Tempo 59 (234) 55–74 © 2005 Cambridge University Press 55 DOI: 10.1017/S004029820500032X Printed in the United Kingdom

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JOHN TAVENER: The Veil of the Temple. Choir of the artists, preferably also on DVD in the Temple Temple Church, Holst Singers, Patricia Rozaro (sop) c. Church, whose physical spaces are built into the Stephen Layton. RCA 82876661542. very fabric of the score. Since the first performance of The Veil, TAVENER: Lament for Jerusalem. Patricia Rozario (sop), Christopher Joey (counter-ten), Sydney Philharmonic Stephen Layton has continued to champion Chorus, Australian Youth Orchestra c. Thomas Woods. Tavener tirelessly, both in the concert hall and in ABC Classics 476 160-5. the recording studio. A collection of choral works with Polyphony, recently released on the TAVENER: Birthday Sleep; Butterfly Dreams; The Second Hyperion label, is by far the most satisfying and Coming; Schuon Hymen; As one who has slept; The Bridal artistically impressive of the many collections of Chamber; Exhortation and Kohima; Shunya. Polyphony c. Tavener’s music. Thanks to a combination of Stephen Layton. Hyperion CDA67475. idiomatic interpretations by artists who know and understand the composer’s vision, and a natural The world première in June 2003 of Sir John and wide-ranging recording, the strength and Tavener’s seven-hour all-night vigil The Veil of the integrity of Tavener’s music shines through with Temple provided one of the most memorable and persuasive conviction. The artlessly moving powerful musical experiences of recent years. For spiritual vistas opened up by the harmonic the composer, it marked the culmination of a transformations of Birthday Sleep (1999) are gradual turning away from Orthodox religion developed further in Schuon Hymen (2003) and towards a broader approach to religious beliefs. Shunya (2003), which inhabit the same ecstatic, This new-found ecumenism has inspired a series primal sound-world as The Veil of the Temple. All of large-scale choral pieces, which communicate the pieces on this immensely satisfying disc are a palpable sense of joy and radiance, as well as interpreted with simple dedication. expanding Tavener’s orchestral palette to include Some of the works on the Hyperion CD were such instruments as the powwow drum and given by the same performers at the composer’s Tibetan temple bowl. lavish 60th birthday concert at the Barbican in RCA’s release of The Veil of the Temple is a November 2004. The world première of the concert-length version, first heard at the 2004 evening was provided by Pratrirupa (a Sanskrit Proms. Accommodated on two CDs and lasting word meaning ‘reflection’) performed by the just two hours, the recording is taken from the English Chamber Orchestra with Ralf Gothoni as memorable first performances, whose unique conductor/soloist. This 45-minute piece for atmosphere and magical sense of theatre and piano and strings was not a ‘concerto’, but rather ritual is faithfully captured on the discs. Without a series of contrasting sections growing the visual splendour of the 800-year-old Temple organically at each repetition, in which the two Church, the candles and the incense, inevitably musical forces mirrored each other. The main the scale and sheer audacity of the original material consisted of a dignified Hindu dirge-like enterprise is diminished, but there are plenty of theme of delicate beauty and a manically jazzy breathtakingly beautiful and spiritually intense piano figure initially clenched at either extreme of moments here – notably the four sublime sections the keyboard, which then proceeded via Tavener is now transcribing into Anthems and the chromatic chords in contrary motion to meet in hauntingly memorable version of The Jesus Prayer the middle. It is not Tavener’s custom to develop which recurs throughout, acting, as the composer his material in the conventionally Western sense, puts it – as the ‘heartbeat’ of the work. The choral but rather to build up an accumulation of details, contributions, under the expert and inspiring increasing in intensity. Whereas this procedure guidance of Stephen Layton, are both assured and was successful with a piece on the scale of The fervent. Even listeners implacably unconvinced Veil, it seemed less convincing in this shorter by Tavener’s music should seek out this structure. This felt like one of Tavener’s less remarkable piece. I hope some enterprising compelling recent creations; perhaps conventional record company will one day have the courage musical forces are no longer really suited to his and vision to release a full version with these devotional utterances. 56 

The concert also featured the London quality control in his creative outpourings. Yet première of Supernatural Songs (2002), settings of The Veil of the Temple is a masterpiece by any W.B. Yeats for mezzo-soprano, strings, powwow standards, a magnum opus which sums up drum and Hindu temple bowl. Sarah Connolly, Tavener’s life’s work in a glorious, all- replacing an indisposed Susan Graham at short encompassing manner. His most recent works notice, brought a ravishing tone and sure possess an artless divinity. However, they are technique, fully deserving the fulsome applause extremely difficult to bring off: the supreme she received. The songs constitute one of the simplicity of the language and the ritual-like composer’s finest achievements: the glorious, repetition can, if not directed with absolute soaring violin theme arched over sonorous, conviction, lead easily to banality and cosmic bass-instrument chord-changes in his stultification. Fortunately, with a musician of the setting of O Do Not Love Too Long displayed calibre of Stephen Layton at the helm, nothing is something of John Barry’s melodic gift, while the presented half-heartedly; every bar is considered concluding, ravishingly tender meditation on and placed within the context of the whole. The death, Where there is nothing (there is God) was legacy of one of Britain’s most distinctive and inspired: this was music which truly sounded communicative contemporary composers is ‘from the other side’ in its primordial simplicity. already in safe hands. Stephen Layton conducted with great empathy Paul Conway and passion. Two Mystical Love Songs by Tavener, both lasting around 50 minutes, stand out among his post-Veil compositions. Lament for Jerusalem, JOAN GUINJOAN: Concerto for clarinet and orchestra; recently released on the ABC Classics disc listed Concerto for piano and orchestra; Música per a violoncel above, uses both Christian and Islamic texts. It has i orquestra. Joan Enric Lluna (cl), David Abramovitz a formal simplicity sustained by a hypnotically (pno), Lluís Claret (vlc). Orquestra Simfònica de measured pace and a pure musical language Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, c. Ernest Martínez which ranges from the ecstatic in the choruses to Izquierdo. Harmonia Mundi HMI 987056. the sublime in Patricia Rozario’s contributions, which achieve a Mozartian grace and innocence. Three works for soloist and orchestra from Joan Something of the sublime transcendence of The Guinjoan (born 1934), spanning the composer’s Veil touches Tavener’s Lament, but, as befits a love 30-year creative maturity.2 Serious engagements song, it is a much more intimate and personal with the problems/pleasures of large-scale single- statement. movement form and of mediation between The Radio 3 broadcast of the world première individual and collective, receiving highly of Tavener’s Hymn of Dawn, with Stephen Layton competent, committed readings from the conducting the Ulster Orchestra,1 revealed it to protagonists, deftly accompanied by the OBC have strong links with The Veil, both in the exotic under their young musical director.3 orchestration and in the actual musical material. Similarities and differences between the works The use of flute and violin as well as soloists adds are fascinating. All have the same basic ground- variety of expression and the work has much plan (action-reflection-varied reprise-peroration) more rhythmic and well as melodic interest than and testify to Guinjoan’s long-term love-affair Lament. It is more adventurous in its texts, too, with the minor third, as well as sharing specific using Hindu, Sufi, Christian and Jewish sources. I elements fundamental to his musical hope this substantial and rewarding work will also iconography; yet their manners and ethos are appear on disc soon, preferably with the same entirely different. forces under Stephen Layton, whose dedication to the score shone through every bar of this remarkably assured first performance. Sir John Tavener is one of the most popular 2 For more information on this Catalan composer, see my article in Tempo Volume 59 No. 232 (April 2005), pp.14–22. There are – and oft-recorded contemporary composers, yet at present – four other concertos in Guinjoan’s catalogue: for also one of the most controversial. His spiritual piano and chamber orchestra (1963, his graduation piece from quest for simplicity and serenity has often been Schola Cantorum, Paris), for violin (1986), for bassoon with instrumental octet (1989; there is a version for saxophone by met with critical derision and accusations of Manuel Miján) and for guitar (1990). The latter two are avail- ‘dumbing down’. His sheer prolificacy has able on CD. A percussion concerto (for Tristan Fry) is in incuba- occasionally aroused suspicions of a lack of tion. 3 This release has won the 2004 CD Compact magazine Best Recording, Spanish Contemporary Music, award (analogous to 1 29 January this year, in ‘Hear and Now’ (BBC Radio 3). the Gramophone Awards in the UK).   57

Música per a violoncel i orquestra (1975, revised coda (shades of Chopin’s B minor Sonata) finally 1980) and the Clarinet Concerto (2004) both last collapses to the darkness of the opening, and – around 20 minutes and are kicked off by despite a defiant rally by the soloist – the work unaccompanied soloist. In the earlier work, the escapes only in the last bar from Bergian cello is subjected to a five-and-a-half minute attenuation. interrogation which throws up a range of Programme, performance and engineering textural, motivic and tone-colour resources. combine to make this CD an excellent Some of these are pulled into a tight ostinato, introduction to Guinjoan’s art and – for all you whereupon the orchestra wakes up. Negotiations soloists out there – a pressing invitation to get off and accommodations between soloist and the beaten track. orchestra spin the latent material into longer, Benjamin K. Davies balanced phrases, the cello gradually spiralling to its highest range. A flurry of colouristic display disperses the accumulated tension and the music dissolves, suspended and circling, into eerily ANTHONY GILBERT: On Beholding a Rainbow1,4; beautiful night sounds, tightly constructed but Certain Lights Reflecting2,4; … Into the Gyre of a Madder exquisitely intangible. Material from the opening Dance3; Unrise3. 1Anthony Marwood (vln), 2Susan cadenza is then reworked in the afterglow of the Bickley (mezzo), 3RNCM Wind Ensemble c. Clark previous section, and in an agitato coda the cello Rundell, 4RNCM Symphony Orchestra c. Garry skirmishes with the orchestral choirs by turns. Walker. NMCD105. The Clarinet Concerto opens to the soloist reflecting on a handful of pitches, dialoguing The word nascondita (‘hidden’) occurs twice in between its registers and dynamic levels. A this new release of music by Anthony Gilbert: as a sequential riff conjures the orchestra (which ‘hidden’ fugue in the third movement of the muses on a four-note refrain in the bass), with orchestral song-cycle Certain Lights Reflecting which the soloist, flitting and swooping, swaps (1988–9) and, more overtly, as part of the title of short phrases until the orchestra commandeers the first movement of his violin concerto, On the opening material, establishing grounds for Beholding a Rainbow (1992–7). This is not, more involved debate. The work unfolds with wit perhaps, entirely inappropriate, as for many years and grace rather than drama, but the uncluttered it has been possible to think of Gilbert’s many textures and relaxed, improvisatory solo writing talents as being somewhat hidden, mainly due to belie the rigour of this impeccably crafted score a relative sparsity of performances. Recently, made from supple bass lines, malleable motives, however, with the dual celebrations of his translucent harmony and unforced counterpoint. seventieth birthday last year in London and The structural repeat is transposed, varied and Manchester, things seem to have changed and the redistributed, and an agile coda has the soloist in composer himself has spoken of experiencing cahoots with its orchestral counterparts. something of an ‘Indian summer’. Weighing in at 26 minutes plus, the Piano This CD features four of Anthony Gilbert’s Concerto (1983) is a muscular, incisive affair, strongest and most persuasive works: … Into the partly because the orchestra, confronted and Gyre of a Madder Dance (1994) and Unrise (2001) for provoked by the soloist, is not obliged to fight wind ensemble, plus the already referred-to with one arm behind its back. The piece is the orchestral pieces. The wind and brass music is apotheosis of Guinjoan’s orchestral technique both deftly and pungently handled and receives and piano writing at the time of composition. committed performances from the RNCM Wind Introductory rumbling evolving into brilliant Ensemble under Clark Rundell’s baton, as does display, the soloist’s hurled staccato chords the violin concerto with Garry Walker steering become the ritornello in a hybrid of rondo and Anthony Marwood and the RNCM Symphony variations, complete with solo episodes Orchestra through this lyrical and ravishing work developed contrapuntally. The second main with highly impressive interpretations. Indeed, section – libero – investigates Guinjoan’s pianistic the sheer professionalism of the student lexicon in dreamlike suspension, a dissertation on performances (in name only) come close to that a symmetrical diatonic figure (G F# D E C B) of the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir which is taken up by the orchestra before being Andrew Davis in the song-cycle. transformed into fleet arabesques. The In common with Certain Lights Reflecting, … recapitulation – chopped, changed and reinvented Into the Gyre of a Madder Dance derives its title from with the benefit of hindsight – is rounded by a the Lancashire-born Tasmanian poet, Sarah Day, four-minute cadenza, and the perpetual-motion and celebrates the various cyclic rotations found 58 

in the natural world. Scored for triple woodwind, various magic squares (some of which are applied four horns and two trumpets, the piece to a plainsong); as such, it is not dissimilar in juxtaposes, then gradually reconciles, two conception to the first two works in the cycle. contrasting ideas and textures. Clear and logical However, the illegal invasion of Iraq that in its harmonies, …Into the Gyre… packs a great occurred during the composition of the third deal into its seven minutes, whilst nodding quartet left its traces in both the character and affectionately to Stravinsky’s ghost in passing. I substance of the music.4 Nor was the fourth have written on Unrise elsewhere (Tempo No.218, quartet unaffected by the conflict, for Davies October 2001, p. 34) but wish to affirm this work’s started out by attempting to write a lighter, continuing power, which seems as fresh as it was contrasting work to its predecessor, only to find at that summer’s Spitalfields Festival . that the same themes were to resurface. Certain Lights Reflecting for mezzo-soprano Considered as a pair, they take the Naxos cycle (Susan Bickley, here) and orchestra sets five into unanticipated territories, and make for a poems by Sarah Day to piquant and sensual effect. fascinating, if at times uncomfortable, instalment This recording captures the nuances of the vocal in the project. line, as well as the panoply of dazzling orchestral The start of the third Naxos Quartet does not colours, in a manner that the first performance immediately reveal Davies’s outrage at the Iraq (Cheltenham, 1989) did not wholly achieve. As a invasion. Indeed, compared to the expositions of result, everything emerges with vivid clarity and the first two quartets, there are significantly fewer Gilbert’s responses to Day’s images are immed- juxtapositions of contrasting material, with a iately evocative and telling – the string-led cantus corresponding emphasis on continuity, as well as in ‘Two Wreaths’ and the hubbub of cracked, a much more audible sense of harmonic whooshing quasi-fanfares in ‘White Cockatoos’, direction. But as the movement progresses, the for example, are just two instances of his very musical surface becomes increasingly distorted, precise and sophisticated aural imagination. culminating in a savage march that is rendered The climax of the CD is the performance of On somewhat ridiculous by the use of complex cross Beholding a Rainbow, which increasingly appears rhythms. The way in which this evaporates into a to be Anthony Gilbert’s orchestral masterpiece beautiful ‘slow meditation’ is vintage Maxwell (see Tempo No.210, October 1999, p. 38). This Davies: the juxtaposition of the absurd and the intense, lyrical, almost Bergian concerto lyrical intensifies both. ingeniously makes play with notions of hybrid The slow movement continues the protest by forms and their resultant ambiguity, rhythmic and means of the avoidance, and then subsequent durational cycles (micro/macro) and a vibrant as distortion of, the ‘In Nomine’ melody. Here too is well as dramatic sense of local and long-range a re-emergence of the scherzo material left in the timbral awareness. On this listening, I felt the last ‘stratosphere’ at the end of the first quartet, part movement to be darker than in the first of Davies’s original inception of connecting (broadcast) performance; a hybrid of Scherzo- members of the cycle. However, the material is cum-Totentanz, perhaps? appreciably slower in the third quartet than in the It is difficult to think of a more timely or first, almost as if in the interim it had been deserved release than this one, which presents us contaminated and weighed down by the external with some of the most positive, individual and political situation. The third movement (a series elegant music to have been written during the of Inventions after Bach) expands this material, past couple of decades. The harmonic integrities culminating in a nauseating ‘hymn’ in which the are self-evident, but there remain plenty of use of slow, wide vibrato serves to exaggerate the subtleties to further tempt and tease the un-jaded grotesquery. mind and ear. As in the first three movements, the final fugue Richard Leigh Harris turns towards the end to contemplate Iraq, by means of allusions to the parodistic elements within the quartet as a whole. Thus although the quartet makes use of numerous traditional polyphonic genres (doubtless part of the original MAXWELL DAVIES: Naxos Quartets Nos. 3 and 4. conception of the work), none of the ‘abstract’ Maggini Quartet. Naxos 8.557397.

Maxwell Davies’s third quartet, as is well documented, was originally intended as an 4 For more on this, see Rodney Lister, ‘Peter Maxwell Davies’s ‘abstract’ work exploring the potentials of “Naxos” Quartets’, Tempo Vol. 59 No. 232, pp. 2–12.   59 designs are allowed to run their course, to find the Naxos Quartets: they are rigorous, (for some) closure on their own terms. The use of parody challenging, and immensely rewarding. Given the enables the external world to ‘enter’ and disrupt strong recorded performances, and the budget the otherwise ‘purely musical’ discourse. In price that they have been released at, I have no reference to the quartet (and therefore Iraq) hesitation in recommending them. Davies has commented that it is ‘just impossible Edward Venn to neither see, nor hear’ what is happening; his music is a powerful artistic response from someone who both sees and hears what is happening around him. PASCAL DUSAPIN: Perelà, uomo di fumo. Orchestre The fourth Naxos Quartet is the first in the cycle National de Montpellier c. Alain Altinoglu. Naïve MO to be cast in a single movement. Taking 782168 (2-CD set). Brueghel’s picture of children’s games as inspiration, the work juxtaposes active episodes DUSAPIN: 7 Études pour piano; À quia (piano concerto). (representing the more exuberant children’s Ian Pace (pno), Orchestre de Paris c. Christoph games) with slower ones (quieter pursuits). An Eschenbach. Naïve MO 782164. opening idea encompassing a progression from F DUSAPIN: Granum Sinapis; Umbrae Mortis; Dona eis. to B encapsulates the overall tonal argument; Choeur de Chamber Accentus, Ensemble Ars Nova c. transformations of this motion provide the warp Laurence Equilbey. Naïve MO 782116. and weft of the various sections. The intention is to provide, I assume, an underlying logic to the DUSAPIN: String Quartets Nos. 1 and 4. Danel String otherwise capricious ordering of ideas, although Quartet. Accord 476 1919. it is not always easy to follow. More immediate is DUSAPIN: String Quartets Nos. 2 ‘Time Zones’ and 3. the continued sense of vividly characterized DUTILLEUX: Ainsi la Nuit. Arditti String Quartet. episodes drawing us into new expressive areas. Naïve MO 782125. In his programme note to the work, Davies notes that in thinking about children’s games, he Pascal Dusapin has developed over the last was unable to avoid the underlying adult motives quarter of a century into one of the most of aggression and war, and their consequences. In distinctive composers in the contemporary this sense, the fourth quartet is not a lighter musical arena. His wide-ranging catalogue contrast to the third, but rather a companion encompasses practically every genre from solo piece exploring the same dark corners of the pieces to large-scale operas. Four consummate human condition. string quartets crown an abundance of chamber The Magginis are persuasive and responsive works; there is some highly individual choral interpreters of Davies’s music; indeed, their music, concertos demonstrating a keen recording of the first two quartets was short- understanding of the possibilities of their solo listed for a Classical Brits Award. The nomination instrument and an ongoing series of inventively may not reveal anything about the artistic scored ‘Solos for orchestra’. Opportunities to significance of these works, but it nevertheless hear his large-scale pieces in the concert halls of indicates the degree to which Davies’s music is the United Kingdom have been all too few in able to connect with a larger public than that of recent years. Fortunately, the Naïve label has many of his peers. Part of this connexion is released many of his major works and Accord doubtless due to the availability of the music – the have helpfully filled in other gaps in his entrepreneurial marketing of Davies’s work via discography, so it is possible to acquire on CD a his MaxOpus website is, to my knowledge, representative selection of his inimitable unprecedented in its scale. (Those who like their contributions to all genres. creative artists to be above such worldly concerns Whichever medium he is writing for, Dusapin might well pause to consider how business- deconstructs it thoroughly to reach the very minded composers such as Haydn and Beethoven essence of sounds implied by ‘concerto’ or might have exploited such a resource, had it been ‘quartet’ or ‘opera’. His major acknowledged an option for them.) But such an enterprise would influences are Varèse and Xenakis, whose not succeed if the music had nothing to say. seminars at the Sorbonne Dusapin attended for Davies’s continued commitment to producing four years in the 1970s; yet his own sound-world is works that, at their finest, address contemporary utterly distinctive, the result of scrupulous issues whilst communicating directly to the craftsmanship and ruthless self-criticism, every audience without compromising his musical note compelled to justify its existence within the values demands our full attention. Thus it is with overall conception. 60 

An excellent starting point is a double-CD set section, they repeat each other’s material in a containing performances of Dusapin’s 7 Études for futile attempt to make contact. Despite, or piano (1997–2001) and his Piano Concerto À quia perhaps because of this, there are moments of (2002), both featuring the brilliant playing of Ian real beauty and poignancy in this highly Pace, an inspired champion of the composer. individual concerto, inspired by contemporary Surprisingly, the Études are Dusapin’s first large- political events. Superb performances are scale foray into writing music for the instrument. complemented by a bonus DVD containing Lasting for just under an hour, they are rigorous extensive footage of rehearsals, interspersed with and self-disciplined, founded upon plain gestures, illuminating interviews with Dusapin, as well as characteristically laced with sadness and complete performances of Études 1 and 4 by Ian alternating between a sense of melancholic Pace, which makes this release an essential resignation and repressed rage at the music’s purchase. inherent restrictions. The first Etude might almost Dusapin’s four string quartets form part of a be a ‘Fantasia upon one note’: the material rarely concept he terms the ‘infinite quartet’, in which wanders from repeated fragments like a lone, each new example comments on its predecessor wandering voice. By contrast the Fourth Étude and presages the issues tackled by its successor. begins in violent toccata-like spluttering, but is The First is an extensively revised early work, its gradually stripped down to its own inner enigmatic, epigrammatic nature the result of an workings. enduring love of Samuel Beckett’s writings. The The Piano Concerto’s title À quia refers to a Second, entitled Time Zones, is a much more French term meaning ‘nonplussed’; the piece substantial piece in 24 movements (one for each explores themes of non-communication and planetary time zone) which questions and alienation as the two traditional protagonists of deconstructs the inherited idea of the string piano soloist and orchestra fail to connect or quartet. By contrast, the Third is classically achieve dialogue. When they play together (and proportioned in four movements, while the the orchestra is daringly silent for large stretches), fourth evolves with different voices splintering off in what one might call an anti-development from each other within a compact, eloquent one-

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For people in the music We operate throughout business there is always help England, Scotland, Wales at hand from the Musicians and the whole of Ireland Benevolent Fund If you or someone you know •Help with stress and needs our help, please contact: health problems Musicians Benevolent Fund •Help and advice with financial 16 Ogle Street, London W1W 6JA problems Telephone: 020 7636 4481 •Help that’s given in strict Facsimile: 020 7637 4307 confidence email: [email protected] •Help given to outstanding website: www.mbf.org.uk young musicians Reg. Charity No.228089   61 movement structure. Fortunately, the Accord and a heartening example of a recording company Naïve labels have released all four quartets placing their faith in a contemporary composer. between them – the Second and Third in the There are some omissions, however, which Naïve hands of the Arditti String Quartet and the First will surely address in due course. Trio Rombach and Fourth by the Danel Quartet: both discs repay (1997), one of the most spellbindingly poetic repeated listening, as Dusapin typically reinvents chamber pieces of recent years, brought heart- and challenges the genre with thought-provoking warming depth and humanity to the BMIC results. Cutting Edge Tour of 2002, and is perhaps the Three major pieces for mixed choir, Granum strongest candidate for future CD release, while Sinapis, Umbrae Mortis and Dona Eis, find the among his series of ‘Solos for orchestra’, the first composer at his most inwardly contemplative. The (Go, 1992), the fourth (Clam, 1998) and the most first piece is a spiritual, meditation reminiscent of recent (Exeo, 2002) all require committing to disc. plainchant. Umbrae Mortis is a brief torso of a Mass Dusapin’s forthcoming opera, The last night (A for the Dead, whose brevity raises more questions Story of Faustus) has been commissioned by the than it answers. In Dona eis the choir is Berliner Staatsoper and is due to be premièred in accompanied by the seven wind instruments (but January 2006: an artistic highlight that will be minus the double bass), used by Varèse in his eagerly anticipated. Octandre. Dusapin avails himself of myriad vocal Paul Conway devices, from sounds of breathing, to singing through a closed mouth, to the spoken voice. The Naïve disc containing these three works makes an ideal introduction to Dusapin’s profoundly ‘Conciertos para el fin del milenio’. TOUSSAINT: personal approach to the human voice. Concierto No. 2 para violonchelo y orquesta (1999). Dusapin’s four operas punctuate his output MARQUEZ: Espejos en la arena (2000). SIERRA: Cuatro like sounding posts at regular intervals. His three versos (Concerto for Cello & Orchestra) (1999). Carlos early operas, Roméo et Juliette (1989), Prieto (vlc), Orquesta de las Americas c. Carlos Miguel Medeamaterial (1992), and To Be Sung (1994) share Prieto, conductor. Urtext JBCC 047. an exploratory, scientific approach to the form, in the manner of Xenakis, but without the latter’s Music-lovers who think of Latin-American overriding concern for drama. Dusapin’s most ‘classical’ music through Revueltas, Chávez, recent opera, Perelà, uomo di fumo, is based on a Ginastera, Villa-Lobos – or, possibly, Guarnieri novel by Aldo Palazzeschi and is sung in Italian. It and Serebrier – are in for a treat with this is a variation on the story of Christ – Perelà, the collection of premiere-recording cello concertos. mysterious ‘man of smoke’, is initially welcomed Clearly, a new generation is being recorded by its and adored because of his uniqueness, but local talent, and it is time to prick up our ears. eventually ill-treated, judged and condemned, Mexicans Eugenio Toussaint (b.1954) and Arturo returning back to his original state. Exploring the Márquez (b.1950) have crafted involving, richly- full range of operatic registers, the opera is coloured, often outright gorgeous works based divided into ten highly contrasted ‘chapters’. The on popular sources: jazz and folk, respectively. live recording recently released by Naïve has a The concerto by the Puerto-Rican Roberto Sierra tangible sense of atmosphere and theatre but (b.1953) is no less absorbing, while made of far occasionally obscures the fantastic detail in grittier musical stuff. All were composed for Dusapin’s intricate instrumental writing. The Carlos Prieto, the dedicatee of works by about 70 musical resources employed are huge, involving other composers, including Joaquín Rodrigo. A piano, percussion, and onstage organ and wind student of Fournier and Rose, Prieto has band, making this Dusapin’s largest-scale work to performed in the world’s major concert halls and date and something of a summing-up, not only of even authored a biography (The Adventures of a his operatic output, but also of ten years’ worth of Cello) of the Piatti Stradivarius he plays so concertante and instrumental works. In the title engagingly on this disc. role, tenor John Graham-Hall brilliantly creates a Toussaint’s Second Cello Concerto (1999) genuine presence out of the most insubstantial should make anyone who enjoys ‘light classical’ and chameleon-like of characters. The well-filled feel right at home. His earliest successes in jazz accompanying booklet includes an interview led to work alongside Herb Alpert and, later, as with Dusapin, a revealing essay and, invaluably, a Paul Anka’s musical director. When Toussaint complete libretto. embarked on this work, Prieto remarked that his Naïve’s dedicated and extensive coverage, First Cello Concerto had strayed from these touching all forms of Dusapin’s creative output, is roots, suggesting that he consider a return. The 62 

result is this breezy, approachable work showing a Despite the enhanced percussion (claves, complete synchrony from the start between Veracruz tambourine, maracas and a Puerto- soloist and orchestra. Launching right into a Rican güiro) this is a traditionally-orchestrated vibrant tune, the expansive backup has the soloist work centering on sturdy but graceful melodies, sharing the stage with harmonizing forays by the at which Márquez clearly excels. Supporting the flute, oboe, horns, strings and light percussion. In cellist’s virtuosic turn, the Orchestra of the the slow movement, Prieto fills the spotlight with Americas under Carlos Miguel Prieto makes fine a nostalgic melody of longing while the winds work of inhabiting a neo-romantic sound-world underline, strings pluck a pulse, but little more. that so differs from Toussaint’s more spare, The cello and a clarinet switch into high gear for contrapuntal work. the conclusion, and in a cadenza Prieto jabs the A yet sharper change in character work’s light frame with rough-edged dissonance, toward astringency and dissonance sets Roberto invigorating the proceedings until xylophones, Sierra’s Four Verses Concerto (1999) apart from bongos and strings drive to the work’s conclusion. both previous works, enriching this CD with a far Fully in the swing of the work’s idioms, more demanding avant-gardist work. To Prieto’s rich, deep tone does the composer proud Márquez’s celebratory dance or excursion, even when required to sing at the topmost end of Sierra’s concerto strikes the ear as a dark saga. the cello’s range. The work’s strength lies in the While neither more nor less Latin in flavour and lyrical middle, where the cello cries an aching tour rhythmic core than the previous works, these are de force, but, in keeping with its jazz roots, the far more deeply integrated within Sierra’s voice. main challenge, and this ensemble’s remarkable In stark contrast with Toussaint’s concerto, achievement, is in expressing a sparkling cellist and orchestra begin by generating separate spontaneity beyond the notated text. The sonic cells, embarking at contrasting tempi from infectious Latin flavour evokes Bernstein in near-opposite ends of the scale. Straying far from mambo sleeves, rather than the more abrasive the orchestra – which for once is given considerable Pérez Prado, yet for all its upbeat charm and autonomy – the cello wanders in pursuit of some musicality, this work rewards repeated hearings. musical concretion, to complete a worthy theme, The following work, Márquez’s Mirrors in the or perhaps just content to roam. Its tension with the Sand concerto (2000), places the soloist front and orchestra has no parallel on this disc. centre almost throughout, while the orchestra While engrossed in its articulations, colourful seldom strays from firm accompaniment. sparks are set off by light percussion and winds, Márquez has an assured, extrovert voice, and clashing against weighty horns, double-basses reports folk forms in his blood since he learned and darker woodwinds. Sierra’s dazzling the mariachi violin in childhood. A student of orchestral chaos is reminiscent of Thea Federico Ibarra and Morton Subotnick, around Musgrave’s brand of lucid and nimble disorder, 1990 he began drawing inspiration from Mexican and in the second movement it waxes and wanes folk music and has gained a following with a with the cello’s restlessness, yet never quite celebrated series of seven Danzones. settling into accompaniment. A vague The orchestra’s strident, almost regal canter in convergence does occur in a passage full of this concerto confirms dance forms as a anticipation that culminates with the cello’s Marquesian speciality: its sunny carriage soaring phrase (at 0:22); and when, duetting with resembles a Rodrigo score, while perhaps lacking various winds, the soloist entwines with a flute’s his genial levity. This thicker rhythmic core phrase, and then completes it (at 3:02). But these frames Prieto’s melodic elaborations, and the moments always pass, the ensemble seemingly music emerges from this lyricism rather than uninterested in the wayward cello. After an edgy from harmonic interplays. The expressive soloist cadenza, the strain of this aptly-named Intenso gets support, emphasis and echo from the leads into a movement where the tensions ensemble, ceding only rarely to a single slacken: the cello sets a less discordant direction instrument or section but never playing opposite for the straying woodwinds, percussion and them. Understated scoring again characterizes disruptive brasses, and amid this more subdued the slow movement Lluvia en la arena (‘Rain in the backdrop the soloist takes on the near- sand’), where the cello plays a song of exquisite prominence of a first among equals. brooding that evokes Walton’s concerto. The The dots so far strewn across the work start Milonga cadenza triggers a more agitated tempo, connecting in the vigorous Vivo, and in the driving to a ‘Right-left Polka’ that propels the jauntier Rítmico movements, overcoming the work with breathless, Shostakovich-like irony to stark initial contrasts while never quite forsaking the blistering finale. its character as an eerie and uncompromising   63 music. A more recognizably Latin-American pulse begins supporting the soloist with energetic BRAUN: Psalterion (2000); Day and Day (1998); Piano jabs and stresses, enhancing calmer moments Trio No. IV (2002). Amber Trio Jerusalem, Eli Sassoon while setting a quicker beat for the cello to rush (santur), Edna Prochnik (mezzo-sop). Gramola 98766. toward an end that, unconventionally as ever, seems to arrive too soon – while curiously suggesting a satisfying resolution. Just prior to The compositional juggling of local and this, amid the rapid-fire playing, the work reaches international idioms at the heart of much the culmination it seemed at least partly driven contemporary music is an aesthetic challenge towards (at 1:28), its moment of restful merging. thrown particularly into relief in modern Israeli Sierra worked in Hamburg with Ligeti, yet this music, which is concerned above all with a cogent music shows as much affinity with Roberto balance of eastern and western elements. The Gerhard’s for the seeming unruliness and for issue is potently encapsulated in a recent work, uniqueness: engaging the listener despite its high Psalterion, by one of the leading composers of the level of abstraction and the unbending avoidance second generation, Yehezkel Braun (b.1922), of cliché. The likeness extends also to its which combines a Persian santur with a western difficulty: those so intrigued as to listen again may European piano trio, and Arabic modes with do so not for the ride or to be swept away, but for a European harmony and forms. Braun is well better grasp of its startling wealth of tensions. known for his popular and prolific output of Cuatro versos is clearly this disc’s most bracing choral music, yet his oeuvre also includes an work, given its unusual ways of generating impressive array of vocal and chamber music as musical cohesiveness. For all the compositional shown in a recent CD which features Psalterion, strengths and musicality of the Toussaint and alongside a beguiling song cycle to poems by the Márquez concertos, only Sierra’s rightful kin are poetess Yocheved Bat-Miriam (1902–80), and the Lutoslawski, Gubaidulina and Dutilleux, placing dramatic fourth Piano Trio, Braun’s most him firmly in the 21st century. passionately complex trio to date. (Three earlier The Orchestra of the Americas under Carlos trios feature on a CD by the Amber Trio Miguel Prieto (recorded in the Sala Nezahual- Jerusalem on the label of the Beth Hatefutsoth, cóyotl, Centro Cultural Universitario, Mexico Tel-Aviv and Jewish Museum, Vienna CC-005-0.) City) adapts seamlessly to the challenging The title Psalterion alludes to the ‘psanterin’ requirements, backing the soloist in the mentioned in the list of instruments in the Book neoclassical Toussaint as a kind of rhythm of Daniel, a Greek word which refers to a type of section; joining the cellist’s shaping of Márquez’s lyre played with mallets, and which corresponds melodic lines with bold but agile ensemble work; closely with a modern instrument known as the and rallying to the astringent Cuatro versos, with santur (interestingly the modern Hebrew for the wandering and ambiguities, and its unruly piano is ‘Psanter’). Braun’s interest in the scoring. A tall triple order, but very handsomely instrument stems primarily from the wide met. All three composers owe a strong debt to musical influences he absorbed in Israel, where he Prieto’s advocacy, yet each one repays by giving came aged two in 1924 from his native Germany. the Piatti a range of opportunities to display his Amongst his teachers was Alexander Uriah gifts. In a field crowded by fine cellists, when Boskovich, an émigré from Romania, who was instrumentalists with big contracts so often stay particularly interested in evoking the sounds of with the ‘classics’ or drift into pointless crossover, the Middle-East. Braun, now Professor Emeritus Prieto’s discography includes impressive at Tel-Aviv University, became an authority on concerto premières by Federico Ibarra, Celso Gregorian Chant. These twin influences, of Garrido-Lecca, Camargo Guarnieri, and Ireland’s middle-eastern melos and medieval plainchant, John Kinsella – each of which leaves no doubt that infuse his melodic-harmonic style alongside with ‘classical’ music is very much alive and thriving. the organum and parallel part-writing idiomatic Lovers of contemporary ‘classical’ will welcome to the French school of the late 19th century. Concertos for the End of the Millennium: three While his large output frequently explores remarkable, well-recorded works spanning a traditional music, this quartet represents wide musical spectrum. These sparkling something of a new departure for as he admits in performances by the Orchestra of the Americas, the sleeve notes, ‘Oriental and Western music are in the expert hands of both Prietos, deserve the worlds apart, so different… that it is well nigh highest possible recommendation. impossible to combine them. For me as a composer this was undoubtedly the most difficult Bert Bailey task I have ever tried to tackle’. 64 

The melodic material of Psalterion is drawn directly from an oral tradition – performances by BIRTWISTLE: The Axe Manual1; Oockooing Bird; Sad Braun’s friend, the amateur santur player and Song; Berceuse de Jeanne; Précis; Hector’s Dawn; Persian carpet dealer Eli Sassoon (the performer Ostinato with Melody; Betty Freeman: Her Tango; on this recording) – which Braun transcribed in Saraband: The King’s Farewell; Harrison’s Clocks. detail, then integrated the result with piano trio Nicolas Hodges (pno), 1Claire Edwardes (perc). (there is also an orchestral version). Both the first Metronome MET CD 1074. and third movements use the Persian ‘Dashti’ mode which is the same as the ‘Maqam Bayat’ or In his review of the Collins Classics recording of bayat mode, one of the most popular and Antiphonies for piano and orchestra,5 the pianist important modes in Arabic folk music and used Nicolas Hodges drew attention to what he felt widely in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Iraq. Both were numerous weaknesses in the soloist’s outer movements also begin with a slow and free performance. At times withering (‘the piece solo santur soliloquy which leads into a more would undoubtedly be more colourful in lyrical rhythmic movement for the ensemble. The range and brutal sections alike if the pianist could find it of sonorities is both refreshing and imaginative: in herself to project Birtwistle’s dynamics, rather than westernizing the santur, the result is articulation and phrase marks’), Hodges an orientalizing of the piano trio, with much use nevertheless emerges in his prose as a superb of high-registral cello and doubling melodies for advocate of Birtwistle’s music, in which strings, repeated-note textures, ornamentation intellectual and critical understanding co-exists and pedal points. Though there are moments with a deeply-felt emotional response. These which retrieve a Western sonority and sense of latter qualities have characterized Hodges’s own drama, as in the trio solos, the accent is on the performances of Birtwistle’s music, including his imitation of santur by the trio. However the 2000 performance of Antiphonies. And, I am formal shape of the work is clearly Western in pleased to report, the same is true of his recent orientation, with clearly-defined contrasting recording of Birtwistle’s complete piano music. sections, such as the shift from a slow undulating Of the ten works on the disc, four are first melody at the start of the central movement to a recordings, the most important of these being more waltz-like section, and the extended The Axe Manual (2000) for piano and percussion. cadenza which launches the final rondo like The colouring of the piano timbre through finale. assorted percussion, moving from marimba to If there are echoes of minimalism in the metal instruments and back again, contributes to modal-tonal harmony and patterning, the main the overall structure. By treating the percussion as aesthetic issue arising from the piece concerns the an extension of the piano, there is a sense that integration of folk elements into art, or rather of only one meta-instrument is being used: the local and international idioms: whether, like ‘Manual’ of the title alludes, amongst other Maxwell Davies’s use of an Orkney Fiddler in a things, to the imaginary composite of the symphony orchestra perhaps, such combinations keyboards of the piano, marimba and vibraphone create a self-conscious opposition of elements within the work. Birtwistle also intended the rather than a synthesis? Moreover, does such piece to demonstrate a wide range of rhythmic integration act as a bridge between cultures, or devices; in this sense, ‘manual’ also means rather an appropriation of one idiom by another – ‘compendium’. Taken together, one can get a a form of cultural imperialism? The answer here pretty good idea of what the piece is ‘about’; that emerges from the work itself, which for me is to say, chamber-music like interactions between achieves a compelling symbiosis of disparate pianist and percussionist in which different elements with a clear Eastern flavour, yet (mechanic) rhythmic strata shift in and out of enhanced through the lucidity of its Western- focus, engaging our attention. Hodges, along influenced form. It is a stylistic balance through with Claire Edwardes on percussion, wonderfully which beautiful sonorities and engaging dialogue capture the rhythmic and harmonic subtleties amongst the instruments contribute to a uniquely required of them, no more so than in a beautifully innovative and enthralling ambience. poised performance of the lyrical middle section: a hocket between vibraphone and the upper part Malcolm Miller of the piano proving to be especially captivating.

5 Collins CD 14142, reviewed in Tempo 195, pp. 44–5.   65

Birtwistle’s only other large-scale work for piano, Harrison’s Clocks, is an even more intense DIAMOND: String Quartets (complete); Concerto for exploration of rhythmic layers moving at String Quartet; Night Music for Accordion and String different speeds. Hodges’s virtuosic technique Quartet1. Potomac String Quartet with 1Carmelo Pino appeared to make light work of the first (acc). 4-CD set (each disc available separately): Albany movement (reputedly the hardest of the set), but I TROY 504 (Nos. 3 and 8, Concerto), 540 (Nos. 2, 9 and found his impressive performance of the 10), 613 (Nos. 1, 5 and 6) and 727 (Nos. 4 and 7, Night lengthier (and contrapuntally breathtaking) third Music). movement in a single take to be the most rivetting. David Diamond died on 13 June 2005 less than a The other eight works on the disc are month short of his 90th birthday, and just after considerably shorter, and on the surface simpler, the release of the final instalment of this first than The Axe Manual and Harrison’s Clocks, integral set of recordings of his String Quartets, between which they are sandwiched. Ostinato and the most monumental by any American and Melody takes as its basis the characteristic almost certainly the finest cycle in the medium for Birtwistle device of superimposing a melody over consistency of quality, clarity of thought and a constantly-changing ostinato. Another elegance of conception to emerge from the left Birtwistlian trait is apparent in Betty Freeman: Her hand side of the Atlantic, and worthy of Tango and Saraband: The Kings Farewell, which comparison with Holmboe, Simpson and both imaginatively distort the dances implied in Shostakovich. their titles. The earliest work on the disc, and Diamond’s fascinating life experience, and his indeed, the earliest extant composition by vital encounters as an impressionable young man Birtwistle, is Oockooing Bird, written in the with so many great artists and composers in 1930s composer’s mid teens. As with the pieces for Europe and America, left indelible imprints on his children with which it is grouped – Sad Song creative nucleus and his music has paid consistent (1971) and Berceuse de Jeanne (1984) – the musical homage to the great ideals of clear classical language is predominantly modal; this, combined linearity and architectural transparency. In many with the use of ostinato, and the general ways the ten String Quartets written between melancholic atmosphere is prophetic of 1941 and 1968 (11 if one includes the 1936 Birtwistle’s later music. So too is the way in which Concerto for String Quartet, a spontaneous Birtwistle disturbs the formal symmetries of youthful offering generated by and dedicated to Précis (1960) in order to create forward Albert Roussel), mirror the even more massive momentum. Hodges’s performance of this is cordillera of Diamond’s symphonies, the last of noticeably faster and at times more brittle than which (No. 11) appeared in 1992. Diamond has those of Stephen Pruslin6 and John Ogdon7: as a also written a Concerto for String Quartet and result, is his a more urgent and volatile reading, Orchestra (1995), a return to the medium after but not without moments of poetry. nearly three decades. Thus these occasional works are no mere Taken in their chronological context the ‘fillers’ or curios, but rather miniature studies of quartets mirror his stylistic evolution: the first the technical and aesthetic ideas that inform three date from the 1940s, a period of serene Birtwistle’s larger works. They therefore shed modality and diatonic repose which also interesting light on the major works, but this light witnessed the first four symphonies, Rounds for also reflects back to give the smaller works strings and the Piano Concerto and Piano Sonata increased depth. This is aided in the logical (both of these still unrecorded, alas). The depth of ordering of the works on the disc, not by feeling found in the long Adagio of the Second chronology, but by artistic themes and concerns, Quartet, an elegy to a female painter who died at as well as the fascinating discussion between the age of 31, points the way to the sudden Birtwistle, Hodges and Jonathan Cross in the CD transition to the much greater intensity of the booklet. This is a disc for anyone who admires Fourth Quartet (1951), written during the early Birtwistle’s distinctive music, as well as for those part of Diamond’s 15-year residence in Italy. On who enjoy challenging but affirmative music the surface, the texture seems anxious and performed with consummate musicianship. disturbed, but the apparent disorder is little more Edward Venn than a mask for the underlying structural integrity and formal discipline. Diamond turns again and again to the variation form (the last movement alone of this epic 40-minute essay 6 Clarinet Classics CC 0019. 7 EMI ASD 645. comprises ten variations lasting 15 minutes). 66 

Diamond had met Arnold Schoenberg in the some further new recordings to be added soon 1930s in New York and recognised the vast new from that quarter) – Diamond’s importance and possibilities opened up by his advocacy of the 12- stature, not only as a leading figure in America tone method. Diamond grasped immediately but as a major composer for all time, is assured. . that this was a technical tool, not an end in itself, Despite the sadness of his passing, at the very end and thus he has been able to use it to as great or of his life his music will now live on to less an extent as his creative needs required. Each encapsulate his lifelong quest for the beauty of quartet has its own distinctive personality, and no perfection. th less than three are 70 birthday presents to other Bret Johnson composers he admired: Walter Piston (No. 7) Roger Sessions, a former teacher (No. 9) and Darius Milhaud (No. 6). No 9 (1965–68) is one of only two in a single-movement format (the other HOWELL: Violin Sonata in F minor; Rosalind for violin is No. 1) and is a feast of ornaments and trills, & piano; Piano Sonata in E minor; Humoresque for which Diamond says (in an illuminating series of piano; 5 Studies for piano. Lorraine McAslan (vln), interviews reproduced in the sleeve notes) gave Sophia Rahman (pno). Dutton Epoch CDLX 7144. him the chance to bring out the individual instruments by strict dynamic markings. A BACEWICZ: Violin Sonatas Nos. 4–5; Oberek No. 1; flavour of Sessions’s sometimes elliptical Sonata No. 2 for violin solo; Partita; Capriccio; Polish language finds its way into the piece. The same Capriccio. Joanna Kurkowicz (v;n), Gloria Chien (pno). (dynamic) directions appear in the numerous Chandos CHAN 10250. fugues (another favourite format) found in many MARIC: Byzantine Concerto1; Cantata: Threshold of of the quartets, the finale of No. 8 being an Dream2,3,6; Ostinato Super Thema Octoïcha4–6; Cantata: especially fine example. Song of Space7. 1Olga Jovanovic (pno), Belgrade PO c. As Diamond’s style evolved so it began to Oskar Danon, 2Dragoslava Nikolic (sop, alto), 3Jovan ‘revolve’, and some of the raw intensity of the Milicevic (narr), 4Ljubica Maric (pno), 5Josip Pikelj (hp), 1950s (a difficult time for him with much soul- 6Radio-TV Belgrade CO c. Oskar Danon, 7Radio-TV searching) yielded to a less edgy language, Belgrade Mixed Choir & SO c. Mladen Jagusˇt. Chandos without loss of intensity. Pieces like This Sacred Historical 10267H.

Ground for choir and orchestra (1962) and Night 1 Music for accordion and string quartet (1961) MUSGRAVE: For the Time Being: Advent ; Black Tambourine2–3; John Cook; On the Underground Sets 1–3. indicate a composer more at ease. Night Music is a 1 2 3 gem, a brief nocturne in memory of Wallingford Michael York (narr), Walter Hirse (pno), Richard Riegger, another (still underrated) American Fitz, Rex Benincasa (perc),New York Virtuoso Singers composer Diamond admired, killed in a strange c. Harold Rosenbaum. Bridge 9161. accident in New York. The unusual KUI DONG: Earth, Water, Wood, Metal, Fire1; Pangu’s instrumentation is what captivates. The quartets Song2; Blue Melody3; Crossing (electronic/computer tape from the 1960s (six in all) are all mature works, music); Three Voices4. 1Sarah Cahill (pno), 2Tod Brody and the Tenth (1966), written for a new faculty (fl), Daniel Kennedy (perc), 3San Francisco building at the American University in Contemporary Music Players c. Olly Wilson, 4Hong Washington, seems an apt summation , ending Wang (Chinese fiddle), Ann Yao (Chinese zither), Chen with brilliant double fugue. Diamond had by then Tao (bamboo fl). New World 80620-2. returned to America for good, and embarked upon a second career as an academic, holding FIRSOVA: The Mandelstam Cantatas: Forest Walks, op. many important positions at The Manhattan 36; Earthly Life, op. 31; Before the Thunderstorm, op. 70. School of Music and The Juilliard School until he Ekaterina Kichigina (sop), Studio for New Music finally retired in 1997. Moscow c. Igor Dronov. Megadisc MDC 7816. This magnificent set of recordings will bring KATS-CHERNIN: Ragtime & Blues. Sarah Nicholls alive a great musical treasure for whoever is (pno). Nicola Sweeney (vln). Signum SIGCD058. moved to investigate it. The members of the Potomac Quartet have taken the composer and CHAMBERS: A Mass for Mass Trombones. Thomas his music to their hearts. Thanks to these four Hutchinson (trb), Ensemble of 76 trombones c. David CDs, along with the superb series of orchestral Gilbert. Centaur CRC 2263. works recorded some years ago by Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony – now all re- Dame Ethel Smyth aside, Dorothy Howell issued at budget price on the Naxos American (1898–1982) was the doyenne of English women Music Series (with, hopefully, as rumour has it, composers. Ten years older than Elizabeth   67

Maconchy, she studied with J.B. McEwen at the others whose reputations had been made before Royal Academy of Music (where she was later a the Second World War. Stylistically, Howell’s Fellow and Professor of Harmony, Composition music never advanced beyond late Romanticism and Counterpoint) and established herself as a but she eschewed the opulence of composer – one critic hailed her as the ‘English contemporaries like Bax, so that her voice was Strauss’ – in the years immediately following the rather restrained. The Sonata is a case in point: Great War. Today her reputation, such as it is lacking the drama of the Phantasy it is possessed outside the RAM and the Elgar Society (on whose of an enviable poise. I prefer it to either of the behalf she for many years tended Elgar’s grave), saccharine miniatures, Rosalind (1920) and The rests on the Phantasy for violin and piano which Moorings, though both have a winning salon-like won her the 1921 Cobbett Prize, her only piece to charm and, throughout, McAslan phrases the keep even a finger-nail’s hold in the repertoire solo lines beautifully. The E minor Piano Sonata is since then. It crowns a thoroughly engaging later still (1955), again in three movements, and programme of Howell works for violin and/or unashamedly melodic, its heart lying in the piano. As both the longest single span on the disc central Ninna-nanna, evocative of a cradle’s and the strongest work present, the Phantasy rocking motion. Howell died childless but had a makes a fitting climax. In her booklet note, Celia love of children, so it may not be too fanciful to Paterson refers to its ‘soaring melodies and arc- suppose that the sonata as a whole has something like phrases, flowing rhythmical patterns and of the young in its make-up. Of more weight, extensive use of thematic ideas and motifs which though lesser in length, are the Five Studies unify the overall structure’, as good a description Howell composed when a RAM Professor. These of the piece as any. At another time, it could have are highly accomplished pieces, two or three been titled Sonata and bears consideration as a having a stature beyond their relatively modest free-format single-span example of the form. proportions, the exuberant final Allegro not least. Howell did formally compose a Violin Sonata, It matches the nature and virtuosity of the earlier in F minor and three movements, but only in Humoresque (1919), one of Howell’s most electric 1947, after she had faded from view, like so many smaller pieces, the demands of which Sophia

17 – 27 November 2005 Japanese Focus Works by Jo Kondo, Misato Mochizuki, Guest Artistic Director, Tom Service, Takeo Hoshiya and Norio Nakagawa; presents an intriguing programme of over London’s Philharmonia Orchestra present 50 events at the 28th Huddersfield programme by Toshio Hosokawa Contemporary Music Festival Giacinto Scelsi First Night 100th anniversary celebration featuring Freiburg Baroque Orchestra perform new the New London Chamber Choir, Mieko pieces written for them by Rebecca Kanno and Ensemble Nomad Saunders, Michel van der Aa, Juliane Klein, Benjamin Schweitzer and Nadir Vassena International Highlights Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Agrare, British Focus Pokrovsky Folk Ensemble, Opus Posth, Including works by Christopher Fox, James Diotima Quartet, Ensemble Recherche, Dillon, Sam Hayden, Michael Finnissy, Chris Claire Edwardes, Ives Ensemble Dench and Joe Cutler Last Night Norwegian Feature Ensemble Modern perform a major new Series of 7 concerts featuring BIT:20, work by Helmut Lachennman Cikada, Asamisimasa and Nordic Voices; Info/brochure: works by Rolf Wallin, Lasse Thorensen and T 01484 425082 or www.hcmf.co.uk Eivind Buene Box Office: T 01484 430528 (opens 24 September) 68 

Rahman proves equal to. Dutton’s sound, abstract expression and tonal ambiguity, not least engineered by Tony Faulkner and recorded in the in the bold, Adagio opening bars, underscoring the Henry Wood Hall, is spacious but intimate. An severity of the instrumental line. The reason for appealing disc, which deserves every success. its more advanced traits lies in the cultural thaw Grazyna Bacewicz (1909–1969) is best known instigated by the Communist regime in Poland, today as a composer of some of Poland’s most which permitted composers such as Baird, vibrant music in the mid-20th century, but she Lutosl⁄awski and Penderecki to create some of made her international reputation in her mid- their most characteristic music. For Bacewicz, the twenties as a performer when she came third – liberating effect extended to the ‘how’ of although only behind Ginette Neveu and David performing technique as much as what notes to Oistrakh – in the 1935 Wieniawski International write. Perhaps in the development of the Allegro Violin Competition. She was an accomplished first movement proper there is too much reliance enough pianist, as Judith Rosen recounts in the on repeated patterns, though the way Bacewicz booklet, to première her own piano concerto. modifies and extends the tail sections of these (And in the same concert as one of her own violin carries more than a hint – unknowingly, I think – concertos!) After the Second World War, of the minimalism that would sweep Western however, it was as to composition that she music seven or eight years later. For all its increasingly devoted her time, largely retiring apparent abstraction, the tense central Adagio is from public performance in the mid-1950s and very evocative, while the squall that comprises the winning many composition awards. concluding Presto carries something of protest Despite her reputation, her tally of 200-plus about it. compositions, and the renown of the best-known Whether Bacewicz had a political agenda will of these, the Concerto for strings (1948), probably never be known, although clues may lie Bacewicz’s discography is modest, recordings in the Partita for violin and piano (the other work mostly of Eastern European provenance often on not otherwise available on CD) written three specialist import labels. Joanna Kurkowicz’s and years earlier. The marking of the opening Gloria Chien’s programme of seven of her better- Preludium – Grave tells you all you need to know known works (all bar two are listed as available in about its character, while the desolate Intermezzo, the 2005 R.E.D. Classical Catalogue) catches both Andantino melancolico, suggests some personal the steel and sensitivity of her music. In the inspiration behind the notes. In between comes Fourth Violin Sonata (1955), Kurkowicz and an initially jaunty Toccata, marked Vivace. By the Chien are exemplary executants, taking a little time its three minutes have concluded it seems more time over the music than previous versions more than a touch manic, as if infected by the and allowing it to breathe. Whilst losing nothing tragic demeanour of the movements framing it. of its leanness, they reveal its gravity better than The concluding Presto breathes a different, more did, for instance, Statkiewicz and Utrecht on relaxed air, as if finally free of despair. Kurkowicz, Olympia (OCD 392). They catch the shades of ably supported by Chien, gets to the heart of Bartók and Shostakovich that suffuse all four Bacewicz in both the Second Sonata and the movements – just as vital as those of Debussy or Partita in ways I have not heard other performers Franck spotlighted by Rosen – whilst emphasizing achieve. But the programme is not all doubt or the lyrical qualities of the work, as in the Andante conflict – there are three delightful miniatures, ma non troppo second movement. Capriccio (1946), Oberek No. 1 (a species of fast Bacewicz’s Fifth Sonata (1951) – not otherwise mazurka), and the title track, Polish Capriccio available on disc – is more compact, playing for (both 1949), all written as virtuoso or encore less than 14 minutes in this bracing account. If pieces and displaying Bacewicz’s lighter, brilliant No. 4 (here almost 21 minutes) shows Bacewicz as side. An utterly splendid disc, especially given Joel master of the Classical four-movement sonata Gordon’s sensational engineered sound, and I structure, in the turbulent Fifth she follows a hope Chandos delve further into her extensive more severe, tripartite form, the music elusive in collection of music. character although the central Andante dolcissimo The same label deserves much praise for their is lovely. There is, throughout, a good deal of historical disc of the Serbian composer, painter, power-by-suggestion, especially in the concluding sculptress and author Ljubica Maric (1909–2003). Allegro inquietamente. The idiomatic leap from this Her remarkably long life was one of almost to the Second Sonata for Violin Solo (1958: a work perpetual political and personal upheaval, from which the composer came out of retirement to the death of her father when she was just four première), is extraordinary. Gone are the folk years old through the horrors of two world wars, inflections of the earlier pieces, replaced by more the formation and disintegration of Yugoslavia   69 and the cultural oppression of the communist and Ringing, while the close of the atmospheric, regime. Her music ranged stylistically from folk- lowering second movement, In Darkness and derived simplicity to microtonal experimentation Glimmering, was inspired by early Truffaut. Only (she was a highly regarded student of Alois Hába in the finale, Roaring and Glaring, does the music’s in Prague in the 1930s – she turned down the character depart from its title, despite the best chance of becoming his assistant – as well as of efforts of Olga Jovanovic and the Belgrade Josef Suk and Hermann Scherchen) but much of Philharmonic Orchestra under Oskar Danon. her earlier music was lost through the vicissitudes There is some scrappiness of ensemble and of war in central Europe. Chandos’s disc features intonation here indicating that the music was a four works from the post-war period in archival touch beyond them, but this is a determined and recordings from Serbian Radio and TV dating not unmoving account of a powerfully evocative from 1964, except that of the large-scale cantata score. Song of Spaces (1956), often cited as her most The remaining two parts of the cycle are both important work (and apparently much admired considerably shorter, the intense chamber cantata by Shostakovich), which is from 1977. The earliest Threshold of Dream (1961) and the instrumental work on offer, Song of Spaces is a remarkable Ostinato super Thema Octoïcha for piano, harp and choral-and-orchestral tapestry setting funerary strings (1963). The cantata sets surrealist poetry inscriptions of the medieval Bogomil sect. This by Marko Ristic ‘raising the question of the Christian offshoot was based geographically in meaning and dissolution of life and its ultimate Bosnia-Herzegovina but theologically in sense’. Scored for soprano and alto voices (both Manichaeism; on their tombstones they recorded roles being sung here by the same singer, their heroism and fealty to lord and God with Dragoslava Nikolic), male narrator – Jovan imprecations not to disturb their bones. From Milicevic here produces a sound close to that these Maric wove a work full of vivid drama and which Penderecki would require for his St Luke symphonic movement and the performance by Passion a couple of years later – and chamber the Mixed Choir and Symphony Orchestra of orchestra, Threshold of Dream is much less Belgrade Radio-TV under Mladen Jagusˇt matches immediate in effect than either the Byzantine the white heat of her music. If the sound quality Concerto or Song of Spaces. By contrast, Ostinato is not first rate it is certainly in no way super Thema Octoïcha, here performed magically problematic, with good depth and little distortion by Maric herself with harpist Josip Pikelj and the in the upper registers or louder, fuller passages. Belgrade Radio-TV Chamber Orchestra under It has been suggested that Maric disguised or Oskar Danon, is gripping from first bar to last in sublimated her pre-war avant-garde idioms in its opposition of obsessive tranquillity (centred music ostensibly looking backward into Serbia’s mainly on the piano) and agitation (the strings). past, especially in those works based on Byzantine According to the composer this ‘echoes the words music. Her interest, however, strikes me as in the score: “In moving it stands still – in standing genuine enough, as can be heard in her other still it moves”’. major large-scale project, the cycle of four works Although long-resident in the United States, based on the Octoëchos, a volume of medieval Thea Musgrave is one of Britain’s best-known and Serbian sacred music derived in turn from most distinguished women composers. Were Byzantine liturgical modes. Maric used these there any doubt of this the American Bridge scales and modes as a reservoir in this tetralogy of label’s disc of six choral works would soundly secular works, three segments of which are expel them. The largest single span is a setting of included on Chandos’s disc. The single-span the opening section of Auden’s ‘Christmas orchestral Octoïcha I is missing but something of Oratorio’ For the Time Being. Auden wrote the its nature can be gleaned from the Byzantine poem for Britten but neither he, nor any later Concerto (1959), a three-movement work for collaborator (including Henze), set anything piano, brass, strings, harp and percussion which more than small sections.8 Musgrave’s cantata, grew out of the orchestral role the piano played in the earlier piece. A ‘homage both to our 8 Auden’s poem, however, has been tackled several times by oth- Byzantine heritage and our cultural roots’, ers in North America. The New York-born Martin David Levy according to the composer, who alerted listeners (b. 1932) set the poem in 1959 apparently Leonard Bernstein was much impressed) and the Canadian Chester Duncan also to the use of hexachords in the musical fabric (1913–2002) created two works derived from it, incidental and how ‘two connected transpositions of the music for a 1965 radio broadcast, later expanded into an orato- hexachord generate a total of twelve chromatic rio. The most recent setting is by John Scott, the choral director of Acadia University, Nova Scotia, scored for double choir, cello tones’. However, there is nothing dodecaphonic and percussion and premièred in Halifax, NS, on January 21 this in the static progress of the opening span, Sound year. 70 

titled in full For the Time Being: Advent, dates from works here, completed by the tiny part-song John 1986 and extends for over 25 minutes. A rich a Cook (1963), ably directed by Harold Rosenbaum. cappella choral tapestry, its three large spans Bridge’s recording is sympathetic and crystal eloquently catch the ambiguities and clear. While not yielding all its secrets in one or uncertainties of Auden’s wartime verse. In the even five hearings, the whole is a joy to listen to. central span the chorus turn accompanist to a Elena Firsova (b. 1950) is another composer narrator – here Michael York, with nicely judged badly served by the record industry, so full marks delivery avoiding the histrionic – who declaims, to the Belgian Megadisc label for collecting three with increasing emotion, the second of the of her cantatas-cum-song cycles on texts by Osip section’s three spans. The chorus here divide into Mandelstam. The disc’s title, The Mandelstam male and female voices, reprising passages from Cantatas, might suggest a complete survey but in the first section, towards the close threatening to fact the three works here constitute less than half overwhelm the narrator. This is one of the of Firsova’s settings has made of her ‘favourite subtlest settings of Auden I have encountered, on poet and the one to whom [she] feels closest’. a par certainly with Britten’s Our Hunting Fathers Mandelstam’s texts and sensibilities can be felt and Henze’s Sicilian Muses and engaging on a throughout her musical output. ‘His poetry is much deeper level than Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety written in precisely the way I would like to write Symphony. music’, she has said and these works, which she There are Brittenish resonances in the third regards as her most important, are eloquent segment of Musgrave’s triptych On the tribute to her love and deep communion with his Underground (1994), settings of stanzas that over writing. The earliest is Earthly Life (1984), cast in the past 15 years or so have been printed alongside five sections of varying lengths (the most advertisements in London’s famed subterranean substantial being the finale, as in all three works transport system. A Medieval Summer is, unlike the here) to texts drawn from Mandelstam’s other two segments, a single span (lasting almost collections Stone, Miscellaneous Poems and Tristia. 12 minutes) built around a passage of Chaucer Firsova’s vocal style – and not a little of the welcoming summer into which other similar accompaniment – has its roots ultimately in late estival texts (including Sumer is icumen in, so Shostakovich. Firsova’s pared-down textures fit memorably set by Britten in the Spring Symphony) the verse perfectly, from the ‘tense and hollow are woven. As a piece of literature it is impressive sound of fruit falling from a tree’ to the ‘circling enough, but Musgrave’s setting catches all the choral dance of shadows that trampled the soft heat and languor of the season. The previous two meadow’. There is something in the music of that sets also bear themes, the first On gratitude, love strange acoustical effect when the snow is on the and madness – setting six poets of diverse ground, a dampening of emotion that becomes provenance, including Stevie Smith, Yeats and all the more intense for its restraint. Emily Dickinson – and the second The Strange and That sense of atmosphere recurs to very the Exotic, where the anonymous I saw a peacock different ends in Forest Walks (1987), by contrast a with a fiery tail and Edwin Morgan’s The Subway diptych setting two further poems from Stone. Piranhas are framed by a couplet of Herrick’s. Here music of rapt beauty illuminates Those unfamiliar with Musgrave’s idiom Mandelstam’s icy and rather gloomy forest- would do well to start with the cycle Black scapes, where loneliness and sorrow are carried Tambourine (1986), a cycle of six poems by Hart like a bird which might be shot on the hunt at any Crane set for women’s chorus, piano and moment. The longer second span acts like a lens percussion (played ideally by the chorus members on the matter of the opening Lento (the but here by Richard Fitz and Rex Benincasa). No movements in all the works bear only tempo two movements have similar textures – the third, markings in lieu of titles). Something similar Black Tambourine, includes a narrator – with the occurs in two stages in the final pair of accompaniment varying from piece to piece. As movements of Before the Thunderstorm (1994), Malcolm MacDonald points out in the booklet, although this cantata opens with a short here Musgrave utilized a more direct melodism instrumental Adagio, which gives way to a series of than in other works of hers, though the whole set musical thumb-nail sketches of characters from is evocatively harmonized: listen to the glacial Mandelstam’s Moscow Poems. This gives way to opening North Labrador or the delightful altogether more apocalyptic visions of Russia’s miniature fifth movement, Pastorale. The cycle is a past with a recurrent theme of a son cut off from tour de force amongst tours de force and sets the family, perhaps mirroring the poet’s own periods New York Virtuoso Singers decidedly on their of internal exile. Here and there come occasional mettle. They rise to the challenges of all the flashes of Britten in the textures (listen for   71 instance to the horn writing as much as the voice suite Crossing does not attempt to emulate. Here, in the Maestoso fourth span) and it is not fanciful to maximalism is all, centring on a ‘head-on culture place Firsova’s cantatas in the same league as the clash’ in the central movement, where pounding Suffolk master’s Serenade, Nocturne or Phaedra. rhythms and industrial sounds morph gradually Soprano Ekaterina Kichigina sings on the whole into a manic rock-type music with electric guitar beautifully, sounding a touch shrill in upper and drums, before a bizarre Chinese-sounding registers, and she is accompanied superbly by the coda. The final span is the most Oriental in Studio of New Music Moscow under Igor Dronov. atmosphere, evocative perhaps of the composer’s The recordings, made in Moscow in April and childhood. The trio Three Voices (1998), however, May 2002, are first-rate. An excellent disc which I is scored for traditional instruments: er-hu (a urge all lovers of vocal repertoire to try. fiddle), zheng (a species of zither with an almost Despite containing pieces entitled Pangu’s Song harp like sound) and di or xiao (a bamboo flute). and Three Voices, the music on New World’s disc The music, though, is quite original: Kui Dong devoted Kui Dong (b. 1966) is instrumental – well, highlights the very different kinds of sounds these up to a point: two movements of her electronic instruments make in what amounts to a mesh of tape/computer piece Crossing (1999–2000) accompanied solos, rather than the dialogue of feature voices (including her own in a song learnt conventional Western chamber music. The in childhood). Like her compatriot Chen Yi, Kui sonorities are enchanting, nonetheless, the Dong emigrated to the US from China to further playing mesmeric. Indeed, the performances are her education and qualified from Stanford all well focussed and Sara Cahill’s of the piano University. Her works have been performed suite and Tod Brody’s flute in Pangu’s Song are around the world and received numerous brilliantly virtuosic. New World’s recording is honours and prizes. Her style is a fusion of nicely balanced throughout and fairly elements from Chinese traditional and Western homogeneous, despite the pieces having been set avant-garde music, in range covering ballet, film, down in three different locations from California orchestral, instrumental, multi-media and to New York. electronic scores. The earliest here is Blue Melody Elena Kats-Chernin (b. 1957) is another (1993), a variation-form quintet for flute, clarinet composer from the East who has moved to the and piano trio. There is no theme as such; rather West, although in her case from Tashkent in each variation takes the opening paragraph (in Uzbekistan to Australia and Europe, between which the instruments only gradually enter) as a which two continents she now divides her time. kind of thematic reservoir to evolve their own She is, nonetheless, now regarded as one of substance. The result sounds like controlled Australia’s leading composers and has received a improvisation – something close to her heart – good number of commissions in her adopted and she has used her own extemporizations as homeland. She was a recipient of a Peggy springboards for several works, as in the piano Glanville-Hicks scholarship in 1997, allowing her suite Earth, Water, Wood, Metal, Fire (2001). Each to spend some time in Britain, during which time movement is a kind of portrait of its element, she developed further the writing of short, from which the ancient Chinese believed the relaxed miniatures, many in the style of ragtimes, world was constructed. Naturally, the five pieces 24 of them being gathered on Signum Classics’ are highly contrasted, Earth strong and solid, disc Ragtime & Blue. Kats-Chernin has found this Water delicate and shimmering (and not unlike type of activity something of a therapy when some of Takemitsu’s rain pieces), while in Wood writing large-scale or more serious scores, often and Metal the composer requires pencils and through re-using discarded material from other triangle beaters (placed between the strings) works. The first such piece, Russian Rag, actually respectively to provide a slightly ‘prepared’, dates from the previous year (1996) and was additional range of sonorities. The work’s specifically commissioned for a recorded strength is its diversity, much being drawn anthology of modern rags. A small-orchestral together in the blazing finale, Fire, before gently arrangement was featured on ABC Classics’ returning to the cycle’s opening by way of close. splendid all-Kats-Chernin CD, Clocks (ABC 456 The duo for flute (doubling on the alto) and 468-2) but here is played evocatively by Nicola percussion Pangu’s Song (1998) won the 2001 Sweeney and Sarah Nicholls. Several later pieces ISCM composition competition and requires the derive from discarded ideas from Russian Ra,g wind player to navigate through a kaleidoscopic while several others here are arrangements or mosaic of textures across the entire instrumental transcriptions of ideas from stage works. Green range. Playing for around nine minutes, it Leaf Prelude, Eliza’s Aria, Brothers and Mute Princess possesses a succinctness which the electronic all originated in Kats-Chernin’s award-winning 72 

ballet Wild Swans (2002–3), about an imaginative World 80526-2) for a dozen percussionists. Other young princess (Eliza) who has eleven boisterous pieces have been written for 30 trumpets and for brothers – at one point she has to knit jumpers for 26 marimbas, so clearly Chambers is a composer them out of nettles! The wistful Reflections comes who does nothing by halves. from her theatre piece Mr Barbecue and describes The use of trombones was suggested, the protagonist’s feelings at seeing himself turn unsurprisingly, by Berlioz’s use of them in his into his father in a mirroir (as he shaves). Both Requiem, but Chambers’s creation of a trombone Nostalgic Piece and Suburban Rag were penned orchestra, divided into 11 choirs, goes far beyond primarily as incidental music (the latter for a even that great experimenter’s wildest production of Uncle Vanya, no less) while the imaginings. The music, though, is not especially lively Slicked Back Tango – alternatively known as revolutionary: stern, stark at times with an the Kosky Tango – was written for a film about the awesome grandeur that has its roots in the theatre director, Barrie Kosky. American pioneer tradition (think perhaps of Roy Other pieces here came about through Harris at his most grandiose and sombre), though episodes in the composer’s own life, such as the shot through with a mild exoticism that reminded gentle Get Well Rag, written during the illness of me of Hovhaness. Chambers even makes use of one of her sons, and Revolving Doors (2000) an Armenian chant in the Sanctus as well as the composed after visiting her publisher in New York great medieval plainsong in the Dies Irae. and an – obviously not entirely happy – encounter Although running in this live performance for with several sets of these entrances which over 70 minutes, the work does not pall or prompted this light-hearted if uneasy miniature. outstrip the limitations of the instrumental The bright Sapphire Rag was written expressly for textures any more than did the gongs in Cecilie Kats-Chernin to perform in public, while the Øre’s hypnotic opera A.. Thomas Hutchinson most recent – Cocktail Rag (2004) – and Birthday proves a most eloquent soloist here, and David Rag were composed for friends. One of the few Gilbert directs this extraordinary ensemble, really dramatic pieces is Bucharian melody, recorded in the Cathedral of St John in New York, prompted by memories of her mother who was with great skill. once an optician in Bokhara (Buchara): this is one Guy Rickards of the few pieces here that betrays the composer’s Uzbekistani roots. Nicholls and Sweeney (who plays in about two-thirds of the pieces) do the music proud, with just the right mix of lightness and gravitas. Nicely recorded (in the Henry Wood Hall, London, this January) there is much to RICHARD ALLAIN : ‘When I’m Gone’ – choral works charm here, but when heard through in a single performed by Laudibus (Chamber Choir) and National sitting I for one was left with a feeling that greater Youth Choir of Great Britain, c. Mike Brewer. Delphian matters were deliberately being avoided. DCD34026. One such great matter might be a composition A composer of many parts, encompassing of a requiem for one’s own father, but I doubt that liturgical, sacred choral music, music theatre, even as mercurial a composer as Kats-Chernin with some jazz influence, and an aptitude for would respond with something as quixotic as A writing works for children, Richard Allain (born Mass for Mass Trombones (1994), a nine-movement 1965) has been described as one of the most requiem for solo trombone accompanied by an creative musical voices of his generation. I first ‘orchestra’ of – wait for it – 76 trombones, written heard his emotive Salve Regina for eight-part by Wendy Mae Chambers (b. 1953). Chambers unaccompanied chorus in a live performance in St has made a reputation for herself from the Albans (March 2004), by the local Carillon Choir unconventional, whether as the inventor of the conducted by Simon Johnson, Assistant Master of car-horn organ, a performer on the toy piano, or Music at St Albans Abbey. Composed in 1992 in as the composer of works for massed forces. memory of a friend of the composer who was Previous examples include Music for killed in a car accident aged 22, the piece was first Choreographed Rowboats (1979) for 24 musicians broadcast in 2000 by the BBC Symphony Chorus afloat in Central Park, Ten Pianos (1983), and The (2000), followed by its Proms debut, sung by the Great Harp Event (1984) – involving 30 harpists! National Youth Choir, of whom Allain became Then again there is her Symphony of the Universe composer in association in 2003. This work is (1989) for horn, 100 timpani, metal percussion, quite outstandingly compelling to the ear, as well jazz band, choir and tape, or her ‘voodoo tone as repaying closer scrutiny of its carefully-crafted poem’ Twelve Squared (122, 1994, issued on New structure. It has just been released on CD on the   73

Delphian label, with excellent notes by Tarik the choirs well conducted by Mike Brewer, and O’Reagan, who extols the virtues of Allain’s some of the most compellingly innovative works ‘unique musical dialect’ and ‘delicate I’ve reviewed on CD to date. juxtaposition of order and freedom’. Allain Jill Barlow himself cites the influence of Arvo Part, describing Salve Regina as ’stripped of needless complexity and full of the sounds I remember from the Church I attended as a child’. ADÈS: Piano Quintet1. SCHUBERT: Piano Quintet Salve Regina opens almost imperceptibly, rising D667, The Trout2. Thomas Adès (pno), 1Arditti Quartet, to a great crescendo of intensity of sound, well 2members of the Belcea Quartet, 2Corin Long (db). realized in this premier recording by the National EMI 7243 5 57664 2 7. Youth Choir, whilst still managing to retain an essentially querulous texture amidst excellent With his Piano Quintet, premièred at the 2001 projection and sound quality. At the harrowing Melbourne Festival, Thomas Adès – not for the words ‘in hac lacrimarum valle’, from the first time – courted the mild sort of controversy traditional 12th-century monastic text, the choir that has the habit of baffling, if not infuriating, breaks into supplicatory ‘whispers’, subtly certain sections of the musical community. interlacing the words ‘tuos misericordes oculos’ Exhibit A in this particular case is Adès’s decision and ‘nos converte’ repeatedly, above the slow- to cast the Quintet in sonata form, complete with moving tenors and basses, to mystical effect. As a repeat of the exposition and (damningly) the use Allain explained to me when he attended our of first- and second-time bars. The conclusion to local St Albans live performance: ‘I remember as a be drawn, we hear, is that this is music about child hearing people saying the rosary in side music, an exercise in stylistic commentary to be chapels in the church, and the repetition of filed alongside equally clever but curiously litanies in alcoves aside,’ and it was this perpetual unfulfilling works such as Sonata da Caccia, Adès’s offering-up of whispered prayer which inspired 1993 tribute to Debussy and Couperin. his ‘whispering’ sequences in the piece. I asked For those who have not had the opportunity to him about the harmonic structure: ‘The harmony test this judgement with their own ears, the is in fact based on jazz voices, so sounds modern’. release of this recording – which has sat in the I noted too a distinctly dramatic intensity to this EMI vaults for three years – is most welcome. As work, particularly the last section, akin to the with the previous discs of Adès’s music on the immediacy of an operatic score or theatre music, EMI label, the performance (by the composer which no doubt reflects his previous work for with the Arditti quartet) is scintillating: it stands as Covent Garden Opera. a powerful advocate of this remarkable score, Other works on his latest Delphian CD include with its fiendish rhythmic subtleties. (The a strikingly exotic piece, At Night I seek the one my companion piece on the disc, Schubert’s Trout Spirit loves, based on the biblical ‘Song of Quintet, is performed with similar verve by Adès Solomon’ and scored for soprano saxaphone and members of the Belcea Quartet.) (played by John Harle),voice and organ; and the Listening to Adès’s Quintet, it is clear that this liturgical Missa Brevis, first commissioned by is not music about music, per se; rather, sonata Simon Johnson and St Albans Abbey Girls Choir form is used as a vehicle to articulate the and beautifully delivered here by Laudibus composer’s ingenious, but always expressive, Chamber choir. I found the 23-minute Improperia manipulations of time. The opening theme a very valid Good Friday liturgical piece, based on presented by solo first violin – an ascending scalic Christ’s reproach of His people for driving him to fragment in a chromatically enriched C major – is His Passion after all God had done for them – but almost immediately subject to temporal a little too lengthy for inclusion on a mixed genre distortion, being stretched and compressed as the CD. Although impeccably performed, phrasing demands. This transforms into encompassing plainchant, polyphony and passagework, under which the piano enters with innovative use of chord-clusters, the seemingly the same theme, now in B major and in the ratio endless succession of anticlimaxes in the 5:4 against the first violin. And so it goes on. By plainchant, even to a seasoned practising Catholic frequently requiring the performers to feel the like myself, palled after a while, however pulse in ever-changing and often irregular evocative they may be of tradition; in the context subdivisions of the crotchet, Adès gives the music of a modern work one expects more progression an elastic, improvisatory feel. Nevertheless, on a 21st-century CD. That said, I can thoroughly rhythmic precision is paramount, for lines recommend this disc for excellent sound-quality, frequently converge, articulating certain points of 74 

arrival, only to shift out of temporal focus once the group of composers and performers who again. championed Jewish music in the first half of the As one might expect, the development serves 20th century. From its roots in St Petersburg in to intensify the temporal processes of the 1908, the ‘Society for Jewish Folk Music’ spread to exposition, touching on the two logical extremes Moscow, led there by Joel Engel, ‘father’ of Israeli that these processes imply. At first the individual music; thence to Berlin and Vienna, across lines reach a state of maximum dislocation, a Europe and to Palestine. Through folklore somewhat raucous – if unlovely – climax that research, composition, concerts and publications, dramatically fades into a series of chords played in it laid the foundations for Jewish music of later rhythmic unison. As with so much of the generations as shown by the works represented exposition, the actual rhythm of these chords is on this CD. Rare items include Joseph Achron’s irregular, and though terrifyingly complex on the Fragment mystique, the fiery Chassidic Dance by page, the aural effect is one of continual, if gentle, Lazar Saminsky (founder of the American ebb and flow, rather like breathing. Composer’s Guild), and the intense Rhapsodie To repeat, in the recapitulation, the localized (Récitatif et Danse Hassidique) by Solomon warping of time that characterized the Rosowksy, prolific synagogue music composer. exposition, would seem forced after the All three moved from Russia to Palestine in the development. Thus the floating temporalities of 1920s and 30s before settling in America. the exposition are re-imagined, positioned within Particularly fascinating are the works of the a lengthy accelerando which sweeps all in its path. less familiar Leo Zeitlin (1884-1930), a colleague Where the exposition is expansive, the of Achron, and of Sinowi Feldman (1893-1942), recapitulation is compressed: thus, although it who became a composer of Russian military accounts for less than three minutes of a work marches. Zeitlin’s luscious, cantorial-style Eli lasting nearly twenty, the accumulation of energy Zion, which gives the CD its title, was, according serves to imbue it with a weight and significance to the erudite sleeve notes, one of the most sufficient to balance the preceding material. The frequently played pieces of the ‘New Jewish use of sonata form is thus no mere crutch or School’ between 1910-1930. It receives here its affectation: it is central to the organization of the world première recording, alongside Feldman’s unfolding temporal drama. Adès’s music, at its impassioned Poem and Rosowsky’s Rhapsodie, all most vital, forces us to reconsider those musical three of which seem to have French echoes in objects long considered extraneous to their harmonies. Meanwhile there is a far more contemporary concerns, and in this respect, the modernist orientalized texture to the eloquent Piano Quintet is no different. Israeli Suite, four contrasing dances by Joachim Edward Venn Stutschewsky, the notable Russian cellist, who was a member of the Viennese Kolisch Quartet, and who settled in Israel. Bloch’s famous Méditation Hebraïque is also included, somewhat Eli Zion – from St Petersburg to Jerusalem: Music from controversially: though he stands apart from the the ‘New Jewish School’. David Geringas (vlc), Jascha Russian composers he may have been influenced Nemtsov (pno). SWR and Hännsler-Classic CD 93.122. by them, Nemtsov argues, in his early Jewish works, before settling in the USA. Musically This CD is the fifth in a series devoted to the ‘New engaging, as well as significant historically, this Jewish School’, impressively performed by the beautifully performed CD highlights the artistic scholar-pianist Jascha Nemtsov with the potency of a consciously-conceived Jewish art outstanding Lithuanian cellist David Geringas. music style based on traditional sources; it thus Nemtsov, organiser of a recent conference in makes an important contribution to our Potsdam (reviewed in Tempo Vol.58, no.230) and appreciation of Jewish and Israeli music as well as author of two books on the subject, is an ideal the development of national schools in the 20th candidate to provide a fascinating window into century. Malcolm Miller