Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Evan Johnson On the Record: Thomson and Still on Naxos

Synthetic Waltzes, Four Songs to Poems of Thomas Campion, Sonata for Violin and Piano, Two by Marian Moore, Praises and Prayers
Virgil Thomson
Continuum
Naxos 8.559198

Piano Music: Three Visions, Seven Traceries, The Blues, A Deserted Plantation, Africa (arr. Arvey)
William Grant Still
Mark Boozer, piano
Naxos 8.559210

Virgil Thomson was born in Kansas City in 1896, but with only his music to judge you�d think he was breathing the air of Paris long before he actually went there at age 25. This is French music, plain and simple; the wit and high-minded aimlessness of Satie, the rhythmic play of Poulenc or Milhaud, the instrumentation of Debussy. The utterances here are fundamentally small-scale; no movement or song in the five works here breaks the six-minute mark, and profundity is not the goal.

With the exception of the Violin Sonata, these are all pieces of classical refinement, understatement, and unavoidable charm. It�s simply impossible not to like them. Synthetic Waltzes for two pianos, dated 1925, is the earliest work here; its slanted evocation of the dance is straight from Satie, and its considerable rhythmic dislocations and bitonal bite can�t get rid of that damned charm. This is a thoroughly obscure work, but would � yes � charm audiences everywhere. Duo pianists take note.

The Violin Sonata was written only five years later, but seems to have come from another part of Thomson�s brain. Satie is still quite markedly present, especially in the non-repetitive, wandering but always engaging melodic peregrinations, but there is a wider dynamic and emotional range, a twinge of angst even � some compromising of the debonair half-smile of the Synthetic Waltzes. Mia Wu�s violin tone here is a tad thin; perhaps she was expecting Thomson�s other music instead of the relatively meaty fare here.

The remaining three pieces, all cycles of vocal works, are from much lthe 1950s and 60s, in Thomson�s full compositional maturity. They are economical, light, and � dare I say it? � charming. Slight of substance, maybe, but who cares? Thoroughly entertaining, varied within their relatively narrow expressive range, blindingly French in influence (note the Debussyan ensemble of clarinet, viola and harp in the Campion Songs), and of course masterfully crafted, as one can always expect from Thomson. The new music ensemble Continuum�s performances of this music, which in typically French fashion sounds transparent while inevitably posing treacherous difficulties, are fluent and convincing.

If, in the end, Virgil Thomson is a more important figure for his pioneering criticism and Gertrude Stein operas than his smaller-scale music, the latter should certainly not be totally forgotten.

I�m not sure I can say the same, on the evidence of Mark Boozer�s performances, of the piano music of Thomson�s near-exact contemporary William Grant Still. Still�s historical place is assured, of course, by his status as a pioneering African-American in a field that was, and is, astonishingly white. Despite his ultraminority status and the general social conditions of the 1920s, Still studied at the New England Conservatory, privately with Edgard Var�se, and received prestigious fellowships and performances.

Although their titles vary from the concrete (Africa, The Blues) to the more abstract (Seven Traceries, Three Visions), all of these pieces are meant to be a reflection on some facet of African history or on religious African-American experience. Musically speaking, though, they are fairly thin. There are lots of atmospheric added-note chords and pentatonic melodies, and it is occasionally clear that Still knows his Debussy and other modern harmonists, but in the end Still�s blend of African-American and contemporary European influences leaves only a fleeting impression. There is a lack of backbone, of both structural inevitability and harmonic fluidity. Furthermore, Boozer often seems unsure of the degree to which his performance should be informed by the blues, jazz, and other vernacular traditions with which Still�s idiom continually flirts. The pianism is too stiff and too loose in alternation, and never seems to settle on just the right combination.

Perhaps this music needs a more secure or more daring advocate than Boozer, but, while Still�s importance in American cultural history is not in doubt, the lasting importance of his work seems less certain.

posted by Evan Johnson 4/20/2006