Tag: @sequenza21

CD Review, Choral Music, early music, File Under?

Brabant Ensemble Sings Guerrero (CD Review)

Guerrero: Missa Ecce Sacerdos Magnus, Magnificat, and Motets

Brabant Ensemble, directed by Stephen Rice

Hyperion

 

The Spanish Renaissance composer Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599) does not have the profile or deep discography he deserves. Brabant Ensemble, directed by Stephen Rice, seek to raise the former and enhance the latter with Missa Ecce Sacerdos Magnus, Magnificat, and Motets, a Hyperion CD of pieces by Guerrero that have not previously been recorded. While hearing them is past due, it is welcome all the same.

 

The ensemble has an exquisite blend, doubtless helped in part by being populated by performers who also collaborate together in other ensembles, notably the Ashby sisters (Stile Antico). Rice selects tempos that are measured, never rushed, resulting in clarity of textual utterance. Contrapuntal entrances are seamlessly coordinated.

 

The motets are artfully crafted. Gaude Barbara features diverse smaller groupings of the ensemble, with lines shifting between them, creating a varied texture. It is an effusive opener for the recording. The six-part Simile Est Regnum Caelorum is similarly jubilant, juxtaposing homophonic and polyphonic entrances, with frequent cadential elisions.

 

Quomodo Cantabimus Canticum Domini, on the other hand, uses lines from Psalm 137, one of the most wrenching of those lamenting the Babylonian captivity. Here, the upper voices move through a plangent harmonic sequence, the basses held back until the words “In a strange land.” The staggering of entrances creates a feeling of isolation and confusion, which fits the words perfectly. Ductus est Jesus, a setting of the text of Jesus’s temptations in the wilderness, nearly steps out of the Renaissance frame in its theatricality of utterance, with dramatic depictions of Satan’s suggestions and resolute rejoinders from Christ. O Crux Splendidior is doleful yet dignified, with melancholy harmony supported by flowing lines.

 

Missa Ecce Sacerdos Magnus is a five-voice (the altos divisi throughout) cantus firmus mass. In addition to melodic material from the chant’s incorporation, the chant text is sung at times by some of the parts instead of the text of the Ordinary of the mass. Depicting the “great priest” in a text primarily from Ecclisiastes, the chant is a clear reference to Christ and also to its dedicatee, Pope Gregory VIII.

 

The Kyrie manages some rhythmic shaping to accommodate the entire chant melody. Free material against it includes a soaring soprano line, which then descends in a quarter note sequence imitated in the tenor and bass voices. The Gloria is one of the first sections of a piece on the recording in which homophony and paired question and answer phrases dominate, rendering the text compactly. The Credo, on the other hand, is an expansive rendering that takes its time with the various textual allusions. My favorite movement is the Sanctus – Benedictus, which contains a brilliant, canonic Osanna that is performed gloriously by the Brabant Ensemble. The luminous Agnus Dei returns to the chant text and expands to six voices. Canonic entries and rhythmic variations allow for considerable pliancy, with a vibrant soprano line leading the mass to an extended final cadence.

 

A second set of motets reveals the variety of approaches that Guerrero adopted. Peccantem Me Quotidie is even just as  emotive as Ductus est Jesus, depicting a penitent’s fear of Hell and implorations for mercy. The five-voice Beatus Es Et Bene Tibi Erit is a compact setting with an effusive closing section. Quae Es Iste Tam Formosa is an early work, with paired entrances reminiscent of earlier composers and considerable dissonance in its second part. Even though these techniques would be dispensed with in Guerrero’s later music, the motet is well-constructed and attractive. 

 

Magnificat Secundi Toni is an alternatim setting for four voices, with the sopranos dividing in the last verse to reinforce the sonority. The chant verses are used as material for the polyphonic sections, making the Magnificat an economical setting that, like the most contrapuntal sections of the mass, demonstrates Guerrero’s mastery of technique. 

 

The Brabant Ensemble are extraordinary advocates. Hopefully, the pieces programmed here will gain wider currency.

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, File Under?, Piano

Bruce Liu – Waves (CD Review)

 

Bruce Liu

Waves

Deutsche Grammophon

 

At twenty-six years of age, pianist Bruce Liu has already received much acclaim, most prominently by winning the Chopin Competition. His recital disc, Waves, released on Deutsche Grammophon, could easily have been a selection of familiar finger busters from the center of the classical repertoire and been quite popular. Instead, it is a program of French composers: Jean-Phillippe Rameau, Maurice Ravel, and Charles-Valentine Alkan. 

 

Liu’s Rameau performances take into account the resonance of a modern grand piano, but his tempos, phrasing, and ornaments are well-informed by historical performance practice. The rondeau was a specialty of Rameau’s, and two from his third volume of pieces for harpsichord, Les tendres plaintes and Les Cyclopes, are intricate in their motivic development. Liu’s rendition of the Gavotte and six Doubles from Nouvelle suites de pièces de clavecin, RTC 5, creates an exciting buildup from the doubles. Les sauvages is played with particular dexterity, while the Minuets from RT6 display a jaunty suavity. From the same volume, La Poule serves as an incisive close to the album.

 

Miroirs, by Ravel, is the highlight of the recording. Liu’s keen understanding of the varied moods and timbral hues of Ravel’s music, such as the rolling waves of Une barque sur l’océan, the off-kilter rhythms and jocularity of Alborada del gracioso, and the beautiful bell tones summoned in La vallée des cloches, displays significant depth of interpretive powers. The suite’s virtuosic demands include nimble passages, challenging pedaling, and detailed balance requirements. The pianist conquers all of these in an emotive rendering that is a distinctive addition to recorded outings of Miroirs. 

 

Alkan’s music is not as well known as the other two composers, but the championing of his work by Liu may introduce it to a number of listeners. The Barcarolle from Recueil des chants has a mysterious character. Among the several harmonic twists and turns is a propensity for the flatted-seventh of the mixolydian mode. If this miniature serves as an amuse-bouche, the other Alkan piece on the recording is a seven-course dinner: 12 Etudes in All the Minor Keys, Op. 39, no. 12, le festin D’Ésope. A theme with twenty-five variations, it is stunningly challenging, and also quite diverse in the moods and techniques displayed as the piece progresses. In places there is Lisztian virtuosity, elsewhere dissonant treatment of the theme with crunching seconds alongside it that seems to presage the work of Busoni. When Variation 25 concludes, the listener will likely be exhilarated, if slightly exhausted. I can’t even imagine how Liu feels. 

 

The quality of performance and versatility of repertoire make this one of my favorite recordings of 2023.

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
File Under?, Guitar, jazz

The Sorcerer – Gábor Szabó (LP Review)

The Sorcerer – Gábor Szabó (Impulse)

 

Hungarian guitarist Gábor Szabó performed the music on The Sorcerer in 1967 at the Jazz Workshop, Boston. His first live recording as a leader, Szabó is joined by guitarist Jimmy Stewart, bassist Louis Kabok, percussionist Hal Gordon, and drummer Marty Morrell. Szabó plays a diverse array of originals, standards, and even a pop tune by Sonny Buono. 

 

It’s fair to say that not many jazz artists have recorded “The Beat Goes On,” but here it is stripped of its sentimental associations, with the emphasis being instead on its backbeat and effusive duo guitar solos. The pairing of Szabó and Stewart is particularly simpatico, with the guitarists trading solos, playing duets, and comping in distinct styles. 

 

“Little Boat” is a samba that gives Gordon and Morrell the opportunity to create a duet of their own, with energetic, overlapping polyrhythms. “Lou-ise” by Stewart embodies Latin rhythms of a gentler variety and is a great showcase for the guitarist. Cole Porter’s “What is This Thing Called Love” begins with a dovetailing guitar duet followed by a buoyant solo by Szabó. Another duet, and Stewart takes a turn. All the time, the rhythm section is bolstering them with a stronger backbeat than one usually hears in performances of standards: rockin’ and rollin’ with Cole. The guitarists trade fours with Morrell, and then bring a bifurcated version of the tune back to close. 

 

Szabó’s “Space” incorporates inflections from Hungarian music as well as swelling sustained guitar notes. The syncopated beats of folk dancing played by Szabó in modal and harmonic minor scales, Gordon’s triangle and cymbals, and repeated harmonies from Stewart combine in the most imaginative arrangement on The Sorcerer. The lilting Parisian ambience of “Stronger Than Us,” by Francis Lai and Pierre Barough, wafts through a circle fifths progression that is ready fodder for soloing.

 

“Mizrab,” by Szabó, refers to the type of plectrum used on some Iranian and Indian instruments. Once again, the guitarist channels melodic patterns and rhythmic grooves of a different culture, his playing reminiscent of ragas, with Gordon undertaking a rendition of traditional tabla playing. The seven-minute piece is the most developed of any on the album. In an extended closing section, a decrescendo yields to sustained tones and a subdued version of the tune. “Comin’ Back,” a brief rock ‘n’ roll chorus by Clyde Otis and Szabó serves as a rollicking coda to the date.

 

The quality of the mix is excellent, as are the original liner notes and artwork. It is one of my favorite recordings of 2023.

 

-Christian Carey



by Christian Carey
CD Review, Experimental Music, File Under?

Jessica Pavone – Clamor (CD Review)

Jessica Pavone

Clamor

Out of Your Head Records

 

Violist Jessica Pavone has made a detailed study of microtones, excelling as well at techniques such as harmonics, bow pressure, and multi-stops. Clamor, her latest recording for Out of Your Head Records, combines all of these in four extended solo works.

 

As the title of the recording suggests, there is a fair amount of dissonance and noise. Not so on the first track, “Neolttwigi,” in which sumptuous multi-stops, modal melodies, and the exploration of multiple overtone series combine in one of Pavone’s most memorable compositions to date.

 

“Nu Shu,” split into Parts 1 and 2, is an exuberant celebration of noise, with the aforementioned pitched components saturated with dissonance and unpitched string sounds, bow pressure chief among them. Pressed harmonics are redolent with upper partials. Pavone frequently plays them in the piece. When fleet melodies take over, they too are distorted, at times sounding more like electric guitar than viola. Tapping and scratching various places on the viola yields percussive effects. A held bass note with ascending glissandos is a reverberant refrain. While much of this suite explores noise, not all of it is loud. One of the best passages is a soft presentation of scratchiness alongside descending glissandos and repeated notes. Its finale, however, is filled with exuberant yawping fortissimos.

 

The final track is “Bloom,” on which Pavone explores the language of folk music in a doleful, Celtic-sounding, opening tune. Ornamented with filigree and supported by a drone in the bass, it once again returns Pavone’s music to a more pitch-based palette. A squall of semitones interrupts the reverie, but the drone and tune soon return. Multi-stops and a placid ostinato then undergird high harmonics. Repeated notes animate the tune, but this is contravened by the persistent stillness of the rest of the texture. Swelling modal harmonies, once again capped off by dissonant verticals, provide a fascinating interlude that soon is interrupted by the opening drone and slower oscillations. As “Bloom” moves toward its conclusion, dissonances are juxtaposed against a different drone. At the height of the intensity, modal chords commingle with the more fraught elements, imparting a diverse sense of harmonic movement. “Bloom” ends enigmatically, on an accented, dissonant, high chord.

 

Pavone has distinguished herself as a talented soloist (and collaborator) and a dedicated investigator of extended materials. Clamor is her best to date, with daring contrasts and  not a note – or scratch – out of place. It is one of my favorite recordings of 2023.

  • Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

Sciarrino on Kairos (CD Review)

Salvatore Sciarrino

Paesaggi con macerie

Kairos

Monica Bacelli, mezzo-soprano

Icarus vs. Muzak, conducted by Marco Angius

 

Salvatore Sciarrino (b.1947) is one of today’s most prominent Italian composers. His work encompasses the effects and inflections of second modernity, frequently alongside transcriptions of earlier music. This combination yields singular pieces from a composer who has a distinctive and compelling voice. Icarus vs. Muzak, conducted by Marco Angius, adopts well the various facets of Sciarrino’s music, performing the quotations with clarity and the frequent contrasts energetically.

 

The influences incorporated on Paesaggi con macerie, Sciarrino’s latest portrait CD for the Kairos imprint, are a disjunct pairing, Chopin and Gesualdo. Passagi con macerie (2022) is a three movement work written in homage to Chopin. His Mazurkas are presented in various guises – snatches of quotation, full length quotes, and, in the last movement, the group plays the famous Mazurka in C-major, distressed by percussion to sound like a skipping Victrola. Surrounding the Mazurka material are the special effects that also typify Sciarrino’s work. Few composers work so well with borrowed material, incorporating into a contemporary aesthetic.

 

Mezzo-soprano Monica Bacelli joins the ensemble for Le Voci sottovetro (1999), a piece inspired by stories of genies in bottles at the bottom of the ocean and by the music of Gesualdo. Sciarrino transcribes the madrigalisms found in Gesualdo’s work, creating a vivid scoring. Bacelli is an expressive singer with a generous lower register. Her sense of phrasing is both detailed and emotive, a delicate balancing act.

 

Exporazione del bianco II (1986) is based on a poetic image, the moment of blindness after a bolt of lightning. The piece doesn’t employ quotation, instead using extended techniques in pointillistic fashion to create a fragmentary score. Icarus vs. Muzak is in their element here, performing the score’s terse, rhythmically intricate entrances and overtone-based harmonies with assuredness.

 

The recording concludes with Gesualdo senza parole (2013), a four-movement piece written to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Gesualdo’s death. Instrumental transcriptions of Gesualdo’s madrigals, scored to bring out colorful textures and dovetailing melodies, for the most part eschew extended techniques, the occasional glissando or harmonic sufficing. Antiphonal passages and dynamic echoes give the image of these pieces being sung. The transcriptions are expertly done, making their renditions seem nearly inevitable. The fourth movement, initially an addition to the piece, is described by Sciarrino as “an insolent concertino for marimba and six instruments.” Here he reincorporates effects and pointillism, frequently breaking up Gesualdo’s music into fragments. Upon the marimba’s entry, a madrigal transcription enters, returning the ambience to that of former movements. Gradually, transcription and extensions converge, finishing the piece in the distinctive polyglot ambiance that is Sciarrino’s preferred approach.

 

Paesaggi con macerie is a fascinating addition to Sciarrino’s catalog. The combination of extraordinary progenitors and Sciarrino’s expert way of handling them makes this one of my favorite recordings of 2023.

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

Stephen Yip – By Moonflowers (CD Review)

Stephen Yip

By Moonflowers

Kairos 

 

Composer Stephen Yip (b. 1971) was born in Hong Kong and now lives in Houston, Texas, teaching at the local community college and fulfilling a number of high-profile commissions. His debut on Kairos is a portrait CD featuring excellent ensembles that play his intricate works skilfully, with a keen sense of their fluid interpretive potentialities. 

 

The Mivos Quartet performs Luminosity Etude (2017), in which rich harmonics and high partials are distressed by glissandos. Mivos also plays the title track (2022), which is inspired by Bashõ’s five original haiku. Although the general atmosphere is subdued, the work is filled with extended techniques. Here again, Yip explores sound spectra. The quartet is also called upon to imitate Chinese musical gestures and scales. The confluence of elements of second modernity and indigenous music display a distinctive vocabulary and compositional voice.

 

inFLUX flute and harp – Izumi Miyahara and Emily Klein – perform Elegance in Emptiness (2018), a meditative piece with many moments of concord – colorful overlaps of unisons, pentatonic harp passages and arpeggiations accompanying relatively simple melodic lines in the flute. There are also metallic strums, percussive attacks, multiphonics, glissandos, harmonics, key clicks, tremolos, and breathy tones. Unless willing to consider the piece from a reflective stance, the abundance of material could easily overshadow its supple deployment. inFlux performs Elegance in Emptiness with crystalline timbres and well-coordinated rubato.

 

Renga in Kigo (2019) for viola and cello is played by William Lane and Chak-yin Pun, both members of the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble. Yip’s interest in overtones, tremolos, pizzicatos, et cetera, persists. Although these are lower members of the string cohort, much of their time is spent well above the staff, with only occasional punctuations in the bass register, usually to begin a particular overtone series. Bashõ’s five original haiku is also the inspiration for Renga in Kigo. The four seasons, their various atmospheres and activities, are depicted in a series of interactive duets.

 

… in a silent way (2014), performed by KLK String Orchestra, conducted by Roman Kreslenko, concludes the recording. In addition to the aforementioned string and spectral effects, the ensemble sometimes plays col legno, adding an element bordering on noise. Yip’s techniques writ large create fascinating, often thornily mixed, textures. As the piece progresses, melodies in octaves make a powerful impression. Harmonics, pizzicato, tremolando, trills, and sliding tone create a buildup that heralds the final section, in which contrapuntal entries juxtapose with swells, glissandos, and glassine upper partials. A long denouement concludes with the concertmaster playing repeated tonic notes and then vanishing. 

 

On By Moonflowers, Yip’s compositions prove to be imaginative, intricate, and eminently engaging. Recommended.

 

-Christian Carey 



by Christian Carey
CD Review, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

Bracing Change 2 on NMC (CD Review)

Bracing Change 2

Piatti Quartet, Heath Quartet, Quatuor Bozzini

NMC Recordings

 

The first Bracing Change recording dates from 2017, when Wigmore Hall decided to use the moniker as the title for a series of string commissions. Three string quartets play on Bracing Change 2, another collection of commissions by the organization.

 

The Piatti Quartet plays Mark-Anthony Turnage’s “Contusions.” It begins with sforzando punctuations of a modal ostinato, gradually picking up steam, accumulating material, and more dissonant harmonies along the way. An emphatic and knotty passage of counterpoint marks the end of the first large section, after which there are viola and cello solos trading angular melodies. The upper voices join, creating a duo cadenza. A new ostinato, this one more emphatic and motoric in feel, accompanies snatches from the various solos. Full-throated tremolandos lead into the final section, a suddenly subdued passage of a third type of repeated patterning. The swells from the opening, this time forte, join the rest of the material to create a sense both of return and greater intensity. A final melody in the cello is accompanied by harmonics and tremolandos, and the chords from the piece’s opening, this time subdued. A brash vertical ends the piece conclusively.

 

Quatuor Bozzini plays Paul Newland’s “Difference is Everywhere,” which combines slow-moving mixed interval chords with sustained single notes at a soft dynamic. Bozzini are some of the best exponents of the Wandelweiser Collective, so this is right in their wheelhouse. Newland’s music may adopt Wandelweiser signatures, but “Difference is Everywhere” is a distinctive and attractive piece.

 

Helen Grime’s String Quartet No. 2 is a major work in her catalogue. The Heath Quartet’s rendition is detailed in terms of articulations, special techniques, and dynamics. The first movement combines tremolandos and mixed interval chords. Gradually these build in dynamic, replaced by quick-paced lines juxtaposed with pizzicatos. A syncopated gesture asserts itself as a principal motif, which is followed by a soft interlude of trills versus sustained notes. Fleet forte scalar passages create a vigorous coda. The second movement also features pizzicatos and the syncopated gesture found in the first. The latter is played fortissimo and surrounded by glissandos. A doleful melody, sliding between pitches, begins the final section in which previous motifs are played in a long decrescendo to a hushed close. The third movement begins with a near-continuation, with intricate harmonies accompanying a brisk violin solo. Verticals continue on their own, and the sliding melody from the second movement makes an altered reappearance with pizzicato punctuations. Glissandos and trills build a hive of dissonance, its buildup then replaced by undulating arpeggios. Swelling harmonies move from mixed interval chords to ones that orient the piece closer to minor. A long decrescendo of fragments of melody and sustained chords completes the movement, and the piece. The quartet is a worthy successor to Grime’s Quartet No. 1.

 

Bracing Changes 2 lives up to its title, but there is a significant amount of variety among the pieces. It is one of my favorite releases of 2023.

 

Christian Carey

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Contemporary Classical

Yotam Haber – Bloodsnow (CD Review

Yotam Haber

Bloodsnow

Sideband Records

Taylor Ward, Baritone; Don-Paul Kahl, Alto Saxophone

Talea Ensemble, James Baker, conductor

American Wild Ensemble

 

Composer Yotam Haber’s Bloodsnow is based on life events and contemporary concerns. The title work was from a harrowing experience. Haber was caring for a friend’s sled dogs during her first Iditarod, and sustained a serious injury to his finger. The blood mixing with snow, the fear of finding treatment for the wound, and the sense of dizziness from blood loss are all musically depicted with bracing verisimilitude. Talea Ensemble, conducted by James Baker, catches every nuance of its quixotic span.

 

Foreboding bass winds and dampened piano percussion open the piece. Blurry runs and woodwind multiphonics add a sense of disassociation. Harp glissandos and piano clusters further depict the ambience. A high violin, syncopated piano runs, and upper winds, imitating the previous low winds’ material, move the piece into a second section, closely followed upon by jazzy bass clarinet, thrumming piano notes in its low register, and prestissimo string runs. The eye of the hurricane features extended triadic harmonies from the piano and hushed strings. With suddenness, this moves back to the previous aggressive demeanor, with keyboard stabs and swelling string chords. The digressive nature of these sharp turns seem to embody the frantic mood of someone bleeding. Even the occasional musical oasis makes sense; the woozy figures depicting the blood loss into the snow. Ascending piano chords and darting winds suggest a denouement, but a coda of bustling energy, with cascading runs in the piano mirrored in the other instruments, then abruptly ending, concludes the piece with a satisfying surprise.

 

Baritone Taylor Ward joins the ensemble to sing They Say You Are My Disaster, a set of two songs with texts by women from different generations. “Schnitzel,” by Dorit Weisman, combines two different through lines: breast cancer surgery and meal preparation. The music veers between violence and quietude, with Ward displaying a wide range and impressive dynamic control. “Oh, My Bank” by Tahel Frosh again deals with two subject matters, both giving rise to the narrator’s anger: the repressive nature of late capitalism and the role of women in such a society. Snarling Sprechstimme and disjunct lines from Ward are accompanied by a bass clarinet solo, in similarly high dudgeon, and powerful instrumental swells. The coda initially quiets these elements, with one final vocal cry and a crescendo leaving a sense of ominousness in the song’s wake.

 

Resistance is an extensive piece for solo saxophone, played by Don-Paul Kahl. It is filled with special techniques, percussive pops, aggressive growls, microtones, and multiphonics, to name a partial list.  There is much shifting between a number of melodic cells, with mercurial changes between jazzy runs and combustible angularity. However, it is the melodies submerged beneath these playing methods, visible at the edges and seemingly trying to find their way to the surface of the texture, perhaps a titular metaphor, that allow Resistance to transcend its formidable technical demands to become a work of rich expressiveness.

 

The recording closes where it began, in the Alaskan wilderness. The ensemble work Choref is about Haber’s week spent hiking in Wrangell-St. Elias. Its two demeanors picture the stillness of the surroundings with slow, sustained harmonies, and the burbling vitality of life that persists, even in such conditions. As the piece moves through its trajectory, what began as two distinct sectional boundaries are commingled into music of varied textures, with bustling woodwind bird calls, high modal lines, sepulchral bass clarinet, string tremolos, and intricately constructed harmonies.

 

Haber’s music revels in complexity that is in service of larger narratives, never for its own sake. He is an imaginative and skillful creator, willing to look at his own terror alongside the peace of nature, managing to make them pieces of a whole.

 

-Christian Carey

by Christian Carey
CD Review, early music, File Under?

Fabio Biondi plays Vivaldi Concertos “Per Anna Maria”

Concerto per Violino XI, “Per Anna Maria”

Fabio Biondi, violin; Europa Galante

Naive Records

 

Anna Maria (1696-1782) was one of Antonio Vivaldi’s principal muses. She was a pupil of his at Ospedale delle Pietà, where he taught for forty years. A child prodigy, Anna Maria was a violinist of enormous talent. Vivaldi recognized this and composed at least twenty-four concertos dedicated to her. 

 

Judging by the concertos performed by soloist Fabio Biondi, the composer entrusted Anna Maria with works requiring enormous facility and musicality. The D Major concerto that opens the recording begins with a brief snatch of a simple theme that is a red herring for the vigorous soloing to come. The ensemble plays with rhythmic verve and dynamics that, while terraced, bring an expressive character, powerful in the forte sections and dulcet in the soft. The middle movement is a harmonically twisty theme accompanied by the continuo, which includes a portative organ and lute. The finale is a gigue with quick-paced sequential passages for the soloist. A brief minor interlude is followed by a fleet-footed cadenza, played with nimble virtuosity by Biondi, then a bold conclusion. 

 

The concerto in B-flat is subtitled “il corneto da posta” (the post-horn). The first movement is filled with zesty double-dotted rhythms. The second has a flexible  solo part with an emotive minor middle section. The concerto does indeed make use of post-horn calls, albeit in strings, in its buoyant finale movement.

 

The Concerto in E-flat, RV261, is a particular standout, featuring a bustling Allegro in which the tutti are a muscular foil for Biondi, who plays ricocheting lines with a glimmering tone. The Adagio is a plaintive minor key movement, with the ensemble again emphatic while the solos are played with supple grace. The final movement is taken at a breathtaking tempo and is a showcase for both soloist and ensemble.

 

The concerto in C-major supplies some of the most regal-sounding music I have heard from Vivaldi in an instrumental context: it is as if he has borrowed Handel’s wig. Biondi demonstrates his talent for period-informed bespoke ornaments in the Largo movement. A separate track at the end of the recording demonstrates the score’s original ornaments. Touches like this make “Per Anna Maria ” an estimable contribution to Naive’s Vivaldi collection. It is one of my favorite recordings of 2023.

 

-Christian Carey



by Christian Carey
CD Review, File Under?, jazz

Russ Lossing and King Vulture (CD Review)

Russ Lossing and King Vulture

Alternate Side Parking Music

Aqua Piazza Records

Russ Lossing, piano, keyboards; Adam Kolker, soprano and tenor saxophone, bass clarinet; Matt Pavolka, bass; Dayeon Seok, drums

Photo: Marie Bissétt

 

Pianist Russ Lossing has been a fixture on the New York jazz scene for over thirty-five years. His latest recording, Alternate Side Parking Music on Aqua Piazza, employs a new quartet, called King Vulture, in a set of vibrant compositions. Lossing has worked with saxophonist Adam Kolker and bassist Matt Pavolka for years. It is the addition of the abundantly talented drummer Dayeon Seok that brings a fresh perspective. King Vulture understands Lossing’s musical vocabulary well. Moreover, they inhabit these compositions in a way that stretches their seams, each player bringing their own distinctive approach to the proceedings. 

 

“Honk” begins with the rhythm section in a fiery opening, Lossing playing a free solo and Seok drumming assertively, with fills piling on top of one another over the underlying pulse. Kolker enters, with stentorian lines. On “Cloned” distorted electric piano and octave melodies between saxophone and bass clarinet suggest an affinity with early fusion. “Next 3 km ” opens with a beautiful bass clarinet solo, followed by a melody played by Pavolka and mysterious scales from Lossing on Rhodes and piano. An angular solo and distorted fragments ensue while Pavolka double times: His facility with fast passages and twisty melodies is extraordinary. The opening tune reappears, doubled by piano, with cymbal shimmers and walking bass adorning the proceedings. It closes with repeated octaves from sax and piano, a sideways move that serves as punctuation.

“Parallel Park,” a daunting challenge in NYC. Over a nervous groove, Kolker plays an energetic soprano saxophone solo. Lossing’s solo turn has extended triadic changes and a funky suaveness: this driver does not fear a fender bender. Pavolka plays glissandos in a brief spotlight moment right before the piece’s close. “Double Park” is a move far more likely on Manhattan streets. And the “Meter Maid” is likely watching. While one doesn’t want to overly programmatize the pieces based on their titles, there are often clever connections afoot. “Double Park” begins with a chromatic bass clarinet solo, once again doubled with piano in octaves, the rhythm section subdued. The music trends bluesy, continuing an assured pose as the rhythm section begins to build. Things get angsty, with an energetic Rhodes solo and Seok building to a thunderous climax. A bass ostinato looks into a rock groove with the drummer, with the bass clarinet returning, this time trading phrases with the piano. As the piece concludes, we are back to octaves and a long decrescendo. 

 

“Meter Maid,” on the other hand, is filled with overlapping grooves that don’t quite interlock. Fistfuls of piano clusters land on a complex melody at the same time as the saxophone and drum thwacks. The rhythm section lays out, and prestissimo exchanges between piano and saxophone are dizzying. This is succeeded by a strutting funk section that supports Kolker squalling with abandon and a fierce Fender solo from Lossing. The music presses forward, the octaves between saxophone and keys returning, with a mad dash at the conclusion. One senses that the driver didn’t feed the meter in time. 

 

The final track, “Turn,” overlaps fourth leaps, a bass ostinato, and heavy drumming. Once again, fleet exchanges between keyboard and saxophone flurry the atmosphere, with each vying for the foreground. Lossing provides a spacey, distorted solo. Over a pressing ostinato, the saxophone breaks off to share the tune one last time, and the music evaporates. 

 

Lossing has great chemistry with King Vulture. One hopes they will make music together for a long time.

 

-Christian Carey



by Christian Carey