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

Fred Lerdahl: Time After Time
Nothing Sacred
Two From Wayne Horvitz
Two Fresh Cantaloupes
Gone But Not Forgotten
David Bennett Thomas: Chamber Works
In Transit
Zwilich Concertos for Violin and Percussion
Ives Plays Ives, More Number Pieces, and Musique Concrete
Less Famous Than You - Songs by Corey Dargel

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

Thursday, July 13, 2006
Gone For Foreign
Gone For Foreign
Cygnus Ensemble
David Claman: gone for foreign; William Anderson: A Giddy Thing; Akemi Naito: Mindscape – Four Poetic Images; Rolv Yttrehus: Plectrum Spectrum; Milton Babbitt – Swan Song No. 1
Bridge 9195


What a marvelous combination of instruments the New York-based Cygnus Ensemble presents: flute, oboe, violin, cello and two guitars (or mandolins, or banjos). Needless to say, this striking but permanently unique configuration requires Cygnus to commission their entire tutti repertoire; some of the fruits of that ongoing project are presented on this new disc from Bridge.

The headliner here is clearly Babbitt, whose Swan Song No. 1 (written for Cygnus – hence the typically punny title – in 2001-3) emerges under the baton of Jeffrey Milarsky as an unusually lyrical, mellifluous work, with the composer’s typical jittery energy (in guitar and mandolin) submerged beneath a scrim of long-breathed melodic phrases in the winds and strings. The mercurial lightness of Babbitt’s later work is still present, though, as is a constantly shifting rhythmic drive, and Milarsky and Cygnus navigate these two simultaneous affective allegiances with a keen sense of balance and a welcome determination not to underplay Babbitt’s flowering melodic imagination.

Swan Song No. 1 is the last work on the disc; the other standout is the first, David Claman’s gone for foreign. These five short pieces admirably test the textural resources of Cygnus’s singular instrumentation. Riots of microtonal swirlings, rhythmically counterpointed guitar strokes. Pulsed figures come and go before you can really register them; the rock influence claimed in the notes consists only of that, as far as I can tell, and the cross-cultural exoticism that engendered the title is present, I suppose, but doesn’t make a nuisance of itself.

Between Claman and Babbitt are three other works, all of which lay claim to a compelling soundworld carved out of this unique sextet. Rolv Ytterhus’s Plectrum Spectrum, in particular, makes as good a case for the banjo in an “art-music” context as I have ever heard. Akemi Naito’s Mindscape – Four Poetic Images, as its title warns, veers close to the lugubrious in its combination of American-style New Romanticism and Takemitsian (?!) colorations and formal attitudes. Last and, in terms of length, least is A Giddy Thing for mandolin and tape by one of Cygnus’s own plucked-instrument virtuosi, William Anderson, a three-minute bagatelle filled with wit and wistfulness – and do I detect a hint of Bill Frisell?

Bravo to Bridge for this recording, both the concept and the excellent sound quality. Bravo to Milarsky and Cygnus for uniformly razor-sharp performances. And bravo in particular to Babbitt, whose Swan Song No. 1 is an unusual and immediately gratifying work, and Claman, who succeeds especially admirably in building a world of textures and instrumental approaches within which reigns a delightful unpredictability.

 



Search WWWSearch www.sequenza21.com