Record companies, artists and publicists are invited to submit CDs to be considered for review. Send to: Jerry Bowles, Editor, Sequenza 21, 340 W. 57th Street, 12B, New York, NY 10019

Latest Posts

Ernst Pepping and Allan Pettersson: Moral Dilemmas in Symphonic Music
"The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and... "
Tell the Birds
Soundtrack to an Apocalypse
Feast Your Ears: New Music for Piano
Gone For Foreign
Fred Lerdahl: Time After Time
Nothing Sacred
Two From Wayne Horvitz
Two Fresh Cantaloupes

Record companies, artists and publicists are invited to submit CDs to be considered for our Editor's Pick's of the month. Send to: Jerry Bowles, Editor, Sequenza 21, 340 W. 57th Street, 12B, New York, NY 10019


Archives
Saturday, December 18, 2004 Saturday, December 25, 2004 Friday, December 31, 2004 Wednesday, January 05, 2005 Monday, January 10, 2005 Thursday, January 13, 2005 Thursday, January 20, 2005 Sunday, January 23, 2005 Monday, January 24, 2005 Saturday, January 29, 2005 Wednesday, February 02, 2005 Thursday, February 03, 2005 Monday, February 07, 2005 Tuesday, February 08, 2005 Friday, February 11, 2005 Monday, February 14, 2005 Wednesday, February 16, 2005 Tuesday, February 22, 2005 Monday, February 28, 2005 Sunday, March 06, 2005 Monday, March 07, 2005 Wednesday, March 09, 2005 Sunday, March 13, 2005 Friday, March 18, 2005 Monday, March 28, 2005 Saturday, April 02, 2005 Monday, April 11, 2005 Sunday, April 17, 2005 Tuesday, April 19, 2005 Monday, April 25, 2005 Monday, May 02, 2005 Monday, May 09, 2005 Tuesday, May 17, 2005 Tuesday, May 31, 2005 Monday, June 06, 2005 Thursday, June 16, 2005 Sunday, June 19, 2005 Sunday, July 10, 2005 Wednesday, July 13, 2005 Sunday, July 24, 2005 Friday, July 29, 2005 Monday, August 08, 2005 Monday, August 22, 2005 Wednesday, August 24, 2005 Friday, September 16, 2005 Sunday, September 25, 2005 Tuesday, October 04, 2005 Tuesday, October 18, 2005 Monday, October 24, 2005 Tuesday, November 01, 2005 Monday, November 07, 2005 Saturday, November 12, 2005 Wednesday, November 16, 2005 Tuesday, November 29, 2005 Friday, December 16, 2005 Monday, January 09, 2006 Thursday, January 12, 2006 Thursday, January 19, 2006 Tuesday, January 24, 2006 Thursday, February 02, 2006 Monday, February 13, 2006 Wednesday, February 15, 2006 Wednesday, March 01, 2006 Sunday, March 19, 2006 Sunday, March 26, 2006 Friday, March 31, 2006 Sunday, April 09, 2006 Monday, April 10, 2006 Thursday, April 20, 2006 Friday, April 21, 2006 Thursday, May 11, 2006 Thursday, May 18, 2006 Saturday, May 20, 2006 Friday, June 02, 2006 Tuesday, June 06, 2006 Friday, June 16, 2006 Monday, June 19, 2006 Sunday, June 25, 2006 Monday, June 26, 2006 Monday, July 10, 2006 Thursday, July 13, 2006 Thursday, July 20, 2006 Friday, July 21, 2006 Sunday, July 23, 2006 Thursday, August 03, 2006 Wednesday, August 09, 2006


Powered by Blogger

Monday, February 28, 2005
Crabtree, Frizzo, Johnson, and Price, Resonance: Chamber Works – Volume 1
New Tertian Recordings

Just by chance, the CD I picked out to review this time, Resonance: Chamber Works – Volume 1, offers a nice counterpoint to David’s latest review of The Peoples Mass. Like the mass, Resonance features works by composers who are, according to the label’s website, “up and coming.” Also like the mass, Resonance suffers a bit from its concept. The CD is apparently intended, again according to the label, to give “the listener an opportunity to hear music written for a variety of different instruments on a single release.” Though it seems more likely that the four young composers featured here just threw their favorite chamber pieces onto a CD, Resonance delivers on its promise; guitar, tuba, cello, voice, piano, clarinet, violin, viola, and all four saxes make appearances.

Such diversity, though, doesn’t make for much of a cohesive listening experience. Each track presents a new ensemble or soloist, and works by the individual composers are spread throughout the CD. The combination of live and studio recordings doesn’t help matters much. Over the course of the hour running time, the listener never really gets to settle in.

One narrow and unlikely thread, however, binds Resonance together – the saxophone. Despite the label’s claims of diversity, the sax features in four of the nine pieces. Interestingly, these four pieces are the strongest on the CD. The first, William Price’s “Prayer for the Forgotten,” performed by the Red Stick Saxophone Quartet, offers harmonies that are warm and solemn, as its title might suggest. Then the piece moves gradually into more unsettled territory, which sounds striking after the chorale-like beginnings. The chords, unwilling to be forgotten, return to end the piece. Price is also represented by “Sans Titre II,” the last of the sax pieces on the disc. Though the piece is a nine-minute solo, it remains intriguing. Price’s lines are melodic, pretty, but agitated. In the second half of the piece, a sense of rhythmic drive enters and the pulse releases some of the tension, though the melodies in this section occasionally wander a little too close to light jazz territory.

In between Price’s two works lie Aaron Johnson’s “Vexation” and John Crabtree’s “Aurorean Eclipse.” A sax and a cello are called for in Johnson’s piece, and the combination is very effective. The two instruments pace around each other as if learning a new dance. “Aurorean Eclipse” features another saxophone quartet, though the piece has little in common with Price's. Crabtree creates an engrossing texture by calling for nearly constant trills, some violent slap-tonguing, and few fading glissandi.

Though the fourth composer, Carlos Vincetti Frizzo, is shut out of the saxes, he gets a good piece in too. Resonance closes with his “Celestial Horizons: Three Scenes from the Cosmos” for string trio. The work overcomes its pretentious title to offer a pleasing and highly listenable, though slightly stolid, conclusion to the CD.

The rest of the CD is unremarkable. If you’re interested in music for the saxophone or just curious to see what some new composers are up to, it’s worth checking out. Otherwise, you’re better off with CD’s of chamber music that stick with one ensemble or one composer for the duration.

 



Search WWWSearch www.sequenza21.com