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Debuts at Oakland Metro
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On "Voci," her new ECM recording of pieces by Luciano Berio she displays the rare gift of getting inside the haunting and evocative music born of and synthesized from the folk music of Sicily. Berio doesn't directly emulate the folk songs but uses their elemental characteristics to form new structures of melody and rhythm. What we hear on this recording is not the Bela Bartok-style of innovation and recreation, where the composer takes his native land's folk songs and directly incorporates them into more expanded and composed forms. What Berio offers are compositions that use snippets of melodies and rhythms from traditional and ancient folk songs of Sicily; and create from them, a montage of colours, timbres and rhythms. The viola of Kashkashian is an integral and vital part of this synthesis. She coaxes a vocal, singing quality from the viola and gives the sound guts and great sensitivity. The viola's passages require these qualities, as the music's interpretation is not secure and spoken for but wild, challenging and changing. Kashkashian's viola sings, it cries, it pleads its melodic case and states its simple beauty. "Voci" (Voices) subtitled "Folk Songs II", was written in1984 and has a direct correlation to Berio's work of 1963/64, the original "Folk Songs". The viola opens this piece with a strange, partly plaintive, partly innocent and partly raw vocalise. The long notes of the bow a followed by a flurry of plucked ones give the listener a sense of immediacy and directness that is found throughout this recording. Percussion adds the first accompaniment; background, ambient sounds, like the kind of background sounds that go unnoticed during the course of any day. The orchestra is soon present as well, barely heard, almost as a shadow for a while, its distilled strings mirroring and reflecting back the sound of the viola. When the orchestra does enter the effect is sparse yet tumultuous. It enters then disappears again and again to allow the viola to sing. This is a striking way to present the solo instrument. At once it is the central voice, the song and the language and at the same time it is a subject of study. The viola as character study; intense and deliberate; singing, providing the dramatic flow of emotion. Here again we see Berio's mark of the master; his ability to get at and explore the real essence of his subjects (instrument and instrumentalist). The orchestra is a beautiful and colorful addition. At once a backdrop and accompanist, it is a landscape of ever changing texture, terrain and climate. The melodies of the viola or more accurately, the melodic motives, are there, repeating over and soaring above the murmurings of orchestral sounds-scapes. In the piece "Naturale" the viola is accompanied by percussion and the taped voice of a male voice singing a song-story; (a storyteller using song). His voice is interspersed throughout the score as a kind of commentary. The thematic and song material is directly related to the opening of "Voci" but altered for use in this different setting. Again the raw and stripped down voice of the viola is direct and immediate and completely engaging. Between the two extended works are the original recordings that Berio used of ancient Sicilian folk songs form the Archives of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. -- DHG
Classical Grammy Winners |
Sonates pour violin et piano Composer: Gabriel Faure Performer: Isabelle Faust, Florent Boffard Harmonia Mundi Franc - #901741 Isabelle Faust demonstrates that the sky-high standards she set with her award-winning Bartok recordings were no fluke. An intelligent, mature musician at the peak of her powers, Faust makes even Faure's most romantic lollipops sound important. |
Chrysalid Requiem Composer: Toby Twining Performer: Michael Steinberger, Toby Twining, et al. Cantaloupe - #21007 Few recent CDs have irritated me more. Too long-winded by half, too self-important by three quarters and yet there are moments of real inventiveness. Whatever happened to less is more? |
Faure: Requiem Franck: Symphony in D Minor Composers: Gabriel Faure, Cesar Franck Conductor: Philippe Herreweghe Performer: Johannette Zomer, Stephan Genz Ensemble: Collegium Vocale, Orchestre des Champs Elysees Harmonia Mundi Franc - #901771 Note to Toby Twining: This is what a masterpiece Requiem sounds like. You can't own too many copies of Faure's Requiem but if you have only one, this one will do. |
...and the lotos rose quietly, quietly Composer: Klaus Ib Jørgensen Da Capo [Naxos] - #8224201 We are not without sympathy for those misguided individuals who believe the accordian is a musical instument and to demonstrate how large-minded we are in this regard, we recommend these most inventive works for accordion – from solo and duo through chamber music to concerto – by the young Danish composer Klaus Ib Jørgensen. The music is highly complex and if you try you can even forget that the noise you're hearing is coming from an instrument that launched the career of Lawrence Welk. |
Sacred & Profane Composer: Britten, Elgar, Vaughn Williams, Delius, Stanford Performers: Rias Kammerchor, dir. Marcus Creed Harmonia Mundi Franc - #901734 From Elgar’s Part Songs (1904) to one of Britten’s very last works, Sacred and Profane (1975), these are some of the most beautiful and best-loved pieces in the English a capella repertory, many of them rarely recorded. Berlin's RIAS-Kammerchor has not only played a decisive part in the revival of the musical life of Berlin but has established itself as the best a capella group currently performing. Highly recommended. |
Coronation Te Deum Composer: William Walton Performer: Layton, Polyphony, Wallace Collection Hyperion - #67330 Hyperion has gone riffling through some dusty corners of Sir William's music drawers to come up with a treasury of goodies--large and small-- from the ‘pomp and circumstance’ of Queen Elizabeth's coronation march to simple Christmas carols, all sung majestically performed by Polyphony conducted by Stephen Layton with the resplendent brass of THe Wallace Collection.
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Deep Night, Deep Autumn Composer/Performer: Roger Kleier Starkland 211 Roger Kleier, an experimental guitarist, seduces listeners by mutating his guitar in various ways, ranging from the hallowed techniques of Jimi Hendrix and Captain Beefheart, through the extended techniques of avant-garde guitar-mangling, to the recent technological innovations of sampling, layering, and digital sound processing. All of which can be pretty unpleasant unless the performer has musical sensitivity that goes beyond mere technique. Fortunately, Kleier maintains a clear connection to the "real" world and the music on this brooding, elegiac CD is grounded in associations that speak to eloquently to us all. |
L’Invitation au Voyage Composer: Henri DuParc MVCD 1148 CBC Henri Duparc was something of a nut case who destroyed virtually everything he wrote, except for this remarkable collection of sixteen songs, and a few orchestral works and piano pieces. The songs are as good as anything by Berlioz or Debussy or anyone else in the history of French song. Mezzo soprano Catherine Robbin and baritone Gerald Finley, accompanied by Stephen Ralls, make a strong case for these overlooked masterpieces. |
Pierrot lunaire • Dichterliebe Composers: Arnold Schoenberg, Robert Schumann Performers: Christine Schäfer • Natascha Osterkorn • Ensemble Intercontemporain • Pierre Boulez ARTHAUS MUSIK Two films by Oliver Herrman on DVD of musical masterpieces by Schoenberg and Schumann. Schumann's song cycle Dichterliebe is performed in an intimate setting, placed in a low-lit night club in the centre of Berlin, much of it might have been done in the composer's day. In Pierrot Lunaire, Herrmann has created onscreen a surreal and grotesque modern-day metropolis through which Pierrot (Christine Schafer) wanders like a ghost, adrift in time and space.
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Choral Ikons Composer: John Tavener Conductor: Zdenek Kosler Performer: The Choir BBC - Opus Arte The Choir sings Sir John Tavener's hauntingly beautiful unaccompanied choral music in what is said to be a virtual reality restoration of the ancient Hagia Sophia church in Constantinople. Unfortunately, the visual effects are not only unnecessary but somewhat amateurish and cheap looking, thus detracting a bit from the full richness of Tavener's mystic inspiration. This DVD also features Manifestations of God - Sir John Tavener on his choral music and other filler material. |
Solamente Romanz Composer/Performer: Darren Curtis Skanson CCM Light classical music for summer chilling, played expertly by Colorado resident Darren Curtis Skanson. Skanson's original pieces have genuine warmth and charm. |
turquoise swans Composer: Paul Barker Performer: Sarah Leonard, soprano Sargasso A remarkable collection of piano and voice songs written by UK composer Paul Barker and sung by virtuoso soprano Sarah Leonard (Michael Nyman’s ‘Prospero’s Books’ and ‘The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover’ soundtracks and numerous other 20th century operas). Some of the pieces were inspired by Silvia Plath’s writings, others by Aztec poetry--all are finely crafted miniatures of emotional insight and a perfect vehicle for Leonard’s extraordinary vocal talent. Also included are three arias from one of Barker’s many chamber operas--Dirty Tricks--about the famous British Airways/Virgin lawsuit. Leonard played an air hostess in that one. Don't know who played Richard Bransom. |
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Publisher: Duane Harper Grant (212) 582-4153 Editor: Jerry Bowles (212) 582-3791 Contributing Editor: Deborah Kravetz (C) Sequenza/21 LLC 2000 |
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