotous glissandi turn up the unaffected speech is fully communicated in these heat.The grimly stalking ostinato in the lower carefully prepared, joyous performances. strings calls to mind the hulking bass line in the Paul Conway finale of Andrjez Panufnik’s Sinfonia Rustica: something of that great work’s earthy passion informs McDowall’s torrid, sultry score. Soloists Freya Ritts-Kirby and Benjamin Griffiths capture BROUWER: Aurolucent Circles (Percussion Concerto)1; perfectly the oppressive seductiveness of the 1 music. Mandala; Remembrances; Sizzle. Evelyn Glennie (perc), Dream City, commissioned by the Presteigne Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra c. Gerard Festival, is written for the same forces (flute, Schwarz. Naxos 8.559250. clarinet, harp and string quartet) as the Ravel BAUER: Lament on African Themes; Concertino for oboe Introduction and Allegro, whose elegant spirit clarinet and strings; Trio Sonata No.1; Symphonic Suite illuminates this delicately-traced musical for strings; Duo for oboe and clarinet; American Youth response to the life and works of Paul Klee. In the Concerto. Ambache Chamber Orchestra and Ensemble. evocative prelude-like movement, ‘Method of Naxos 8.559253. measuring time’, bright woodwind skirls punctuate the texture, adorning the underlying KIM: Violin Concerto; Dialogues for piano and string chords with pungent, irregular dabs. orchestra; Cornet for narrator and orchestra. Cecylia ‘Walking the line’ spotlights the first violin’s Arzewski (vln), William Wolfram (pno), Robert Kim conversational interactions with surrounding (narr), RTE National Symphony Orchestra c. Scott instruments. The lyrical slow movement, inspired Yoo. Naxos 8.559226. by Klee’s ‘Oriental’ landscape ‘Before the Snow’, LEVY: Symphony No. 3; Cello Concerto No. 2; Rondo is characterized by gently rustling strings, whose Tarantella; A Summer Overture. Scott Ballantyne (vlc), undulations provide a backdrop to the vibrant RTE National Symphony Orchestra c. Takuo Yuasa. solos of flute, clarinet, harp and cello. The Naxos 8.559234. scherzo-like Finale, ‘I had to dance’, begins with angular, jagged dance-like patterns, but after a The Naxos American Classics Series has now repeat of the work’s initial flourishes, the piece been running for over seven years, with over 200 ends magically as the final bars leave the City releases so far. It is an impressive achievement: suspended in the air. Dream City successfully pays inevitably there is a range of quality but the tribute to Klee’s interplay of line and colour; the budget price really does present an open goal to players bring out the work’s narrative strength, the moderately adventurous collector. Present without losing sight of its bewitching sonorities highlights are ongoing cycles of symphonies by and rhythmic diversity. Schuman and Roy Harris and major explorations The Tippett Quartet are commanding and of Bernstein, Rochberg, Adams and Barber, and persuasive in The Case of the Unanswered Wire, a the music of William Bolcom. A series of recent concise, closely argued one-movement work ‘one-off’ releases of works by unfamiliar inspired by Douglas Dunn’s verse novel, ‘The composers has added another valuable dimension Donkey’s Ears’, which describes the life and work (see also reviews of Joan Tower and Ellen Taaffe of a Russian engineer aboard ship at the time of Zwilich in the preceding issue of Tempo). the 1905 Russo-Japanese war. Menacing Margaret Brouwer (b 1940 – no relation to the mechanical figurations are frozen by the icy stasis Cuban guitarist/composer Leo Brouwer, so far as of the grieving central section. The remorseless I am aware) heads this round-up: her works were finale resumes the mechanism of the opening totally unfamiliar to me except for a brief Clarinet section, punctuated by hectoring Morse code Concerto (1994 – available on MMC 2080 with signals. The music falters into baleful silence as all Richard Stoltzman as soloist), but I was communication is severed. Compact and completely hooked after acquiring this new powerful, the quartet is fuelled by more than a Naxos issue. Her music is immediately appealing: hint of Elizabeth Maconchy’s gift for terse but its idiom is direct and yet quite challenging, lying telling utterance in this medium. It is subtitled mid-way between Joan Tower and John Harbison, ‘String Quartet no 1’, fostering keen anticipations maybe even a little inclined to the minimalist of further examples. inflections of John Adams. Her Percussion

http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 08 Dec 2010 IP address: 194.80.32.10 68 

Concerto (2002), yet another vehicle for the of such American concertos. These engaging and multi-talented Evelyn Glennie (a regular varied releases are an important paragraph in an inspiration for new music), sparkles with interest ongoing narrative which, hopefully, has many and inventive ideas. Brouwer has a well-developed chapters yet to unfold. aesthetic sensibility and the expressive powers of Bret Johnson this music and the other works (especially the beautifully elegiac Remembrances) put this disc in a class of its own. Of comparable merit is the record devoted to the music of Marion Bauer (1882–1955) one of the ‘The Tend’rest Breast’: settings of women’s poetry by earlier American female composers, who QUILTER, BRIDGE, GURNEY, LENNOX BERKELEY, probably hasn’t had a recording nor many IRELAND, ALASTAIR KING, MADELEINE DRING, performances since her death half a century ago. MONTAGUE PHILLIPS. Georgina Colwell (sop), Nigel She was not overly prolific; her music has a mid- Foster (pno). Dunelm DRD0237. Western transparency of texture and a delicate ‘Strings in the Earth and Air’: settings by MOERAN, and untroubled impressionistic demeanour, with WARLOCK, GEOFFREY STERN. Paul Martyn-West Poulenc and Fauré near to hand. The later (ten), Nigel Foster (pno). Dunelm DRD0249. American Youth Concerto is a pastiche of vernacular styles, and shows off a rare talent which this The poets featured in ‘The Tend’rest Breast’ release has rescued from otherwise certain range widely, from Christina Rossetti, Mary oblivion. Coleridge and Emily Brontë to obscure 20th- Earl Kim (1920–88) is perhaps the weakest link century names. Neither Olive Mary Denson nor in the current chain: his music, whilst well- Quilter’s setting of her ‘Wild Cherry’ will be crafted, doesn’t seem to possess the strength of familiar to many listeners. Madeleine Dring character to give it a distinctive edge. This applied wrote her own text for the cabaret-like ‘Don’t play to the rather bland Violin Concerto your sonata tonight, Mister Humphries’. The title (commissioned and recorded 25 years ago by phrase comes from ‘Hesperus’, one of seven Itzak Perlman). For Cornet (1984), a setting with Sappho songs by Ivor Gurney to be included on orchestra of poems of Rainer Maria Rilke the this CD (William Bliss Carman is not named as composer uses a narrator rather than a vocalist: the translator). Sappho also figures as primary this is a high-risk strategy,3 which can result in source of the first of Lennox Berkeley’s Three portentousness and tends to blunt the music’s Greek Songs. impact. On the whole it is best left to Gettysburg Musically speaking, some typical shifts and addresses and other presentations by the CEO. modulations in the Gurney settings are among I did not hold such reservations about Frank the most striking things on the disc. Alastair King, Ezra Levy (b 1930), another composer totally about whom the booklet says nothing, brings a unfamiliar to me until this release and another literary sensibility and deft structural control to CD of his Symphony No. 4 (see MMC 2021). The bear on three settings of Kathleen Raine. John son of the Swiss Composer Ernst Levy, Frank Ireland’s ‘Hymn for a child’ (after Sylvia Ezra Levy has his own distinctive style, very Townsend Warner) and ‘Love and friendship’ dynamic with clearly defined textures and (Emily Brontë) were intended for a medium- colourful orchestration. This is evident range voice, but the soprano Georgina Colwell’s immediately in the 1997 Summer Overture. Even feeling for them shines through. Indeed her more impressive is the Stravinskian Rondo response to the words reinforces everything she Tarantella (2003). The composer speaks of his interprets, including the lighter music of neo-classical leanings, doublings in fourths and Montague Phillips. Nigel Foster’s sympathetic fifths and concern with melodic and rhythmic skills at the piano are a major plus, not least in integrity of individual parts. The Third Frank Bridge’s ‘Love went a-riding’. Symphony (1977) is an imaginative and varied Unfortunately the singer’s flawed vocal work for quite small forces, yet with an expansive technique is put under strain rather too often, and American feel, whilst the Cello Concerto No. 2 the recording from a public hall in Walton-on- (2002) is a welcome addition to a still small corpus Thames does nothing to compensate. The cover portrait of Sappho (1877) by Charles-Auguste Mengin would trouble the publishers of a family 3 Though it was also adopted – as Kim presumably didn’t know – newspaper. by Viktor Ullmann for his own settings of some of these Rilke poems performed in Theresienstadt and subsequently recon- The atmosphere Paul Martyn-West conjures structed by Henning Brauel – (Ed.). up in Seven Poems of James Joyce largely justifies

http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 08 Dec 2010 IP address: 194.80.32.10   69

Trevor Hold’s description of the sequence as less than 20 noteworthy current British Moeran’s Curlew. Martyn-West’s performances composers, space did not allow for individual also make a case for Moeran as arranger with his mention of each, but as a ‘follow-up’ I’ve been Six Folksongs from Norfolk completed in 1923. The endeavouring to watch out for interesting singer’s lightish tenor voice is equally suited to developments among their ranks. Warlock’s Candlelight cycle of nursery ditties from The youngest composer to have a première in the same year. Martyn-West’s remaining Warlock ‘New French Song’ was Tarik O’Regan (born songs (‘Along the Stream’ after Li-Po, the 1978) with his piece Sainte (setting words by the Shakespearean ‘Take, O take those lips away’, symbolist Stephane Mallarme) which, I’ve just ‘Heracleitus’ after Callimachus and the Bruce learnt, went on to win the British Composers Blunt collaboration ‘The Fox’) are recorded in the Awards vocal category in December 2005. manuscript versions. ‘Adulterated’ is probably not Following a rather formal opening, this song too strong a term for the first printed edition of develops more expressively with ‘sympathique’ ‘The Fox’, which may have been modified by spread chords in the piano accompaniment. Bernard van Dieren. This young composer, still in his 20s, currently Born on Merseyside in 1935, Geoffrey Stern on a Fullbright Chester-Schirmer Fellowship in spent most of his life in London, although he died composition in New York after distinguishing while visiting Canada last year. Until his himself as a postgraduate in both Oxford and retirement he lectured at the London School of Cambridge, has many prizes and commissions to Economics. Neither his Three Wordsworth Songs of his name and has now capped it all with a most 1953, a setting of Henry Treece’s ‘Legend’ (1960) evocative new album: Voices, released in April this nor the Four Songs of James Joyce composed year. This was previewed on BBC Radio 3’s ‘In between 2001–05 and dedicated to Martyn-West Tune’ on 7 March. Listening in to the excerpts have appeared in print. played, one was struck by the sheer immediacy of Stern was a brilliant pasticheur with interests the music and its sound that came across from which spanned Tudor composers and jazz. O’Regan’s singers the Choir of Clare College, ‘Legend’ reflects his extrovert side; a setting of Cambridge, with whom he had worked Wordsworth’s ‘She dwelt among the untrodden previously in connexion with his time at the ways’ plumbs spiritual depths. The personal note University. is most in evidence in ‘Strings in the Earth and The full CD, predominantly recorded in the Air’, one of the CD’s two James Joyce songs in perfect acoustics of Watford Colosseum, with which Stern invites a direct comparison with chorus director Timothy Brown and James Moeran. The other song, ‘Now, O Now in this McVinnie (previously scholar at St Albans Brown Land’, has been recorded by the Solaris cathedral) at the organ, is quite remarkable in its Quartet in a transcription entitled Love impact, combining a masterly clarity of vocal line, Remembered. Here Moeran’s setting of the text is often within innovative structures, combined undoubtedly the greater, but Geoffrey Stern’s with virtuoso percussion effects and imaginative evocative ‘Strings in the Earth and Air’ has interweaving of harp and organ. imaginative breadth. Again Nigel Foster partners Highlights include Three motets from Sequence the voice with style and sensitivity throughout. for St Wulfstan, and Two Upper Voice Settings, with Peter Palmer one for Midnight Mass 2003,which O’Regan himself describes in his CD notes as: ‘ecumenical sentiment of stillness … sparsely accompanied’. It is precisely this very economy and simplicity of line which marks his work out as distinctive and TARIK O’REGAN: ‘Voices’. Dorchester Canticles; Bring compelling to the ear. His Dorchester Canticles rest, sweet dreaming Child; Colimaçon; Magnificat & Nunc also impress, with an added touch of Manhattan Dimittis; Care Charminge Sleepe; 3 Motets from Sequence rhythms in the heady, percussive, toccata-finale for St Wulfstan. Choir of Clare College Cambridge with that closes Deus Misereator. O’Regan also includes James McVinnie (org), Rafal Jezierski (vlc), Adrian his Care Charminge Sleepe, for double choir, which Spillett (perc), Helen Tunstall (hp). Collegium COLCD remarkably retains superb clarity of line within 130. textural complexity, including a central quasi- fugal passage, after which the preceding opening When reviewing the ‘New French Song’ concert section returns again in a higher, more urgent, at the Purcell Room in July 2004 (see Tempo Vol. tessitura to denote death throes. 59 No.231, January 2005) which showcased a swift succession of impressive contributions from no Jill Barlow

http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 08 Dec 2010 IP address: 194.80.32.10 70 

‘Contours’: New and Recent Music for Clarinet by MAXWELL DAVIES: De Assumtione Beatae Mariae DONATONI, SMITH, UDUMAN, CAUSTON, Virigins1; Brass Quintet2; Beacons of Hope3; ROMANO, SCIARRINO, ERBER and FOX. Kate Commemoration Sixty4; Blind Man’s Bluff 1, 5; Prayer of Romano (cl). Metier MSV CD 2074. Thanksgiving in Times of Terror6; A Sad Pavan for These Distracted Times7. 1London Sinfonietta c. Oliver With Andrew Sparling’s recent recital disc on Knussen; 2The Wallace Collection; 3Central Band of the NMC and now Kate Romano’s new solo Royal British Legion c. Ted Whealing; 4Royal collection, ‘Contours’, on Metier, fans of Philharmonic Orchestra, Central Band of the Royal contemporary clarinet repertoire will be feeling British Legion, Trumpets of the Royal Military School particularly well served at present. If Romano’s of Music – Kneller Hall, London Symphony Chorus c. tastes are less catholic than Sparling’s, that at least Peter Maxwell Davies; 5Lucy Shelton, Clare Booth; makes for a more coherent programme, and her 6Choir of Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal, St. James’ Palace playing is comparably brilliant: her focused tone c. Andrew Gant; 7Pavel Haas Quartet. MaxOpus and athletic clarity of technique serve her chosen Custom Compilation CDs. music excellently, and her mastery of the many extended techniques required allows her to create MAXWELL DAVIES: Naxos Quartets Nos. 5 and 6. some aural magic even where the musical Maggini Quartet. Naxos 8.557398 material is on the thin side. William O Smith’s After the demise of Collins Classics, Peter Maxwell feeble Variants, for instance – a sort of musical Davies bought the rights to the recordings of his swatch book – is only the most obvious proof on music. These are available, along with some new offer that unusual noises are no substitute for an recordings, through Davies’s MaxOpus Music original compositional premise. website.4 Though composers such as Stockhausen Of the stronger pieces, Donatoni’s Clair is and Michael Torke have similarly purchased their refreshingly lacking in special effects, kept back catalogue, Davies has embraced more fully airborne instead by wonderful notes and an the potential of the Internet as a means of unabashed rhythmic and gestural exuberance. disseminating his music. Whereas Stockhausen Equally interesting is Dillon’s early Crossing Over, and Torke’s websites sell pre-existent CDs,5 which integrates microtonal tunings to plangent MaxOpus Music offers customers the chance to effect and sustains a compelling dramatic line. choose exactly which tracks they wish to purchase. Sciarrino conjures five minutes of rapture in his Customers can either buy individual works (MP3, Let Me Die Before I Wake, a fragile melodic line WMA and AAC formats), sensibly priced by fluttering like dreaming eyelids over multiphonic length, or, for a fixed fee, create their own CD of up whisperings below. Romano unerringly captures to 74 minutes in duration. Sciarrino’s unique atmosphere here, and creates The two custom-made CDs sent to Tempo are an enigmatic envoi from Christopher Fox’s all of previously unavailable works; all but one of indeterminate Generic Composition #7. these recordings are from live concerts. The James Erber’s substantial Strange Moments of choice of pieces hints at the scope of Davies’s Intimacy proves harder to fathom, a determinedly compositional output, from music theatre to extended monologue of punchy détaché notes, occasional pieces; they are also indicative, key clicks and breath noises whose ultimate presumably, of the standard of performances we purpose remains inscrutable. Unfortunately there are to expect from future additions to the are no programme notes to explain what is going MaxOpus stable. on, nor what Strange Moments these are, since Two of the most substantial works on these Romano has instead provided us with a long essay discs are recordings from the 2005 festival ‘Max: A on performance practice issues. Fair enough, musician of our time’. The masque Blind Man’s perhaps, but what use is any performance practice Bluff (1972), blends nursery rhyme, dance, mime without a consideration of the poetic and and ritual in a enjoyably bathetic reworking of the aesthetic contexts for the music? Such negligence, final scene of Georg Büchner’s Leonce and Lena. De happily, is not apparent in her playing: all the Assumtione Beatae Mariae Virginis (2001) is a 30- composers represented must feel fortunate to minute single-movement reflection, for large have so thoughtful and impressive an interpreter. chamber ensemble, on the notion of the Virgin James Weeks Mary physically ascending to heaven. The

4 http://music.maxopus.com 5 www.stockhausen.org and www.michaeltorke.com

http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 08 Dec 2010 IP address: 194.80.32.10   71

trumpet and piano in particular supply intricate military bands have neither the rhythmic precision surface glitter, though the faster passages do not nor accuracy of intonation to be found in the reach the same heights of inspiration as the other offerings on the CDs. MaxOpus does allow expressive and intense Adagios that punctuate the one to hear a sample of music before purchasing it; work. Both pieces were given committed readings recordings such as these seem to be thankfully the by the London Sinfonietta under Oliver Knussen’s exception rather than the rule. baton; Lucy Shelton and Claire Booth’s Davies’s ongoing Naxos project continues performance as Jester and King respectively in apace with the release of recordings of the middle Blind’s Man Bluff are equally assured. works of the set, the Fifth and Sixth Quartets. An even more virtuosic performance can be Where the Fourth Quartet explored ‘Children’s found in the Wallace Collection’s studio recording games’, the Fifth takes its lead from the play of of the Brass Quintet (1981). Here, Maxwell Davies light from ‘The Lighthouses of Orkney and treats the genre with the same seriousness and Shetland’ on the sea and shore at night. This is sense of purpose as one finds in his string quartets; realized musically by another of Davies’s similar, too, is the detailed exploration of colour seascapes; here, themes announced by the cello at and contrapuntal play. These demands also inform the outset are led through a variety of moods, A Sad Pavan for These Distracted Tymes (2004), textures and tonal regions. The restriction of the written for, and recorded at, an International number of themes results in a better balance String Quartet competition. The Pavan, as well as between the creation of aurally striking ideas and the occasional Prayer of Thanksgiving in Times of unfolding structure than can be found in, say, the Terror (2005), returns eloquently to one of the more diffuse Fourth Quartet. The second and final central themes of Davies’s opera Taverner, movement is a slow ‘double’ of the first, finding in religious intolerance. the material and form new expressive potential. The remaining works on the disc belong to the The compression of the Fifth Quartet stands in more functional side of Davies’s output. Written contrast to the more expansive six movements of for, and recorded at, a concert commemorating the Sixth. The study of Beethoven’s late quartets the sixtieth anniversary of the ending of World makes its mark in this multi-movement design War II, Commemoration Sixty and Beacons of Hope that balances the profound (the adagio fourth (both 2005) are examples of Davies’s lighter, more movement) with the naive (the second and fifth populist style. The former work is the lengthier, movements, both wearing plainsong influence draws on vast massed forces and is lightly). The lyrical adagio is the heart of the work, straightforwardly pictorial. Three invented and though it is no Cavatina (sc. Beethoven’s op. national anthems battle it out, Ives-like, between 130), Davies does not come out too bruised from the assembled ensembles; after a hymn for peace such a comparison. The outer movements are and a medieval carol, the three are transposed to more forceful, the first in a pleasingly blustery the same key and demonstrated to be able to work manner; the Presto third movement is a busy together musically. Though the political scherzo with calm trio. Compared to the first five metaphor is somewhat obvious, the second half in quartets, the Sixth makes greater use of tonal particular has a peculiar charm. Though Davies associations, which serve to throw the more has often been criticized for this sort of superficial astringent passages into sharp relief. music, such criticisms are not always fair: The Fifth and Sixth Quartets both contain occasional music such as Commemoration Sixty has numerous passages that bristle with the a different purpose to, say, Eight Songs for a Mad imagination and fecundity of the opening King and must be judged by somewhat different instalments of the cycle. Nevertheless, increased criteria. In this light, I’m sure it did its required job familiarity with the previous quartets diminishes on the day, though I doubt the somewhat their overall freshness and vitality: one gets the ambivalent ending, which suggests that peace is feeling of treading old ground, albeit it new and both relative and remains something to be striven interesting ways. Whether this proves sufficient to for, was lost on Tony Blair and the other assembled sustain the impetus of the cycle all the way dignitaries in the audience. through to the Tenth Quartet remains to be seen; I My real reservation about Commemoration Sixty for one sincerely hope so. and Beacons of Hope lies in the quality of their performances, particularly with the latter. The Edward Venn

http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 08 Dec 2010 IP address: 194.80.32.10 twentieth-century music

twentieth-century music Editors is available online at: Christopher Mark, University of Surrey, UK www.journals.cambridge.org/jid_TCM Allan Moore, University of Surrey, UK

Launched in 2004, twentieth-century music is a unique To subscribe contact Customer publication dedicated to leading research on all aspects of Services the music of the twentieth century -a period which may be in Cambridge: interpreted flexibly to encompass, where appropriate, music Phone +44 (0)1223 326070 from the late-nineteenth century to the early years of the Fax +44 (0)1223 325150 Email [email protected] twenty-first. The journal explores Western art music, music from non-Western traditions, popular music, film music, in New York: Phone (845) 353 7500 jazz, improvised music, and performance practice. Fax (845) 353 4141 Email [email protected]

Price information is available at: www.journals.cambridge.org/jid_TCM

Free email alerts! Keep up-to-date with new material - sign up at www.journals.cambridge.org/register

For a free online sample visit: www.journals.cambridge.org/jid_TCM

http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 08 Dec 2010 IP address: 194.80.32.10