Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Sunday, March 19, 2006

New music from Daniel Lentz, Payton Macdonald and Melissa Hui

On the Leopard Altar
Daniel Lentz
various performers
Cold Blue Music

This is a reissue of an earlier LP, one that was produced by Yale Evelev, whom I remember as the guy at the old New Music Distribution Service who sold me a lot of independent LPs back in the old days. Lentz's music, to my ears, often sounds like a blend of David Borden and other minimalist-inspired composers. And that's not a bad thing.

On this album, which is nicely performed by musicians such as Jessica Lowe, Paul MacKey, Susan James, Dennis Parnell, David Kuehn, Arlene Dunlap and Daniel Lentz himself, there is a good mix of short pieces. The two sections that really grabbed me are Is It Love? and Wolf is Dead. Both set text in interesting ways, with a focus on individual phonemes that are manipulated in a formal process. Wolf is Dead reminds me a lot of John Adams, while Is It Love? is somewhat reminiscent of some of Reich's music. Lascaux is a piece for multiple wineglasses, and the liner notes indicate that aside from reverberation, no effects were added. The remainder of the album, On the Leopard Altar and Requiem, involve voices and keyboards much like Is It Love and Wolf is Dead, but I didn't find as much to interest me in these two works. Lentz's music is at times new age-ish, yet also retains much of the minimalist aesthetic, and there is certainly a good deal of worthwhile music on this album, even if not all of it is to one's liking.

Super Marimba
Payton MacDonald
Fever Pitch Records

I'd sum up this album this way:

The title reminds me of Soundgarden's SuperUnknown

The music is a cross between Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and other influences

One section seems to be taken right from Riley's Persian Surgery Dervishes

Most importantly, who cares about the influences...this is an incredible album, with a lot of engaging and utterly beautiful music.

I really like this album. MacDonald performs everything in real time using a single acoustic marimba, and from what I've read, with a single take and without the use of overdubbing or audio splicing. Yet the music sounds like a marimba ensemble---he achieves this through the use of amplification, looping pedals, delay pedals, distortion pedals, etc. MacDonald is a founding member of the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, and has also studied the tabla with Pandit Sharda Sahai. Undoubtedly, the latter has had a significant influence on his work.

Overall, this is an extremely worthwhile and enjoyable album of new music in the Terry Riley vein. And again, despite the imitation, that's not bad.

and blue sparks burn
Melissa Hui
CMC

I'd never heard of music until recently, and was very intrigued to listen to this album. Hui, who currently resides in Montreal, write music for both Western and Eastern instruments (such as the pipa), although the majority of works on this album are scored for Western instruments. All of the pieces I liked, but none were particularly striking to me. They sounded fairly conventional; certainly pleasant enough, but not that distinctive or memorable. Perhaps I was hoping, or expecting, something more innovative or unusual, or at least something that made me feel something one way or the other. I just found the music bland, although others certainly may have other opinions. The performances certainly sounded exemplary, and the musicians seemed to give their all for the music, which is commendable.

posted by David Toub 1:48 PM

Carol Lian, Carol Lian Plays

Know many CDs that span 250 years in their first 4 minutes? Pianist Carol Lian's album Carol Lian Plays does exactly that and a little more - going from some free improv to a Scarlatti sonata. Jump ahead another 4 minutes and the gap is bisected by the beginning of Ravel's "Sonatine." Think it works?

Generally, a track list like the one on the back of Carol Lian Plays makes me suspicious. I like adventurous programming, but it almost always works better in a concert setting. Inevitably, performers shine in, at most, a couple of musical styles. Only having one chance to listen makes me forgive and forget their failings and appreciate the new insights that can arise from hearing diverse pieces side-by-side. But with a recording, repeated listens tend to pound the performer's weaknesses into my head.

To convince me, then, Lian had a lot to overcome. Sure, the chronological gaps lessen as she moves deeper into the disc, but a fair helping of stylistic diversity remains. "La-no-tib Suite" follows the Ravel. It's a driving, playful piece by Lian's husband and S21er Jack Reilly that lives up to it's title (hint: read it backwards). Then comes "Tocatta" by Ralph Briggs. Briggs takes seriously the etymology of the toccata (deriving from ‘tuck,’ which was, “[f]rom the 14th century to the end of the 18th, a signal or flourish on trumpet(s) or drum(s)” says Grove) and reminds the listener that the piano is probably best classed as a percussion instrument. The CD finishes up by stepping back in time to “3 Preludes” from Gershwin and then leapfrogging forward to another of Lian’s improvisations. Phew, quite a journey!

Fortunately, Lian pulls it off via her confident performances and the care with which the pieces were chosen. The key to the disc's cohesion is that each piece suits Lian's crisp playing. Scarlati's trills shine; Ravel's arpeggios glimmer; Reilly's bi-tonal chords gleam. With repeated listening, subtle connections appear between the pieces. The tightly played grace notes of the Scarlatti start to sound not so distant from the close intervals of the Moderato movement of "La-no-tib." The figurations in the "Sonatine" begin to resemble the rapid-fire passages in the "Toccata."

My only quarrel with the CD is the Gershwin. The idea of returning to fill in the gap between Ravel and Reilly is clever, but it doesn't quite work for me. Ravel prefigures jazz, while Reilly reconfigures it. Gerswhin's assimilation seems a bit blunt in contrast, and, perhaps as a result, Lian's playing doesn't posses quite the same energy that pervades the rest of the disc.

All in all, it's a great listen. Sure, the era hopping means you might not be able to put it on in the background at your next dinner party. But if you had really cool friends you could. I’ll sign off with one question for Lian and Reilly: when do we get the 4-hand improv CD? In the meantime, Lian is headed into the studio for a new disc of Schumann's Fantasy pieces and more of her ownimprovisations. Keep an eye out for that one, too.

posted by Lanier Sammons 11:52 AM