The Central Park Five (2019), a fine recording of Anthony Davis’ Powerfully Relevant, Pulitzer Prize Winning Opera

Anthony Davis has never hesitated to share express his feelings and politics in his music. His operas “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X” (1986) and “Amistad” (1997) are two recent shining examples.

This most recent of his operas is also one that partakes of more recent political events than the previously mentioned works. It is, by my count, his 8th opera. And though all of Davis’ operas can be said to have some political content, “X”, “Amistad”, and now “The Central Park Five (2019), are most specifically focused on the transatlantic slave trade (ca. 1500- 1870) and subsequent black political history..

The story captured in the libretto by Richard Wesley made newspaper headlines and even motivated the pre presidential Donald Trump to take out full page ad in several media publications advocating their guilt and advocating for the death penalty.

While I have had the pleasure of multiple hearings of this powerful and substantial work I have chosen to include the composer’s excellent essay which describes not only the story but also the some of the intricacies and references embedded in the music itself.

Notes on The Central Park Five

By Anthony Davis

1989. A group of predominantly Black and Hispanic teenagers enter Central Park in New York City. They turnover garbage cans, throw rocks, harass people on bicycles. A young woman is sexually assaulted in the Park and six teenagers are detained and questioned about the assault. Five of the teenagers, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise, Yusef Salaam and Antron McCray become the center of a criminal case that would polarize New York City. The Exonerated Five were falsely accused and convicted of the crime with no physical evidence. Condemned publicly by the press, the Exonerated Five were victims in a culture war waged against Black and Hispanic communities. A politically ambitious real estate mogul condemns the teenagers with a full page add, proclaiming “Bring Back the Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!” The persecution of the Central Park Five marks the beginning of Donald Trump’s political career, built on racial animus and the exploitation of the deep rooted racial divide in America.

Why? What accounts for what Johnny Cochran would later famously call, “The rush to judgement.” How could the court trust the coerced “confessions” of the five teenagers? How did we come to this moment that assumed guilt, blindly seeking revenge? What caused the deeply rooted anxiety of White Americans when confronted with Black-Hispanic culture and people?

1989. Spike Lee’s movie Do the Right Thing premieres, Quincy Jones’ album “Back on the Block” debuts, Black and Hispanic teenagers sing the Tone Loc song “Wild Thing” as they descend on the Park. The song becomes a label in the press as they describe the actions in the Park as “Wilding in the Park.” Did the persecution of the Five represent the White anxiety about Hip Hop entering mainstream American culture? Was the response to the Five a reflection of Tony in the Pizza restaurant smashing Radio Raheem’s boombox? The persecution of the Central Park Five, emblematic of other similar incidents of false accusations of Black and Hispanic men across the country, demonstrates the devastating consequence of the culture war, as incarceration has become the new slavery.

As a composer, I have always been drawn to stories that intersect the political and cultural worlds. My operas, X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, Amistad, Wakonda’s Dream, Tania and Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote, all explore political moments and movements that are reflected in the dynamic of music. In X, it is the evolution of creative music from the forties to the sixties, a revolutionary movement in music as well as in politics. In Amistad, it is the false balance of the Missouri Compromise and the untenable grounding of America’s birth in both the ideals of Democracy and the original sin of Slavery. In American music one must always understand the irony that slavery created our culture from the advent of the minstrel show to the “Birth of the Cool.” Music can capture the tensions and fissures in our cultural and political life and the hope of something better. Music can allow us to feel the powerful forces at play in our lives, forces that are at once destructive but yet in our cathartic engagement allow us to envision a kind of freedom.

The Prologue of The Central Park Five begins with the “Exonerated Five” today as they reflect on the past. The opening cross-fade with the Kurzweil texture signify a fissure, a break, the dark spectre of trauma. Each of the Five recalls the trauma of the past. Librettist Richard Wesley ends the Prologue with poignant simplicity, “They tell us in school how big the world is, but that’s their world. They crushed mine.”

Act One introduces a recurring theme and harmony that suggests the past world of Harlem. The lyric, “Harlem, a Black and Tan Fantasy,” of course, suggests Ellington’s Harlem. In fact, before the Masque’s aria, the descending minor 3rd in the baritone saxophone suggests Ellington’s famous Tone Parallel to Harlem from 1949. Ellington describes the descending 3rds that appear throughout the work as signifying and enunciating “Harlem.” The theme is introduced by the Baritone Saxophone and starts as a dirge with variations. The harmony in f minor recalls one of Charles Mingus’ most famous harmonic progressions loosely based on the standard, “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” a ballad made famous by Billie Holiday. The melody is then played by the trombone with a counter-melody inspired by the great Eric Dolphy, played by the Baritone Saxophone and the Bass Clarinet. The theme moves into swing with an iteration by the trumpet. This introduces the Masque’s aria, “Harlem, a Black and Tan Fantasy.” The Masque is a malevolent force in the opera. He is the skeptical reporter, who distrusts Black people. He’s the policeman who arrests and interrogates the five suspects. He is the judge who condemns them.

In Act One the five singers become their younger selves, before they arrive in Central Park. They are exuberant and recklessly free as they talk about their lives and aspirations. The music begins in a gamelan inspired texture with a 9 beat pattern in the vibraphone and right hand of the piano and a 10 beat pattern in the left hand of the piano. This creates a repeating grid of 90 beats. As in my first opera, X, often I try to marry underlying rhythmic structures with dramatic intent. Every 90 beats something new can happen in the music and in the drama. The orchestra slowly reveals the inner harmonic working of the drone against the free flowing lines of the Five boys. The Masque disturbs and interrupts the Five’s music signaled by a series of cascading major thirds that play against the harmony of the drone establishing a 4 against 3 rhythmic tension, as the music evolves “off the grid.” This leads to a new tempo before the Masque proclaims “They (Black people) are lost!” The opera explores rhythmic tension that is reinforced by the harmony. The Five defiantly sing “This is my world!” and later the anthem “The World is Ours!” The stable harmony of the anthem is eventually disturbed by the building polyrhythms as the Five become more excited culminating in the antiphonal rhythmic interplay between “This is no life. This ain’t living. This ain’t no life!” and “Time to bust out, time to break out, time break out, time to act out” This leads the Five into the Park. In the music, I tried to capture the exhilaration and exuberance of the Five and their illusion of freedom. As they enter the Park, the Five sing, “We are the freaks! We are the freaks who own the night!” The music in the Park is influenced by everything from Parliament Funkadelic to fusion Miles Davis and Jaco Pastorius with Weather Report. The music captures the exuberance and recklessness of the Park that quickly becomes out of control fueled by groove and funk.

Music allows us to see different worlds and to shift perspective. As Kevin and Antron are initially detained we hear the echoes of the Blues and again the stop-time from Black and Tan Fantasy as the Masque declares falsely that “That is the end of that.” The anthem music, when it returns as the Assistant District Attorney and the Masque discuss the assault, becomes a distant, shattered memory. The interrogation scenes feature rhythmically driven music as if an ex-machina force is coercing the Five’s confessions. The words of the Masque and the Assistant D.A. are like weapons. The vocal writing is more angular with shifting harmonic centers emphasizing speech rhythms and repetition as the Masque and A.D.A, try to force the Five to implicate each other. This is in contrast with more reflective moments that are lyrical and harmonically grounded. The Five’s collective sense of apprehension and fear is expressed in passages drawn from the vocal ensemble tradition of close harmony from doo-wop, Motown and the street as if through a filter of Gil Evans’ arrangements in “My Ship” or Blues for Pablo. The hybridity of the music tells the story.

A friend once asked me, “How do you write for Donald Trump?” I replied, “First, he is a tenor. Second, he repeats himself in his violent sound bytes. Third, he never completes a sentence.” I tried to capture his use of short, repeating phrases that could be amplified by the chorus. “Wilding, Rampaging, Wilding, Rampaging Wolfpack!” What is Trump’s appeal? Like moths to flame, Trump says things that people may think and be afraid to express. In MAGA world Trump’s racism is somehow authentic and Trump has helped unleash the pathological racism that is both systemic and psychological. I entertained these scary thoughts as I composed the opera.

Finally, the opera is an uplifting story of a community rising up against injustice, of the Five finally finding exoneration and vindication as the anthem returns with “The World is Ours!” But we know the cost, as Korey says, “They stole from me!” And we know this is a continuing story. The forces that implicated the Five are still with us.

Thank you to the librettist Richard Wesley who illuminated their story with humanity and emotion from Sheronne Salaam’s “They are trying to blame my son” to Korey’s “They stole from me.” None of this would happen without the love and support of my muse, Cynthia Aaronson-Davisuch passionate command. I must recognize the extraordinary work of Earl Howard who created the electro-acoustic world that shadows the opera. I need to call attention to the critical work of Andreas Mitisek who directed the first production in Long Beach and helped realize the dramatic possibilities of the opera. I am indebted to all the musicians and singers who brought this opera to life in Long Beach, Portland and Detroit and, of course, Long Beach Opera, particularly Jenny Rivera and Michelle Magaldi, who believed in the work and help produce this recording. I would also like to thank UCSD for its continued support of my work. None of this would happen without the love and support of my muse, Cynthia Aaronson-Davis.

The opera has received many performances since its premiere by The Long Beach Opera, who commissioned the work. It has since been performed in Detroit, New York, and is scheduled for another performance in Long Beach.

The music incorporates bebop and other jazz styles into a listener friendly melodic and harmonic constructions that set the beautiful libretto’s words effectively.

Davis himself identifies as a politically expressive composer. Even in his non-stage works like his meditation on the first of the so called Miranda Rights (You have the right to remain silent) cast in the classical form of a concerto for clarinet (2007). Arguably, Davis’ work cannot be separated from the experience of Black American culture. Davis, raised in the cultural lineage of transgressional innovators such as George Lewis and his many colleagues of the AACM (American Association of Creative Musicians), a group that still works to include the cultures and rituals of many African countries into the practice of so called western art music). Davis has been a defining figure in contemporary music since at least the 1970s. And now he is recognized as an exemplar of “American” music by virtue of the recognition of the Pulitzer Prize.

As a work of classical protest music, it functions (in Jeremy Eichler’s term) as “times echo”, a use of great art to frame a noxious historical event in a sort of time capsule that preserves memories and feelings of the story that lives again in performance. As such, The Central Park Five stands proudly alongside Hans Werner Henze’s “Essay on Pigs” (1968), Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem” (1961), and composers as diverse as Dmitri Shostakovich, Luigi Nono, Arnold Schoenberg, Steve Reich, Wynton Marsalis, and Louis Andriessen (to name but a few).

But, as is the case with any artistic work of protest, the actual impact remains to be seen. The horrors of racism remain a defining part of western culture, of American culture now cast forever in this deeply felt drama. This is definitely not, in Toni Morrison’s phrase, “…music to entertain the master and soothe his blunted soul.” And in a time of the active attempts to suppress and deny this unsavory history, art can preserve memories both good and bad.. There is a noble beauty in that.

Children’s Books, Poodles, and Contemporary Classical Music, Karen LeFrak’s “Romantico”

Aug30

As an avid listener, I try to be open to new music. As with any journey, guides can be most useful. One of my occasional musical guides is the fabulous guitarist Sharon Isbin. In addition to founding Julliard’s first doctoral program in guitar, and possessing an encyclopedic knowledge of classical guitar literature, Isbin has a keen sense, perhaps even a calling to find and promote substantial new music.

So it is with this lovely album of works commissioned by Isbin. Her many commissions and collaborations have ranged from contemporary classical composers to collaborative efforts with artists outside the western classical music mold. In brief, she is not merely a patron/patroness of music but also an actively engaged participant in the process of music making, learning as much as she teaches, identifying with, and supporting her fellow musicians.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Ms. Isbin at the time of the release of her Cedille album. Now, I may be inferring too much from that brief interview, but what stays with me is a sense from her of almost parental warmth, insight, and wisdom. So it is with this unabashedly friendly, pretty, and very listenable album. It is apparently the latest in a discography now numbering some 20 plus albums by Ms. LeFrak.

Isbin’s radar has guided me to this interesting renaissance woman whose labors include raising prize poodles, writing best selling children’s books, and, more recently, a composer of substantial new music in the western classical mold. Karen LeFrak.

This is my first experience of hearing her musical work (having failed to avail myself of a prize poodle or reading one of those children’s books). This album gets its eminently listenable charm from a winning combination of a truly inventive composer (nice orchestration as well) with Isbin’s definitive interpretation drawn from her ability to deeply understand music of any genre.

My initial impression (meaning the first minute or so), was of a warmly tonal, ethnically inflected composition. I followed my guide (Isbin) confident that she would not lead me where I did not want to be. Of course, she did not fail me, and shall remain one of my trusted guides.

There are 5 tracks on this disc. All tracks feature Sharon Isbin as well as the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, ably led by Enrico Lopez-Yañez. The Miami Concerto was a commission for Ms. Isbin as are the two dance inspired works that comprise the last two tracks. They are chamber works with guitar very much similar in inspiration to the concerto.

Miami Concerto for Guitar & Chamber Orchestra (World Premiere Recording)
1. Bailamos [4:58]
2. Romántico [8:16]
3. Festivo [4:36]

4. Habanera Nights [3:31] (World Premiere Recording)

Sharon Isbin, guitar; Rolando Morales-Matos, guiro; Mariana Ramirez-Alvarado, claves, Javier Diaz, bongos, Peggy Kampmeier, piano; Carter Brey, cello; Victor Pablo Garcia-Gaetán, shaker

5. Urban Tango [4:10] (World Premiere Recording)

Sharon Isbin, guitar; Javier Diaz, bongos; Rolando Morales-Matos, guiro; Peggy Kampmeier, piano

The first three tracks contain the “Miami Concerto” and the last two tracks are dance movements titled “Habanera Nights” and “Urban Tango”. All are written with Sharon Isbin in mind in 2003-4 and all were premiered in 2024. This recording followed shortly thereafter.

The Miami Concerto is a solid addition to the repertoire. It is cast in three movements and feature melodies and rhythms from the musical roots of the Latin and West African World and features a lovely battery of Latin/African instruments supporting the orchestra.

The three movements follow the traditional concerto format, fast with a slow introduction, slow, and fast. The style is well described by the album’s title, “Romantico”.

The Habanera and Tango are chamber works featuring Isbin’s guitar. Both, like the concerto derive from the composer’s interest in these melodies and rhythms that have become a part of Miami culture.

I’ve listened to this release many times and played it for some friends and colleagues. The consensus, which resonates with my personal opinion, is that this is a great recording.

Art as a voice of protest: Jeremy Eichler’s compelling micro history, “Time’s Echo”

Aug17

Though the author’s scope ranges from the early 19th century to the present day, it is not a comprehensive history, rather it is a sort of micro history of a musical genre born of sadness, hate, anger, and political dominance. It is a genre I have chosen to call “classical protest music”. And, for the sake of this review, I am referring to the incorporation of protest as a valid and effective modality for the contemporary composer.of so called “western art music”, Until the very late 19th century, music served mostly entertainment, celebration, worship, and memorial functions. But this is about a new, if frequently discomforting voice for this art form.

Music, like drama, and sometimes poetry are art forms that burn most brightly in performance. They exist on a page or even simply within the artist’s mind but come fully alive only in the temporal realm of performance. They then come to exist in the memories of the individuals who experience it. And those memories also exist concurrently within the overall social reality. Politics, philosophy, economics, and spirituality which ultimately frame art are now incorporated into the art form as it talks back to history.

The function of protest music in the popular or vernacular genre, one that arguably has had a greater impact in fomenting political change than protest music in the guise of the western classical tradition, has been well documented. Not so with music of the concert hall classical format.

Jeremy Eichler’s beautifully researched and written micro history makes a case for this art form framing (or reframing) history. Of course, not all expressions of protest hit the target of actually influencing history, but this book is not about that. It is about the birth of a concept little known in music until the late 19th and early 20th century. It is a genre which persists today in the so called political classical genre.

The book is filled with historical facts and people which become metaphors as the author elucidates the historical contexts that, in retrospect, can be seen as the genesis of art not just passively responding to historical events. They are attempts to use art to comment about and, hopefully influence history and to express outrage, sadness, and to call for change.

Music, ever the realm of entertainment and celebration, now increasingly finds purpose and mechanism to participate, not only as a supplier of entertainment and homage, but also as “a voice crying in the wilderness” in dialogue with the social/political milieu.

Eichler chooses four musical pieces by four different composers from four different time periods to tell the story of the evolution of western art music to speak with in an informed, publicly intellectual voice. In its ideal presentation, it succeeds best when it resonates with the hearts and minds of the audience. That can and sometimes does “go viral” (in common parlance) and subsequently influences public opinion.

The musical exemplars the author chooses includes:

Richard Strauss (1864-1949) “Metamorphosen” (1946)

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) “A Survivor from Warsaw” (1947)

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) “War Requiem”(1962)

Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) “Symphony No. 13 ‘Babi Yar’” (1962)

Each composer, each work is subjected to historical, philosophical, and (I would say) spiritual/mystical analysis. And, to accomplish this, he goes back first to the early 19th century to discuss the rise of the idealized German gconcept of “Bildung” and the subsequent rise of antisemitism famously touted as a necessary fact by Richard Wagner (1813-1883) and subsequently amplified to the extreme of The Shoah.

Many musical works are referenced here, but John Foulds “A World Requiem” (1923), which is a large grandiose work of post romantic grandeur that seems to embody many of the elements that have come to characterize classical protest music. The work, written for large forces incorporates both liturgical and non-liturgical texts from disparate sources (not just western literature). It was conceived seemingly as a sort of final statement, a “requiem to end all requiems”, so to speak. Though popular in its day, it no more succeeded in preventing violence and hatred than Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) in his unfinished Mysterium” succeeded in making the composer an immortal in a transcendent realm described from the spiritual imagination of Theosophical writings. But it did make a huge impact on protest as a valid modality for the artist. Protest in any modality doesn’t always have the intended impact. The point is the statement itself.

Foulds’ work can be seen as a sort of precursor, if not template for Britten’s “War Requiem”. More importantly the success of Foulds’work revealed a sympathetic audience who doubtless saw in it a clarion call, a grandly hopeful expression to an audience hungry to resolve the hatred, anger, and sadness of the increasingly divided and chaotic world as it evolved post 1919. It spoke to a fervent hope for healing and transcendence and remains a historically significant work of musical art.

Doubtless, many composers were delighted to identify this burgeoning need. Countless works followed Foulds’ noble effort and continue to this day in larger and smaller forces. Protest music, visual art, poetry, and drama are born of pain, sorrow, and hope derived from a sometimes pleading, sometimes shouting optimism. Much like audience engagement in sing alongs, audiences are invited to participate politically, emotionally and share the pain, sadness, and outrage as art speaks back to society rather than simply decorating it or celebrating it. Now, art embraces critique, not simply memorial.

Eichler discusses each composer and work, contextualizing them historically, geographically, emotionally, and philosophically/spiritually.

He begins then, with Richard Strauss (1864-1949) and the only work cited here that does not have a vocal component or a text. It is also more a personal reaction rather than an a work explicitly engaging with politics and history. It remains the most unique and enigmatic piece in the oeuvre of a man who remained, if not always happily, employed from the late nineteenth century, through two world wars and horrific historical events and wildly differing leaders. To this listener’s ears, it seems more of a catharsis, a musical processing of the composer’s emotions and possibly exorcizing them and containing them in this music. It is truly a powerful piece but it does not rise to the more explicit protest works that would follow in the mid twentieth century.

A very convincing and insightful analysis is made of the next exemplar of the genre. Eichler’s biographical, historical, and philosophical/spiritual contextualizing of “A Survivor from Warsaw” (1947) seems an unusual choice. But, the fact that this brief monodrama is probably the first major public utterance of the rising awareness of the atrocities described by the narrator and focused attention in a way that only art can. It was also the development of the composer’s revolutionary serially organized music which was, perhaps ironically, very well suited to express the horrors of this age of “great wars”.

This section of the book is a masterful integration of political, historical, spiritual elements that provide a compelling mini history, linking individuals and events that shed a fascinating (and devastating) light on this era in musical history. It also places the composer most definitely as a protester, a would be agent of progressive political change. It led this listener to seek to experience more of Schoenberg’s music and was gratified to hear it forever differently and, more so than ever, more essential within western art music.

The work was a resounding success at its world premiere in, of all places, New Mexico. The Albuquerque Civic Symphony conducted by Kurt Frederick. 1600 people crowded into the Carlisle Gymnasium on November 4, 1948 were so pleased that the work was repeated, in full, to a deeply moved audience.

Hearing this music now, available in many fine interpretations on CD and in video formats, it is all the more stunning that this hardly easy listening tale about horrific events played so well and hit so deeply. And I will never again think of this as one of the composer’s lesser works.

Moving on to Benjamin Britten and his 1962 “War Requiem”. This music has a prominent place for this writer, having heard a performance by the Chicago Symphony conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich. The cellist, turned conductor was a lifelong progressive political advocate who facilitated a meeting which would become a friendship between Britten and Dmitri Shostakovich among his accomplishments.

But, I digress. Eichler’s framing of this composer and music shows a true pacifist composer who encountered the horrors of the First World War as well as subsequent atrocities perhaps one step removed geographically and culturally from the experience of Strauss and Schoenberg. He was a student, then a composer/pianist much admired and supported by the British as he steadily earned his place on the world stage.

Early in his rising successes, he managed to insinuate himself to play piano in a series of concerts with Yehudi Menuhin, that toured through war torn Europe to great acclaim. And it is here that the composer encountered first hand, the sights, the stories, the emotions that would forever inform and transform him and his music.

This experience is likely one of the seeds that led to the 1962 requiem. Britten utilized the form and Latin texts of the “Missa Pro Defunctis” , the Roman Catholic funeral rites. And he adds a chamber group that plays onstage in front of the full orchestra and chorus (I recall seeing a children’s chorus singing from the topmost seats in Orchestra Hall). The chamber group supports a tenor and a baritone who sing Britten’s settings from the late soldier, then poet/activist Wilfred Owen’s vividly sad and angry poetry. This is a guise not unlike what Leonard Bernstein would do in his anti war “Mass” some 12 years later.

Notably, the premiere was to have included tenor Peter Pears (Britten’s life and musical partner), baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and soprano Galina Vishnevskaya (later the wife of Mstislav Rostropovich). However the Soviet government prevented her from performing this politically hot work. The hope of symbolically including British, German, and Russian artists was to further emphasize the message of the work. Though Vishnevskaya did participate in the glorious 1963 DECCA recording, she was replaced (most successfully) by the fine British soprano Heather Harper for the premiere. Britten himself conducted the chamber group at the premiere with Meredith Davies leading the large orchestra, choir and soloists.

The roofless remains of the original Coventry Cathedral

In discussing the War Requiem, Eichler recounts his pilgrimage to the site of the newly rebuilt Coventry Cathedral which had been very badly damaged in the war and the work was commissioned to celebrate the consecration of the new edifice which was built next to the 14th century ruins, ruins through which the audience passed following the very successful premiere on July 27th, 1962. Eichler reports that his own experience walking through the ruins was a powerful experience even now, but especially when one knows this history.

For the book’s finale, Eichler chose a too little known Shostakovich Symphony, his 13th (1962) ( later titled “Babi Yar”). The composer had worked under the repression of the Soviet Empire at least since his opera “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” disturbed the Soviet leadership in the 1930s. But he managed to get in a few significant political punches during his long career and continued to produce substantial and fresh new music until his death in 1975.

His 5th Symphony won him favor again with the Soviets and the composer’s 7th Symphony “Leningrad”, a paean to the ultimate victory over Nazi forces in 1944 is the stuff of legend, being performed on March 29th of 1942, literally during the siege of Leningrad. Musician soldiers were relieved of their war duties in order to have enough musicians to perform it and strategic bombing raids were done to redirect Nazi bombings and ensure that the music would be heard at its embattled premiere.

Eichler’s choice of the 13th Symphony is an apt choice to fit the author’s thesis. The work is a cri de couer, an angry lament raising the awareness of a genocidal slaughter, the evidence of which survived multiple efforts to erase the facts and the evidence from history. It sets the words of the fine Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko (1932-2017) in his poem “Babi Yar” that provided the words. It refers, of course to the genocidal mass murders of Jews, dissidents, and others deemed not worthy of being allowed to live in the Nazi regime at the ravine so named. Accounts vary and much had been done to cover up the murders which numbered up to 30, 000 a day. In fact, there did not exist a memorial for some 100, 000 killed at Babi Yar until 1992.

The 13th Symphony premiered on December 18, 1962 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. Kiril Kondrashin conducted. Despite controversy and attempts to tamper with the words, pressure to stop the premiere, it was a rousing success. This was only some seven months after the premiere of the Britten War Requiem.

Eichler’s account could have ended here but for the fact that, in addition to facilitating a meeting between Britten and Shostakovich, Mistislav Rostropovich smuggled a copy of the 1963 DECCA recording of the War Requiem and a score so that Shostakovich could hear it. And listen he did, with enthusiasm such that Shostakovich was inspired to respond in what would become the composer’s 14th Symphony which was dedicated to Britten. Hence the arts had a conversation about the atrocities of war like never before.

The work, incorporating poems by various poets on the subject of death was premiered officially on September 29th, 1969 in Leningrad by the Moscow Chamber Orchestra conducted by Rudolph Barshai. It appears to be inspired in part by the composer’s 1962 orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky’s song cycle, “Songs and Dances of Death” (ca. 1875) and perhaps Gustav Mahler’s “Kindertotenlieder” (1904).

The response at the premiere, hardly devoid of criticism, was another resounding success for the aging, ailing composer. The UK premiere was conducted at Aldeburgh by its dedicatee, Benjamin Britten, also to great acclaim.

Eichler’s book elegantly describes the genesis of these five works inspired by the history of very real and very shameful atrocities of some 50 years of conflicts which, though they may never be resolved, are truly “Time’s Echo” encased in artistic amber as it were. The memory of this reviewer’s experience of witnessing Maestro Rostrpovich’s reading of Britten’s Requiem so many years later and indeed all subsequent performances of the music chosen here by Eichler hold out a glimmer of hope that these echoes of their time will preserve both the memories of the atrocities themselves as well as the just outrage of the artist’s products in sound for posterity.

Robert Carl’s “Music Composition in the 21st Century”, a guidebook for the avid listener with essential insights into the composer’s own methods

Dec25

Composer/musicologist Robert Carl gives his perspective of the “new common practice”, a term which attempts to describe the current state of compositional and performance practices. I first heard that term from Alvin Curran, a composer who indulges (most successfully) in a wide variety of musical practices. And the term appears now to be generally accepted by contemporary musicians and music journalists as a way to give a name to this historical moment in music history.

That’s great but Carl’s book goes beyond mere academic musical history and invites listeners of all stripes to experience and engage with these interesting, increasingly divergent practices. His lucid writing gave this reviewer marvelous insights into the current “scene”, the variety of music and performances that adventurous listeners will encounter.

Professor Carl’s earlier publication presented a comprehensive analysis (the last word in this writer’s opinion) of Terry Riley’s manifesto of minimalism, “In C”. That book provided me with insights to a work I thought I knew well. Well, I like it even more after reading that book. And his friendly, knowledgeable writing is very much evident in this most recent tome from one of the finest writers on the subject.

Robert Carl (1954- ) is a prolific composer and a wonderfully readable scholar of music. His music partakes creatively from a wide variety of musical practices so, in that time honored adage, he “writes what he knows”. His passion for new music feeds directly to my insatiable curiosity for what the heck they’re all doing these days. It is an adventure worth your time and Carl is a dutiful docent, offering context and analysis for the eternally curious. You will not be disappointed.

Bob and Blue, A Musical Pilgrimage

Sep19

Littlefield Hall (photo copyright by author)

…tell the old story for our modern times. Find the beginning.

-Homer, The Odyssey (Emily Wilson translation)

When I first got the email notice of this concert, I was, to say the least, intrigued. A two piano concert at Littlefield Concert Hall on the campus of Mills College featuring two composer/performers who figured prominently in that Temple of new music and in my personal listening life. Alas, I live some 350 miles from that location. But further intrigue came from the featured artists: Sarah Cahill and Joseph Kubera, two of the finest working new music pianists anywhere and both worked with the evening’s composers. This was just too compelling and I decided that I would regret missing this if I failed to go hear it.

So it was, I planned my little odyssey, leaving at about 9AM from Santa Barbara on a nice lightly trafficked trip, more a pilgrimage than an odyssey. A pilgrimage, frequently defined as a personal spiritual journey ostensibly in search of insight or enlightenment is how I’ve come to identify my listener’s adventure to the secular temple of Mills College featuring music of former Mills faculty Robert Ashley (1930-2014) and Robert Sheff (1945-2020), better known by his stage name, “Blue Gene Tyrrany”.

“Bob and Blue” (copyright by Other Minds)

The two featured composers had a strong connection to the Bay Area, mostly via their work at Mills College. This intelligent but modest production left little room to print program notes so the performers spoke of the music at various points during the concert and the excellent liner notes were made available by a QR code in the program book.

Sarah Cahill, pianist, radio host, producer, tireless advocate for new music (photo copyright by Other Minds)

Joseph Kubera, pianist, member of the SEM ensemble, Downtown Music, and countless collaborations promoting new music with many fine recordings to his name. (Photo copyright by Other Minds)

Our two performers are no strangers to each other or the composers on the program, having collaborated on numerous performances and recordings. The well rehearsed duo turned in riveting performances of this largely unknown repertoire which made a strong case that it be better known. Their playing and choice of repertoire compelled this listener’s attention such that I forgot to take all but a few performance shots. See those program notes for further biographical info on these two fine musical celebrants.

Entrance to Littlefield Concert Hall (copyright by author)

Mills College has long been a temple, a Mecca for new music in the Bay Area of California. Its roster of faculty and students comprises some of the finest post 1945 composers and performers. Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) and Luciano Berio (1925-2003) and students as diverse as Terry Riley (1935- ), Steve Reich (1936- ), and Dave Brubeck (1920-2012) to name but a few. Many artistic spirits musical and otherwise, exert their presence here. It’s a perfect destination for a pilgrimage.

A bust of frequent Mills visitor Lou Silver Harrison (1917-2003) in the lobby, a persistent benevolent spirit. (photo copright by author)

The concert was organized by Charles Amirkhanian and his Other Minds organization, another guiding light in the San Francisco/Oakland new music scene. Pianists Sarah Cahill and Joseph Kubera were to be the celebrants in the concert ritual paying homage to “Bob and Blue” as well as to the oracular Mills College.

Scene from the lobby (photo copyright by author)

Let me tell you about this concert hall. It is the work of legendary California architect Julia Morgan (1872-1957) who famously also worked on Hearst Castle. This is one of her several architectural gems on campus. Her spirit was also witness to this celebration by virtue of her fine architecture.

Stage at Littlefield Hall showing the ornate, colorful detailed designs (photo copyright by the author)

Look at that ceiling and those chandeliers (photo copyright by the author)

Two pianos, a new Steinway stage left and a slightly worn Baldwin stage right were placed such that the pianists seated at their respective keyboards could see each other. The Steinway with its lid open to reflect the sound to the audience and that well worn Baldwin with no lid at all (for reasons to be revealed later). The sonics of the hall and tuning of those pianos were excellent.

Unseen Worlds’ wonderful survey of Blue’s ensemble works.

The concert opened with Blue Gene Tyrrany’s peaen to old Route 66 in his “Decertified Highway of Dreams” (1999) for two pianos. It was clear from this first selection, that our performers were well rehearsed and in sync despite rhythmic complexities inherent in this quite beautiful work. It is cinematic and sweetly nostalgic, a fine example of “Blue”’s genius. The performance was riveting and worthy as the first performance ritual of the evening.

This was followed by a real rarity, a performance of Robert Ashley’s Piano Sonata (1959, 1979, 1985). In fact, it appears to have been the first complete performance of the two piano version of this impressive serially structured piece. Previous recordings are available, one with the composer performing the first movement at the ONCE Festival from 1966, the other by Blue Gene Tyrrany on his album, “Just for the Record”. This writer also found some useful analysis by musicologist Kyle Gann on his website. Gann worked with Ashley and later published a fine survey of Ashley’s music that is well worth your time. The result was a convincing, almost romantic sounding performance of this foundational work in Ashley’s oeuvre.

This was followed by a solo rendition by Joe Kubera of Tyrrany’s “The Drifter” (1994), which was written for Mr. Kubera. He spoke briefly about the structure of this work (which he also recorded on his recent “Horizons” album). This piece has a meandering quality created by the intricate evolving structure. Kubera’s performance was hypnotic and a fine tribute.

The second half began with Ms. Cahill solo at that stage left Steinway playing first Tyranny’s “Nocturne With and Without Memory” (1989), one of his better known works. Then she played his “Spirit” (1996/2002), a piece that is a sort of homage to the experimental composer/performer Henry Cowell (1897-1965). It was rather unusual in that it involved harmonics over which the pianist plays. The title is an homage to Cowell’s famous piano piece, “The Banshee”, a malevolent spirit in Irish mythology. Both were vintage Blue Gene pieces.

Then Kubera returned, taking a seat at the blemished Baldwin with Cahill standing at that same piano, at a 90 degree angle to Kubera. Here, in these two obscure Ashley pieces, Viva’s Boy (1991), and “Details” (2b, 1962), Cahill played like a chef at a chef’s table, playing the strings inside the piano while Kubera manned the keyboard. These true rarities getting perhaps their first performance, were certainly a highlight of the concert.

It was Blue Gene Tyrrany’s spirit that was the final ritual celebration on this magical night with both pianists at their respective pianos to give a heartfelt reading of his, “A Letter From Home” (2002). This brought this learned, well rehearsed, beautifully collaborative evening’s ritual to a satisfying close.

The modest, self selected audience, applauded warmly and gave an extended, much deserved ovation and seemed as enthralled as this listener whose musico-spiritual pilgrimage found an ecstatic height. I drove home that same night, blessedly lifted, if only briefly, from the chaos of the world by this wonderful artistic ritual. They will now take this great program to New York.

Feeding the Feedspot, Standing Among My Peers

Aug22

I am grateful for this music review aggregator Feedspot. They have declared my blog New Music Buff to be among the top 35 new music blogs. I made number 20 this year.

Here is their review:

20. New Music Buff » Experimental Music

Blog https://newmusicbuff.com/category/experimenta..
Indulge perspectives from an informed new music fan. Enjoy nuanced takes and some amusing anecdotes from artists of Experimental Music. New Music Buff envisages the musical interest and preferences of a long-time listener with a fervent interest in all music new and old.

I am grateful to have achieved this ranking but I am also delighted to be able to see the perceived context of my peers in this area. New Music Buff is a solo effort now going into its 14th year of publication. And that description does a fine job of characterizing my work. I’m grateful to get to see my competitors (though competition is hardly the point).

With the relative demise of print magazines that carried reviews of new releases, listeners now tend to rely upon the blogosphere to find new music to suit their interests. The problem is that the meanings of words like “new music”, “experimental”, “avant garde”, etc. can steer the reader to a great deal of music and not necessarily music that satisfies their thirsts. So this blog aggregator attempts to collect sites and provide brief descriptions that help hungry listeners find items to satisfy their tastes.

One of the very useful aspects of this aggregator is also to provide bloggers a context by defining a purported peer group which I can tell you, has enlightened this blogger/listener. This site is designed in part to provide mailing lists and contacts for musicians, promoters, and publishers. There are various useful products but listeners can find low or no cost items here that can really help searchers find their way.

Happy reading and listening. Thanks, Feedspot!

Organist Carson Cooman plays Peter Garland’s “plain songs” (after Robert Creeley)

Aug17

Any release by composer/musicologist Peter Garland is a reason to take notice. The same can be said for organist Carson Cooman and, for that matter, Cold Blue recordings. Add to that the inspiration gleaned from poet Robert Creeley and I dare say we have a major event begging to sound from your favorite speakers or headphones.

Cold Blue is a visionary record label from Southern California. You owe it to yourself to peruse their releases available from various sources. But I digress.

Carson Cooman is an organist and composer whose lovely recordings of new music for organ appear regularly in my YouTube feed. It is most fitting that he has commissioned these fine works.

Peter Garland is known both as a musicologist (most famously known for his scholarship on the music of Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas) and a composer with a varied and unique body of work that might be described as “gently avant-garde”. His work definitely deserves your attention.

These seven tracks ranging in length from about 5-8 minutes are inspired by the poetry of Robert Creeley. These are not vocal settings, they are musical impressions or perhaps reactions to his work. As such these “tone poems” are characteristic of Garland’s deeply felt and personal style.

Adding this disc to the Cold Blue catalog is yet another “brick in the wall” in the overall sonic tapestry that defines the vision of this label and the loosely defined group of California composers generically categorized as “ambient”. And while that term carries connotations of mediocrity, Garland, Cold Blue, and Cooman are anything but mediocre. This is a lovely production and a valuable addition to the recorded repertoire.

Charles in Charge, Composer/Producer/Impresario Charles Amirkhanian at 80

Apr20

Charles Amirkhanian (photo by Carol Law, all rights reserved)

An overflow crowd packed the lovely auditorium at Berkeley’s David Brower Center this past January 19th. Octogenarians (and younger folks as well) populated both stage and audience in a show of appreciation for a man whose work as music director of KPFA (1969- 1992) and subsequently as an arts promoter and curator of new music in California’s Bay Area continues to enhance the artistic reputation of the Bay Area.

A rare and exciting aspect of this evening were the rare opportunities to hear Charles’ music, including representative sound poetry classics and a recent major opus capped off by a world premiere of a new work.

The hands of the artist. Photo by Allan J. Cronin

The genuine affection, appreciation, and respect was palpable as the honored guest demonstrated his skill at hosting when a couple of technical glitches slowed (but did not stop) the amiable birthday celebration. The audience waited calmly and quietly.

Both the guest of honor and the host (Liam Herb) used a well honed, self effacing humor used most skillfully to entertain the sympathetic audience while the technical difficulties were surmounted in real time.

Panel discussion featuring (left to right) Susan Stone, Anthony Gnazzo, Paul Dresher, Charles Amirkhanian, Sarah Cahill, and Liam Herb (Photo by Allan J. Cronin, Creative Commons license)

Herb, a composer and performer, introduced himself in the midst of the technical resolutions, graciously announcing that, as producer, he accepts responsibility for the glitches. Charles maintained his familiar master of ceremonies crowd pleasing good humor as Herb worked goodnauturedly (if that’s a word) with the rest of the crew to resolve the issues and get on with the show.

The formal opening remarks were given by Other Minds’ associate director, Blaine Todd. And the evening began in force.

Blaine Todd (photo by Allan J. Cronin, Creative Commons license)

The program glided past the initial hiccup to present a film about our guest of honor. The bevy of fans and bona fide new music professionals sat with rapt attention as the film, featuring the familiar faces of several “Bang on a Can” artists.

The late great Robert Black interviewed by Amirkhanian in the streaming premiere of Audible Autopsy. (Photo of film appearance by Allan J. Cronin)

Excerpts from the 2015 Other Minds 20 documentary featured Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Peter Gordon (now, it seems elder statesmen (and women) in their own right.

Production manager Liam Herb then served as moderator for a conversation or live interview (with Amirkhanian) for the next segment. This was followed by some videos with music by the guest of honor:

Real Time/T.V. Time Video with Amirkhanian’s “Muchrooms”

The film, presented in its entirety was accompanied by “Muchrooms”, from the CD recording of that standalone work.

Next was Amirkhanian’s and Carol Law’s classic collaboration: History of Collage (1981). This is a major work and a great collaboration with his partner in life and arts. I’m pleased to add my own shot from the performance at the Other Minds 23 experience, my favorite OM festival(so far).

History of Collage (1981) photo by Allan J. Cronin taken at the Other Minds 23 wonderful live performance of this work (Photo by Allan J. Cronin is Creative Commons license 2015)

We also heard and saw Audience (1978) with photography by Law and music/poetry by Amirkhanian followed by Chairs with photography by James Petrillo and music/poetry by Amirkhanian (excerpts from Seat Belt, Seat Belt (1973).

There followed a panel discussion led by Carol Law with Betsy Davids discussing David’s’ work and her connections via her work as a book artist. These two embody the experimental visual arts that characterize the skills of these fellow artists both onstage and off tonight. In fact, interactive collaboration and both respect and friendship were everywhere to be seen in this warm and pleasantly nostalgic evening.

Carol Law speaking with Betsy Davids (Photo by Allan J. Cronin, Creative Commons license)

This was followed by a recording of a major opus, Ratchet Attach It (2021) recently played at one of the (still ongoing) Other Minds Festival. This work is a major opus by Mr. Amirkhanian, one I’m pleased to say I heard live at the Chinese Theater in San Francisco a few years ago. Scored for a huge percussion ensemble, with audio recordings, and a conductor who moves between the podium and a space among the performers playing with the ensemble. It is perhaps one of his most integrated and evolved compositions. Stunning to hear it live. Glad to hear the (always too short) excerpts.

In fact Mr. Amirkhanian, a fixture in the arts of the Bay Area, continues to influence musical taste and present new and interesting music as he has for well over 50 years. His work as Executive Director of Other Minds includes the fabulous OM Records as well as the annual Other Minds Festival and a continual flow of carefully curated concert events by luminaries (or soon to be luminaries) throughout the Bay Area and beyond. There is also the huge archive of thousands of hours of interviews and concerts that are available in streaming audio and video via the Other Minds website.

Many of the artists featured in the Other Minds concert series continue to work, innovate, and expand musical concepts. An Other Minds commission, Henry Brant’s Organ Concerto, Ice Field, earned him a Pulitzer Prize. Many have gone on to greater achievements in their respective careers. Of course not every composer started their musical careers at Other Minds concerts. Many mid or late career musicians have joyfully been represented over the years. Its one of those festivals that innovative musicians seek to participate.

Such achievements reflect on Amirkhanian’s leadership and curatorial acumen, but more importantly his relationships with his fellow artists. Charles has earned a reputation for his support and his collaborative nature. Arguably, everyone in the house (and the overflow in the lobby) all have a degree of connection to Charles and his guests. It is why we’re all here tonight.

Charles Amirkhanian and Joseph Bohigian performing with Liam Herb’s electronics (Photo by Allan J. Cronin, Creative Commons license)

Following a brief intermission we were treated to a world premiere of a new work by our guest of honor, Noose Ratchet (2025) for two percussionists and electronics. Amirkhanian performing and/or promoting his own music is a relatively rare event and this alone was certainly worth the trip.

The work is arguably a trio for two percussionists playing ratchets, a curious instrument whose sound, if not entirely ubiquitous, is familiar. And the two play interactively with the electronics (the third member of the trio). Extended techniques and other duties get assigned (when in doubt it’s responsibility of the percussion section, right)?

There followed a lively and friendly panel discussion amongst frequent and past collaborators Susan Stone, Anthony Gnazzo, Paul Dresher, Sarah Cahill, and Liam Herb. This truly felt like a gathering of friends.

Happy Birthday, Charles.

The Elegant Icelandic Pianist and the Woman with Blurry Hands: Òlafsson and Wang Duo Pianos in Santa Barbara

Apr6

Program
Berio:Wasserklavier
Schubert: Fantasia in F minor for Four Hands
Cage:Experiences No. 1
Nancarrow (arr. Thomas Adès): Study No. 6
John Adams:Hallelujah Junction
Arvo Pärt:Hymn to a Great City
Rachmaninoff:Symphonic Dances

From the very beginning this concert defied convention in so many ways. The Granada Theater hosted a sold out crowd for these two distinctly different rock stars. The two pianos were arranged so that the artists were sitting next to each other, Wang was seated slightly upstage and stage right while Òlafsson was stage left and a bit downstage (the conventional staging for two piano concerts has the pianists facing each other and equally center stage). Also noted was Wang using the iPad score reader whilst Òlafsson had a page turner for the hard copy paper score.

On the surface these two artists have distinctly different personas. Both are possessed of a high level of technical skill along with interpretive abilities that communicate with their audiences. But the juxtaposition of these two pianists is a pairing that had this listener wonder if they could occupy the same space. Òlafsson the contemplative man in the dapper blue suit and the introspective facade contrasted just a bit with Wang’s more extroverted showmanship. And Wang’s fashionable but characteristically flashy outfit (which was even “flashier” after intermission).

The concert began with a brief and generally lesser known piece by the great Italian composer, Luciano Berio (1925-2003), his Wasserklavier (1965). This short, contemplative work functioned as an appetizer as the duo segued directly to Franz Schubert’s (1797-1828) gorgeous Fantasy in F minor (1828). This work originally written for one piano, four hands, was played here on two pianos. The work, written in the year of Schubert’s death is of symphonic dimension. The duo played rather uptempo but delivered a very convincing performance.

After acknowledging applause they gave us a sort of brief palate cleanser, John Cage’s (1918-1997) Experiences No. 1 (1945-8), a work for two pianos. The soft and sparse texture segued to Thomas Adès arrangement of Conlon Nancarrow’s Player Piano Study No. 6 (ca. 1962). This study, one of about 50 studies, sounds gentle and bluesy but belies the actual rhythmic complexities which characterize all the studies. This team handled the complexities most deftly.

This was followed by another work of symphonic dimension, that of John Adams’ (1960- ) Hallelujah Junction (1996). It was this writer’s first hearing of the work and it was a charming and engaging post minimalist work that challenged the virtuosity of the artists and gave ample evidence of how well they performed together. The rousing ovation then took us to intermission.

(Photo by David Bazemore, all rights reserved)

The second half included Wang in a more revealing outfit more characteristic of much of the publicity photos I’ve lately seen of her. But most important is the artist’s virtuosity and interpretive power. She is a force of nature. Òlafsson is just a gentler expression that managed to link most successfully with his upstage partner on this night.

They began with Arvo Pärt’s (1955- ) Hymn to a Great City (1984-2004). This ca. 3 minute work (the city of greatness is not named) was a soft meditative work, perhaps echoing the Berio work which opened the concert.

It led without pause into Rachmaninoff’s (1873-1943) Symphonic Dances (1940) I had only been familiar with the lovely version for large orchestra (apparently written concurrently with the orchestral version) so it took a bit to grasp the intricacies that suggest that this music was written for two skilled pianists. Òlafsson and Wang traded moments to shine in this truly symphonic work but it worked very successfully with these two artists in their respective driver’s seats.

A standing ovation brought the two back to the stage where they sat next to each other for a rendition of Schubert’s bouncy Marche Militaire. A second encore two dances, by Dvorák and Brahms, eased into a calmer Brahms’ familiar Waltz in A-flat Major capped off a truly fine concert, not a union of opposites but rather a collaboration of genius.

Sabbatical Notes

Mar23

A Photography Experiment done during this self imposed “sabbatical” (Creative Commons License by Allan J. Cronin

I am not an academic but I use the term “sabbatical” to denote the two and a half month break I’ve taken from writing this blog. My reasons for the break don’t really matter but I decided I owe it to myself to make an accounting of what I have done during this time.

Well, in addition to catching up on reading, I managed to attend many films at the 40th anniversary of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in February. Several of the 20+ films I saw will get at least brief reviews to share the amazing artistic wealth from these films.

The new home of the film festival on upper state in Santa Barbara. (Street photography by yours truly)

The old cineplex known as “Fiesta Five” is going to undergo major renovation including new air conditioning, projection systems, and sound systems. These five little theaters hosted many of this year’s films along with the (already fabulous) indie film center at the Riviera Theater as well as the 2000 seat Arlington and smaller venues like the Marjorie Luke Theater and others.

Temporally nestled between the just completed Sundance Festival and preceding the Oscars, the festival is conveniently set to attract stars and visitors to this historically low tourism portion of the year. And the newly acquired theater complex is set in a less traveled segment of State Street.

Meanwhile I have been adjusting to a new work assignment (still within the county system). The adjustment has more to do with the learning curve for a new department and related protocols. Not a horrible stress actually, but a time eater for sure.

As I move into my thirteenth year of this blog (I am also approaching my 40th year as a Registered Nurse) I have made some decisions regarding this blog and have some interesting plans (at least to me). Please do stay tuned.

One of the things I did not expect, but pleases me, is the fact that I’m still averaging about a thousand hits per month even though I haven’t published anything new lately. WordPress tracks visitors and view counts along with the countries from which the views are coming. So it’s impossible to tell if my viewers are new or long time readers just checking to see when something new is published. At any rate I am pleased to have a following of people interested in a rather lesser known musical genre, that of new, mostly recent, and sometimes decided difficult listening. Thanks to you all.

In addition to the film festival I did attend some events more in line with the general theme of this blog which will appear in forthcoming reviews. One of the most important to me was the 80th birthday of composer, producer, musician, broadcaster, and promoter of new music and executive producer of Other Minds (an annual new music festival held in San Francisco). My brief volunteer tenure at Other Minds prompted me to start this blog. There are mountains of new music articles, interviews, concert recordings, interviews, etc. on their website.

So, my apologies to those who came here for new material and had to go nearly three months without. This is the first of many concert and CD reviews to come.

Peace, health and music, my friends.

Emilie Cecilia Lebel: Landscapes of Memory for solo piano and e bow drone

Dec14

This listener hears the influence, or at least some common elements of Morton Feldman, La Monte Young, and a too little known David Toub. What are those common elements? The long, frequently slow development of Feldman and Toub along with long held tones of La Monte Young.

Emilie Cecilia Lebel (photo from composer’s website)

What we have here are two solo piano pieces by Canadian composer Emilie Cecilia Lebel (1983- ). After reviewing her nicely organized website I came to the conclusion that this composer works in drones, long held tones, and long form works that not infrequently bleed into sound installation and ambient musics categories. She writes for piano and other instruments including works that are suitable for traditional concert stages as well as works that function in a more ambient mode like gallery installations or site specific sound design.

These two works are best heard in an environment that allows the listener to focus on the slow development of ideas that both these works share. That environment can be a recital hall or, as in this listener’s case, a CD player attached to some good headphones, reclining with eyes closed. Despite said slow development, these pieces compelled this listener to stay put and really enjoy the way this music unfolds as the initially perceived sparseness gives way to allow the structure and logic to emerge.

Despite the perceived similarities to the sound world of other composers as mentioned above, these pieces have a unique and developed voice. In a sense they are the next generation containing the musical DNA of their predecessors.

One of the things I had to look up was the “e bow drone”. This little electromagnetic device is more commonly found in jazz and fusion, perhaps rock bands as well. Primarily used with electric guitars and basses, this device excites a targeted string on a given instrument to produce long held tones. Exactly how it is used by the performers is doubtless indicated in the score but, suffice it to say that it works well here. These held tone fades from foreground to background and back again as the music relates always to the anchor of the drone.

Both pieces utilize this drone apparently as both a structural and sonic tool. By that I mean that the music unfolds partly via its relationship to the drone tone. Within that framework the pianist plays a variety of chords, arpeggios and near melodic lines that produce cadences which delineate the structure. And here I’m only relating this listener’s experience. I do not have the knowledge to attempt a more sophisticated analysis but I guess the point is that such analysis, while doubtless interesting, is not essential to the appreciation of this music and I respectfully leave this to those with more sophisticated training than I.

The two works presented are here performed by the artists who commissioned them. Technical concerns aside, these works are satisfying to the listener able to focus on the flow of the music. These are well developed, engaging pieces that conceivably could be successful as a concert performance or an ambient sound installation.

This release is another valuable feather in the cap of the Vancouver based Redshift Records. This label celebrates Canadian Composers new and old (mostly new). Interested listeners would do well also to check out Riparian Acoustics, a marketing organization with some fascinating curatorial radar. (N.B. This reviewer has published at least two other Redshift productions reviews here and here).

This is a composer I’m delighted to have made it onto my personal radar. She deserves to be a person of interest for successful artistic transgressions, so to speak. Enjoy!

Starstruckedness, a Fan Boy Essay and a Peek “Behind the Curtain” of a Blogger

Nov28

I am an amateur, a dabbler, a passionate hobbyist when it comes to music. But music is an essential part of who I’ve become since the beginnings of my fascination with what might be termed “new classical” music back around the age of 10 or so (more on that in a later essay).

I am a listener above all and my shy, introspective personality initially led to a lot of alone time. I’m not saying, “loneliness”. Quite the contrary, I enjoyed it a great deal. After school I spent many a blissful evening amongst my books, records and tapes. And my radio, tuned to one (of three at the time) classical radio stations in my native Chicago.

WEFM, WNIB, and WFMT were my gateway into the world of classical music old and new. For whatever reason I didn’t like pop/top 40 music (though I’ve since widened my range of listening), a fact which severely narrowed my circle of peers and led me to develop my own world as I struggled the ardent but necessary developmental task of defining my identity (still struggling with that).

Fortunately these radio stations had a lot of genuinely talented program hosts and producers. These people were my teachers and my friends. Their adulation of classical music validated me and inspired me to emulate them to some extent which in turn led me to do a lot of reading. I felt cool (i.e. validated). So my appreciation of the significance of rock, blues, etc would have to wait until my college days but I tolerated pop stuff when socializing with my peers at the time, none of whom liked classical music.

As my interests developed, classical music became a solidly a treasured aspect of my personality. It remains a passion that gives me great joy (while it drains my budget). As basically a non-musician, a “fan” I began to attend more concerts, buy more recordings, and engage in fanboy/fangirl discussions and debates, even autograph collecting, my peer group expanded as I met people in college classes who shared my esoteric, non-pop interests.

At this point I want to tell you that I’ve come to suspect that, at their best, fans are essentially secular worshippers, deriving something like religious ecstasy as they seek to spend more time, in closer proximity to their chosen deities. That’s what the best performances of music are (other arts too, but that’s another essay), and, ecstatic experiences are addictive.

All this to say that the phenomena of being starstruck, I believe, is one of encountering musical artists in a deeply felt manner that impairs one’s ability to experience our favorite stars as mere humans. That, hopefully, comes later. But the experience of actually meeting your stars is much akin to children encountering their stars at Disneyland or Santa at the local shopping mall where, one can see the stunned look and disbelieving stare as they drink in the experience.

Sometimes the experience of humanness in one’s “gods” is off putting, at least at first. But getting to know a favorite artist as a human being allows one to get a perspective, to see them more as they are and not just as their latest work or even their body of work. Learning about the person, including their foibles and even failures is valuable. Whether you experience this via personal contact or via autobiographical and biographical writings it is an important perspective which enhances the listener’s appreciation.

The blogging is my way of acknowledging the joy that my favorite artists give me. It’s also a way of sharing a personal perspective for similarly inclined listeners who may share some of what I feel.

Time to fire up my CD player. Another worship service is at hand.

Comments welcome.

Frederick Block (1899-1945) Chamber Music: A New “Music in Exile” Release

Nov25

By whom? This is latest release in this fascinating series that seeks to record music that has been neglected. Music in Exile shares a kinship with Decca’s “Entartete Musik” (Degenerate Music) series, among others. That series focused on music and composers judged inferior by the leaders of the Third Reich. Their suppression of music paralleled their suppression of visual art which suppressed works purported to be “degenerate” and presumably toxic to their political goals. That meant, in the case of music, essentially two categories. The largest is the suppression of Jewish composers (regardless of style and/or content) and also musical modernism that the regime did not understand. Similar suppression occurred under Stalin in Russia.

But Music in Exile casts a wider net. One does not need a totalitarian regime to cause suppression. Economic and performance opportunities are mediated by many factors and music gets neglected for many reasons, some far less onerous than directed political oppression. This music which was composed for general performance has no overt political agenda, rather it is the victim of political and economic agendas.

That, in a nutshell, is the essence of the choices of repertoire that ARC (Artists of the Royal Conservatory) director, Simon Wynberg makes to create this fascinating and historically significant recording project. Of course neither suppression nor neglect confer values by themselves. I mean, the thrill of finding a major masterpiece is certainly the driving force but, even if these recordings ultimately only fill the gaps in the list of historical recordings, the opportunity for listeners to hear them is the point here. That said, I am appending a list of this ensemble’s discography (kindly supplied by promotional staff) thus far:

ARC ENSEMBLE DISCOGRAPHY

On the Threshold of Hope, Mieczyslaw Weinberg Chamber Music (2006)
with Richard Margison, tenor
RCA Red Seal (Sony) 82876-87769 2 (GRAMMY and JUNO nominations, 2007)
Right through the Bone: Julius Röntgen Chamber Music (2007) RCA Red Seal (Sony) 88697-158372 (GRAMMY nomination, 2008)
Two Roads to Exile: Walter Braunfels String Quintet, Adolf Busch String Sextet (2010) RCA Red Seal (Sony) 88697-64490 2

Music in Exile: Chamber Works by Paul Ben-Haim (2013) Chandos 10769
Music in Exile: Chamber Works by Jerzy Fitelberg (2015) Chandos 10877 (GRAMMY nomination, 2016)
Music in Exile: Chamber Works by Szymon Laks (2017) Chandos 10983 (JUNO nomination, 2018)
Music in Exile: Chamber Works by Walter Kaufmann (2020) Chandos 202170 (OPUS Klassik nomination, 2020)
Music in Exile: Chamber Works by Dmitri Klebanov (2021) Chandos 20231 (JUNO nomination, 2022)
Music in Exile: Chamber Works by Alberto Hemsi (2022) Chandos 20243 (JUNO nomination, 2023)
Music in Exile: Chamber Works by Robert Muller-Hartmann (November, 2023) Chandos Records
All titles produced by David Frost and engineered by Carl Talbot

Now comes the latest release, all premiere recordings, of chamber music by “Frederick [Friedrich] Block [Bloch]” (1899-1945). This series is a real “feather in the cap” of the wonderful Chandos label whose curatorial choices are always intelligent and wide ranging.

This latest release is another triumph, another unveiling of some truly fine music which, thanks to the passion of researcher/producer Simon Wynberg and the fine musicians of the Toronto Conservatory, are now available in definitive performances lovingly documented in high quality recordings. Even if these works never again have performances or recordings (something this writer doubts), they will have a life heretofore denied them in the lasting medium of recorded sound. In addition to the music, Wynberg pens some profoundly useful program notes that help provide flavor and context to this all but forgotten composer. Wynberg notes that, while Block’s archive was acquired by the New York Public Library and carefully preserved, this recording represents the first serious effort to explore his ultimate legacy. All works are world premiere recordings.

Four works, all but one written in the interwar years (1918-1939), an era in which American composer Aaron Copland suggested that there remain many works which deserve attention. How right he was.

The disc opens with the substantial four movement Piano Trio No. 2 Op. 26 (1930). Frederick Block was not a modernist or innovator but that is not a bad thing. Block was a fan of Gustav Mahler’s music and, as such, a proponent of a similarly post romantic ethic. Here we have a highly entertaining work which is challenging to performers but wonderfully entertaining to audiences.

The first movement signals a post Brahmsian style with highly virtuosic writing and a slightly extended harmonic language just enough to let the listener know that the 19th century has indeed passed.

It is followed by a playful, brief scherzo-like movement followed by a lovely, sometimes mournful adagio and a truly fun last movement deriving inspiration from tango music but still firmly ensconced in classical traditions going back to the classical era of Mozart and Haydn.

It left this listener longing to hear Maestro Block’s first essay in this form (and sparked curiosity about his other unheard music). Perhaps a future release will expand the exploration and documentation of this forgotten master still further.

Next up is String Quartet Op. 23 (1929-30) cast in the classical four movements. Again the harmonic language is just noticeably post romantic (and quite beautiful). It is easy to imagine this work included in a satisfying evening of chamber music. It is melodic and requires significant performance skills but poses little challenge to the engaged listener.

The Suite for Clarinet and Piano Op.73 (1944), written at the height of the Second World War, consists of 5 brief movements (the longest clocks in at just over 3 minutes and the entire suite at just shy of 8 minutes). It is as lively and engaging as imaginable, suggesting no echoes of the still ongoing world war. It is sort of a delightful palate cleanser for the closing work on the disc.

And the closing work is in a form born in the romantic era with Schubert’s “Trout Quintet” (1819) being the shining emblematic work in that genre. Other well known examples include the quintet by Robert Schumann (1842) and that of Johannes Brahms (1864). Now I don’t mean to suggest that Block’s entry in the genre will give these classics serious competition but this 1929 entry would do well in a pairing with one or all of the aforementioned classics.

Block’s Piano Quintet is cast in three movements and is a beautiful example of some of the best post romantic pieces for this chamber grouping. As with the previous works on this recording, this one delights the ear with rich melodic and harmonic gestures that would likely please a chamber music audience.

This disc makes a strong case for further curatorial efforts by Mr. Wynberg and the fine musicians of the Royal Conservatory in Toronto. This is a wonderful release which adds some substantial pieces to the chamber music repertory. It is also, in its way, a strong advocacy of musical art as well as a condemnation of those people and forces which cause the oppression of artistic expression.

In addition to Simon Wynberg’s scholarly curatorial efforts, thanks are due to the following musicians of the Royal Canadian Conservatory: Erica Raum and Marie Bérard, violins; Steven Dann, viola; Tomas Wiebe, cello; Joaquin Valdepeñas, clarinet; and Kevin Ahfat, piano.

If you’re a chamber music fan and/or a supporter of the arts, you owe it to yourself to check this one out. You won’t be disappointed.

Ilhan Mimaroglu and Agitprop (Political Classical Again)

Nov9

İlhan Kemaleddin Mimaroğlu (1926-2012) photo credit unknown, fair use

Portrait of Ahmet M. Ertegun and Nesuhi Ertegun, Turkish Embassy (record room), Washington, D.C., 193- (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It would be difficult to underestimate the impact of Turkish immigrant brothers Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun on the American music industry in the last half of the 20th century with their promotion and production of jazz and rhythm and blues artists. Their lesser known colleague, Ilhan Mimaroglu labored under a slightly different esthetic. In addition to having been involved with the production of many artists’ work on the Atlantic label (including Charles Mingus, Freddie Hubbard, et al) his study of the developing techniques of electronic and tape-based music helped him develop a unique voice as a composer where he worked with electronics, tape, acoustic instruments, musique concrete, and combinations of these media. He was equally skilled in the art of music production and recording and he utilized this knowledge to produce an impressive body of work which deserves to be better known. He also curated the sub label Finnadar to release his own music and that of other artists with similar vision like Anthony Braxton, Frederic Rzewski, Morton Feldman and others.

Mimaroglu wrote a number of works reflecting his political views during the same turbulent years during which Atlantic records shaped the popular soundtrack of the sixties era. Using his knowledge of studio technology in combination with emerging developments in electronic music synthesis he created many purely electronic studies, musique concrete, at least 4 string quartets, solo piano pieces, and more that has yet to be fully catalogued.

First let me clarify the term ‘Agitprop’. This is a hybrid word or ‘portmanteau’ for the terms ‘agitation’ and ‘propaganda’. The word appears to have first been coined and used in conjunction with the Russian Bolshevik revolution and it’s political tactics. The idea was to create a form of propaganda that would not only inform but also encourage action.

I will focus here on his overtly political statements embodied in ‘Sing Me a Song of Songmy” (with Freddie Hubbard‘ 1971).

(subtitled “A Fantasy For Electromagnetic Tape”)

This unusual piece, a concatenation of an electronic score, the Freddie Hubbard Quintet, organ, and strings is perhaps his greatest example of Mimaroglu’s brand of political music. It is by no means his only agitprop/ political piece but it may be his finest and one of the best works of this thorny, frequently controversial genre.

The title is a combination of the name of the town (Son My), the location of the My Lai massacre, and the ironic words, “Sing me a song of Songmy”. The collage and non-linear format of the piece actually contains a dizzying mix of concurrent horrors including the Sharon Tate murders and others whose subjects await a comprehensive analysis by a historian and/or a musicologist. The work includes poetry by Fazil Husnu Daglarca, news clippings, etc. Luciano Berio did something similar in his similarly political masterpiece, Sinfonia (1968). That work is rife with musical and textural references subsequently enumerated by the late American composer/musicologist, Alan Stout.

This is also one of the most expensive productions of a mix of evolving musical genres with a strongly controversial and ugly subject. It can stand in comparison to Picasso’s Guernica for its power to provoke. Add the thorny early electronics with the free jazz of Hubbard and the jazz/blues inflected writing, and you have a powerful indictment of war crimes but hardly a best seller. And it is only with the healing of time and the fading of the sting of those memories that this work has begun to be appreciated more fully.

Participating musicians included:

Freddie Hubbard – trumpet, flugelhorn (#1, 3, 4, 7), recitation (6)
Junior Cook- tenor saxophone (1-4, 7)
Kenny Barron- piano (1-4, 7)
Art Booth – bass (1, 3, 4, 7)
Louis Hayes – drums (1, 3, 4, 7)
Ilhan Mimaroglu – synthesizer, processed sound
Arif Mardin – organ, conductor
Barnard-Columbia Chorus directed by Daniel Paget
Strings directed by Gene Orlo and Selwart Clarke
Mary Ann Hoxworth (1, 3), Nha-Khe (3, 8), Charles Grau (3), Gungor Bozkurt (3, 10) – recitation
The music is divided into ten sections as follows:
PART I
“Threnody for Sharon Tate” – 2:04
“This Is Combat I Know” – 8:56
“The Crowd” – 7:03
“What a Good Time for Kent State” – 1:28
PART II
“Monodrama” – 2:54
“Black Soldier” – 2:19
“Interlude I” – 5:48
“Interlude II” – 4:30
“And Yet There Could Be Love” – 4:28
“Postlude” – 1:05

The work has been released on CD.

Happy 40th Anniversary, Coucou Bazar (irenebrination.typepad.com)
Agitprop (westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com)
The Dr. Bronner ‘agitprop’ label to support anti-GMO Initiative 522 (blogs.seattletimes.com)
Apolitical Intellectuals (1974). Frederic Rzewski #silence #shame (rgable.typepad.com)

Oh Say Can You “C”? Terry Riley’s “In C” Turns 60 Years Old

Nov1

Terry Riley with a t-shirt displaying the entire score of “In C” (photo from Facebook, copyright unknown)

November 4th, 2024 marks the 60th anniversary of the premiere of Terry Riley’s seminal masterpiece, “In C”. After having completed a variety of respectable compositional efforts, Terry Riley (1935- ) was jolted by the Muse to write this defining work that charted a path very different from that of the western classical mold of the composer’s formal education. It premiered in the very unconventional venue of a house in San Francisco, not in an auditorium designed for concerts. And it’s one of those pieces that now marks the transition from almost purely experimental writing to a style later dubbed “minimalism” (though many composers whose music is subsumed under this title eschew it in varying degrees). And whether you call it minimalism, trance music, drone, etc., the style would come to dominate a huge portion of concert works and recordings.

The score consists of 53 short musical phrases with no specified instrumentation and with no conductor’s score, just parts with a seemingly simple set of instructions. One page is what one might expect of a sketch of a larger work to be, not a complete score but, that’s it, One page with the instruction for the musician to repeat each cell or phrase ad libitum and then move on to the next. It was ostensibly the suggestion of composer/performer Steve Reich to have a pianist play eighth note repetitions of the top two highest octaves on the keyboard. In addition to this “click track” like strategy, the playing of those high “C”s also serves to anchor the tonality much as continuo does in that quasi improvisational baroque practice.

There is simply no finer account and analysis of this music than that of Robert Carl’s “In C”. Robert Carl (1954- ) is a teacher, composer, performer, and musicologist. I do not presume to have as extensive an analysis as he does but I’m interested here in providing a celebratory perspective from where I sit (and have been seated).

This music (as does all art) stands in a context with concurrent and recent events surrounding its conception and performance. Temporally it stands along with other notable compositions from 1964: Witold Lutoslawski- String Quartet, John Coltrane (admittedly one of Riley’s influences)- the albums, “Bessie’s Blues” and “Lonnie’s Lament”, Igor Stravinsky- Elegy for JFK and Variations in Memoriam Aldous Huxley (both men died on November 23rd, 1963), Roger Sessions- Symphony No. 5 and his opera, “Montezuma”, Milton Babbitt- Philomel, Karlheinz Stockhausen- Mixtur, Ben Johnston- Sonata for Microtonal Piano, Luciano Berio- Folksongs (written and premiered at Mills College, the later home of the Tape Music Center where Berio was teaching then), Olivier Messiaen- Et Expecto Ressurectionem Mortuorum, Iannis Xenakis- Eonta, and La Monte Young- (the first iteration of his masterpiece), The Well Tuned Piano.

My little list here is just a sampling of the western classical and jazz works that graced the natal year of “In C”. Admittedly, it is a cornucopia of some more experimental, some less so music that lie in this historical orbit. But, among the works in this list, it is the work of John Coltrane and La Monte Young that shares musical DNA with Riley’s aesthetic in this music. The other works contemporary mentioned represent a sort of “Garden of Forking Paths“ to a panoply of styles very different from the work at hand.

At a time when the style of American pop music had just recently met The Beatles, this work was a sort of coalescence of experiments done by La Monte Young, Steve Reich, and others. “In C” seems to have come out fully formed in its way. It was seemingly influenced by pop, jazz, and blues (whose use of repetition is endemic). 60 years later it is performed frequently and there exists at least 40 or so recordings of the work.

When I began writing this article I realized that Robert Carl’s book on this work fully covers the history and provides a definitive analysis to which I cannot contribute anything additionally useful. I then considered eliciting commentary from musicians and listeners about this music but found little interest because that has been well covered by several previous anniversary essays. So I decided to share a discography and photos of some the recordings I could find that have given me further insights into this touchstone work.

This discography is not comprehensive but my intent here is to celebrate this anniversary with the cover artwork that adorns the ever increasing documenting of this landmark of western art music. I will present what I believe is a representative selection of some 40+ versions.

Your humble author was 8 at the time of this work’s premiere. And my first hearing of ‘In C’ was in 1976 when my local radio station, the great WFMT in Chicago, aired a program curated by Raymond Wilding-White, a composer and professor of music at De Paul University. His task was to present representative works of American music, one for each day of the nation’s bicentennial year. ‘in C’ was one of them.

Since then I have heard many interpretations of this work. The original performance was at 321 Divisadero Street in San Francisco, California on November 4th, 1964. The original performers were: Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Jon Gibson, Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Morton Subotnick, Warner Jepson, Tony Martin, William Maginnis, and Ramon Sender (who celebrated his 90th birthday this past week). This venue was the second and last home of the San Francisco Tape Music Center before it relocated and was renamed The Mills College Center for Contemporary Music in 1966 in Oakland.

Here, with brief commentaries, are my favorites. There are at least 38 versions according to the Wikipedia article. Here are my personal favorites in chronological order of release date:

The original Columbia Records release (1968)

If you only have one recording this is probably the one you want. Recorded in 1968, this brought the work effectively to a wide audience via international distribution. The instrumentation (some overdubbed) includes: saxophone, oboe, bassoon, trumpet, clarinet, flute, viola, trombone, vibraphone, marimbaphone.

Riley with the Chinese Film Orchestra (1989)

This important recording was made in China around the time of the Tiananmen Square uprising and the tapes were in effect smuggled out of the country in the aftermath of that incident. It stands as a fascinating document of eastern musicians encountering and interpreting this masterpiece.

The 25th anniversary release on New Albion (1990)

Don’t you just love anniversaries? By the time of this release (1989), this work had been disseminated into wide geographic regions and cultures. This version includes many of the musicians who premiered the work and this “traditional” reading is a loving homage to Riley’s work.

The Bang on a Can All Stars are among the finest ambassadors of new music. They have earned the right to put their stamp on any new work they choose and subsequently bring it anew to another generation of listeners.

Prog Rock does homage to Terry Riley (2001)

If you want to hear the wide range of musicians who have chosen to pay homage to this work this is a fine place to start.

Another fine example of the way this work can sound from a Central African perspective. This performance from Mali is absolutely electrifying.

Another fine culturally tinged version (2017)

This album is a personal favorite from the Brooklyn based collective featuring instruments from Hindustani traditions and others alongside western instruments. You can read my enthusiastic review here.

There are probably at least 50 recordings of this work. Some are private, maybe even bootleg versions. Clearly this work continues to become more and more essential and influential piece of music. It is not unlike a musical version of the Iconic monolith from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. The anomalous structure was of alien origin and was purported to accelerate the evolution of species who encounter it.

Riley’s work is most .definitely of terrestrial origin (well, San Francisco anyway) but, clearly this work continues to intrigue musicians worldwide and has arguably influenced the development of music itself.

Evolution supercharged by an alien presence.

Political Classical: Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, a Synthesis of Religion, Music Theater, and Politics

Oct12

Leonard Bernstein‘s liberal political sympathies are well known. But they were never as clearly presented in his music as they were in his ‘Mass’ from 1971. The work was commissioned for the opening of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC and dedicated to the memory of John F. Kennedy.

In using the structure of the Catholic Mass Bernstein echoes the embrace of Christianity of previous Jewish composers like Schoenberg and Mahler. Mahler embraced Christianity at least partly to get work in the increasingly antisemitic atmosphere of late nineteenth century Europe. Schoenberg’s dalliance with Christianity was more that of an existential crisis as he watched the rise of the Nazi party and their genocidal horrors. Bernstein’s embrace of Christianity seems a combination of homage and disappointment. He knew well the glories of liturgical settings of the traditional texts by the likes of Bach, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven and had himself made an a capella setting of the mass using music he had originally written for Jean Anouilh’s play, “The Lark”.

He also knew well the suffering and deaths occurring in the protests against the Vietnam war and the struggles of American citizens for equality in the Civil Rights movement as well as the struggles in the war itself and the failure of religious institutions to stem the tide of violence.

Bernstein had dealt with religious themes in his first Symphony from 1942, which set texts from the Biblical “Lamentations of Jeremiah” in the last movement. His Chichester Psalms of 1965 set three Psalms in Hebrew. And, his Third Symphony, “Kaddish” (1963) can be seen as a forerunner to the 1974 “Mass”. His final symphony became a post hoc requiem subsequently dedicated to John F. Kennedy when, just weeks before the premiere, he was assassinated in Dallas. The composer dedicated the work to the late president. He also performed Mahler’s “Resurrection” symphony the day after John F. Kennedy’s assassination presenting it as a peaceful response to the murder.

Bernstein was no stranger to politics and progressive ideas and his activism is central to his life and legacy.

The traditional mass is a ritual of sacrifice which the composer uses to talk about the sacrifices of lives and culture occurring during the ongoing Vietnam war. It laments the ineffectiveness of religion in dealing with sociopolitical crises. The full title of the score at hand is ‘Mass, a piece for singers, players, and dancers’. It was commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy as the inaugural work for the opening of the newly completed Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. The first performance took place at the new Kennedy Center on September 8, 1971.

Richard Nixon had declined to attend ostensibly to not draw focus from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis but subsequent research has determined that he had been warned by FBI head J. Edgar Hoover of the possibility of “subversive” texts within the piece. He was apparently referring to the latin texts of the mass. So, for “security” reasons, Nixon stayed home that night.

The work continues to be revived and recorded.

aworks quotes :: leonard bernstein (rgable.typepad.com)
second fiddle and too many chiefs in the church (togiveitback.wordpress.com)
Bernstein On Brotherhood (museaholic.com)
Kory’s Review: Maestro: Leonard Bernstein @ Cleveland Play House (new102.cbslocal.com)

Schoenberg, Reclaiming a Legacy in Sound

Sep25

A landmark set of recordings of Schoenberg’s chamber music for strings

The Juilliard Quartet, founded in 1946 by composer William Schuman (1910-1992) is a highly respected and justly lauded ensemble. This fine CD set includes two complete cycles of Arnold Schoenberg’s String Quartets. It also includes the composer’s too little known String Trio of 1945 and a ravishing string sextet version of Verklärte Nacht. This 7 CD set documents a bit of recording history as well, offering the original mono recordings of his numbered string quartets alongside the Grammy winning (Steven Epstein, producer) 1978 stereo recording (which also included an early unnumbered string quartet in D major).

I grew up expanding my musical horizons with that 1978 release, offered here for the first time on CD format. But the present box set was my first hearing of the 1951 mono recordings of the numbered quartets.

I would venture a guess that most listeners, even those drawn to the sorts of modernism that characterizes my blog reviews, probably own no more than one set of the Schoenberg String Quartets. They just don’t seem to get the same love that other modernists like Bartok, Ravel, Debussy, and maybe even Elliott Carter get from fans of new music. (All of these composers, by the way, have had their quartets recorded by the Julliard Quartet). But hearing two readings across just over a thirty year span by two different generations of this iconic ensemble does much to suggest that Arnold deserves at least another reckoning and perhaps an elevation of his reputation as a brilliant musical mind. It is also a fine testament to the enduring creative interpretive skills in the various generations who have been The Julliard String Quartet.

For that reason alone (the inclusion of those 1951 recordings), discerning listeners will want to own this wonderful set. The production is itself a work of homage and respect with some lovely nostalgia inducing reproductions of the original cover art. And the photographic image of a vinyl record that adorns several CD helps set that tone, one which virtually screams “COLLECTOR’S ITEM”.

The Juilliards have helped identify and characterize the whole of string quartet literature much as the Guarneri Quartet, the Arditti, Kronos, etc. have. Having a work performed and recorded by any of these (to name but a few performers) virtually assures the accepted work a place in the actively performed canon of concert works. It is a stamp of authenticity.

The Quartets span most of the creative span of the composer’s career. That early D Major Quartet (1897), First Quartet (1905), and the Second Quartet (1908) were written before his 12 tone method had been fully developed. We hear the 12 tone method in the Third and Fourth Quartets and the Trio.

That Second Quartet is apparently the first time a soprano had been used as an adjunct to the ensemble. Uta Graf sings in the 1951 recording and Benita Valente in the 1975 cycle. The text (curiously not included in the otherwise delightful and intelligent notes) are by poet Stefan George (1868-1933). I include them here in English for interested listeners:

Rapture
I feel air from another planet.
The faces that once turned to me in friendship
Pale in the darkness before me.

And trees and paths that I once loved fade away
So that I scarcely recognize them, and you bright
Beloved shadow—summoner of my anguish—

Are now extinguished completely in deeper flames
In order, after the frenzy of warring confusion,
To reappear in a pious display of awe.

I lose myself in tones, circling, weaving,
With unfathomable thanks and unnamable praise;
Bereft of desire, I surrender myself to the great breath.

A tempestuous wind overwhelms me
In the ecstasy of consecration where the fervent cries
Of women praying in the dust implore:

Then I see a filmy mist rising
In a sun-filled, open expanse
That includes only the farthest mountain retreats.

The land looks white and smooth like whey.
I climb over enormous ravines.
I feel like I am swimming above the furthest cloud

In a sea of crystal radiance—
I am only a spark of the holy fire
I am only a whisper of the holy voice.

Litany
Deep is the sadness that gloomily comes over me,
Again I step, Lord, in your house.

Long was the journey, my limbs are weary,
The shrines are empty, only anguish is full.

My thirsty tongue desires wine.
The battle was hard, my arm is stiff.

Grudge peace to my staggering steps,
for my hungry gums break your bread!

Weak is my breath, calling the dream,
my hands are hollow, my mouth fevers.

Lend your coolness, douse the fires,
rub out hope, send the light!

Still active flames are glowing inside my heart;
in my deepest insides a cry awakens.

Kill the longing, close the wound!
Take love away from me, and give me your happiness!

Schoenberg said he had been inspired by the poetry to compose these angular, expressionistic melodies. The poetry, like the music reflects tenor of the times.

In addition to the quartet cycles, this set is intelligently filled out by the inclusion of the string sextet version of the 1899 Verklärte Nacht. Here the Julliards (consisting of Robert Mann and Joel Smirnoff, violins; Samuel Rhodes, viola; Joel Krosnick, cello) are augmented by two exceptionally worthy soloists, Yo Yo Ma on cello and Walter Trampler on viola. It is followed on the disc with a powerful reading of the masterful String Trio from 1946. It is an illustration of the historical development of the composer over that 44 year period. I listened casually the first time but more carefully in subsequent hearings as the disc moved from the last track division of Verklärte Nacht to the first of the Trio finding this to be a lucid illustration of the composer’s seemingly natural development from post Wagnerian harmonies of fin de siecle Transfigured Night to those of the now fully developed 12 tone compositional method so beautifully integrated in the post war String Trio (played here by Robert Mann, Samuel Rhodes, and Joel Krosnick).

I used the term “post war” in my previous paragraph as a convenient segue to the last piece in this collection. The Trio is offered in a 1965-6 recording (stereo) played by Robert Mann, Rafael Hillyer, and Claus Adam. It is followed by the anti fascist “Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte” from 1942, a setting of a text by Lord Byron. Here the Julliards are joined by Glenn Gould on piano and speaker John Horton. It is one of Schoenberg’s politically tinged works. It has much in common with A Survivor from Warsaw (1947) and Schoenberg can only really be understood in the context of his turbulent times.

Perhaps there’s a parallel to our turbulent present. Maybe Schoenberg can be better understood if his listeners have experienced a certain amount of existential angst. We certainly have a lot of that. But, ultimately, this box set is a cause for joy and even optimism. It is a loving document of compositional, performance, and recording excellence.

My First Earbuds

Sep24

Well, hello Facebook marketing and crowd sourcing. These got me into my very first set of earbuds. Yes, I’m a latecomer to this ubiquitous accessory that now connects me more intimately with the digital world. Why did it take so long? Am I a Luddite?

While my life is hardly dominated by electronics, I have gradually given in to a number of devices which are now pretty well integrated into my life. Having spent my adolescent years at a time when electronic calculators had first been introduced and personal computers were yet many years into the future, my electronics were limited to a television, a VCR, a cassette deck, a turntable, and a stereo receiver (I could not afford Quadraphonic technology).

But this essay is not just a history of my relationship to technology (not terribly interesting actually). Rather it is the mini love affair I’m having with these lovely earbuds (we used to call them earphones but what’s in a name, right)?

Status Audio Between ANC Earbuds and Charging Case

I have seen the proliferation of earbuds wearing folks for some time now and, when I saw that Facebook ad one day, I decided I was ready. So I ordered them via the posted link and they arrived shortly thereafter.

I’m no expert with audio electronics but I think I know good sound when I hear it. And these beautifully designed crowd funded earbuds delivered incredibly good sound including really dramatic bass response.

The only problem I can report here is the lack of a tether so that, if one bud leaves an ear, it can easily be located. Various such products are available but none that I’ve so far tried have been truly satisfactory. That said, I have stopped using these if I am likely to fall asleep and lose one or both earbuds. And they give me great joy when listening/watching music and other videos on my iPad after lights out. I can listen to my heart’s content without disturbing my partner or our dogs (who found those buds to be potential chew toys).

I do also own a set of Sennheiser 400 HD Pro Headphones which I tend to use when listening to sound editing tasks on my laptop or listening to actual CDs on my little boombox. But these new earbuds are now a part of my treasured audio electronics. I highly recommend them.

You can order them from Status Audio and, full disclosure, I get nothing save the satisfaction of recommending a truly fine bit of audiophile electronics. Happy listening.

Political Classical: Conflict in the Concert Hall, Hans Werner Henze’s “Das Floß der Medusa” (1968), then and since then.

Jun11

Cover of the original vinyl release of “Der Floss der Medusa”

The 1913 riotous premiere of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” is pretty well known in classical music history. Sandwiching the premiere of his masterpiece of modernism between well known conservative chestnuts such as “Les Sylphides” (an orchestration by Alexander Glazunov of piano music by Chopin, 1907-9) which opened the concert along with Carl Maria von Weber’s “Les Spectre de la Rose” (an 1841 Berlioz orchestration of Weber’s 1819 piano piece, “Invitation to the Dance”) and Alexander Borodin’s “Polovtsian Dances” from his opera “Prince Igor” (1887-1890) which were programmed to follow it. Combine these (familiar to audiences) conservative works with the Rite’s original choreography by Vaclav Nijinsky and the subject of pagan ritual that form the scenario played before an audience consisting of elite concert goers seeking a familiar easy experience along with a burgeoning group of bohemian leaning audience members (who loved the Rite’s loud, subversive nature of both music and staging) and you have a formula for conflict. Speculation is that Stravinsky and/or his producers planned this event to create a contrast for his new modernist work but more likely it was a largely a product of its time and of human nature.

Fifty two years later, Hans Werner Henze appears to have had nothing in mind (at least initially) other than the premiere of his new work, “Das Floß der Medusa” (The Raft of the Medusa) on December 9, 1968 in Hamburg’s “Planten und Blomen” Hall. The recording which was later released on DGG LPs had been done sans audience on the previous days, December 4-8th, and preparations were being made for that night’s world premiere performance before an audience.

An article would later run in the German magazine Der Spiegel describing the event. I present the text of that article in my own translation:

Der Spiegel, December 12, 1968

“What is necessary”, says Hans Werner Henze, 42, “are not museums, opera houses and world premieres … What is necessary is the creation of mankind’s greatest work of art: the world revolution.”

Last Monday, Henze’s “Das Floss der Medusa,” an “Oratorio volgare e militare, in due parti” commissioned by the NDR, was to be premiered in Hamburg — instead, there was a revolution in the hall.

The 1060 seats in Hall B by Planten un Blomen were fully occupied, the NDR Symphony Orchestra was already tuning the instruments, on the podium were ready: Edda Moser (soprano), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone) and Charles Regnier (speaker) , the North German Radio Choir, the RIAS Chamber Choir and the St. Nikolai Boys’ Choir. The game could begin, and it began — a duo volgare e militare between NDR and SDS.

Because the Berlin SDS friends under Gaston Salvatore, summoned by Henze, didn’t want to do without this premiere of the APO (Außerparlamentarische Opposition) man Henze any more than the socialist students of the Hamburg Music Academy — albeit for different reasons: The Hamburgers cared about Henze’s music as reactionary to expose the Berliners, to bring their Hamburg colleagues to reason and to divert attention to the middle-class audience. Action against Henze, argued the Berlin “Project Group Culture and Revolution,” would only benefit the bourgeois enemy.

Che Guevara (1928-1967)

After three days of palaver, the Hamburg wing was lame. For example, the intention to ask the composer to explain the structures of his music when he played Medusa was abandoned, as was the plan to intervene in the choral singing, and the attempt to expose Henze’s listeners to Henze as culinary Henze consumers.

On Monday evening, Berliners and Hamburgers moved in socialist harmony to Planten un Blomen, the premiere location that Henze claims to have confused with Blohm & Voss. At least that’s how the Berlin SDS had informed the Hamburg SDS.

NDR program director Franz Reinholz, to whom Henze owes the “Medusa” commission, knows otherwise: “Henze,” Reinholz assures, “inspected the hall himself beforehand. He was also informed about the audience.” shipyard workers, it was, the socialist students recognized once again, an audience of “rich bastards.”

Shortly before 8 p.m. the squad was ready for action in Hall B. And before the conductor Henze stepped out of the artist’s room, Che was already in the hall: the agitators had pinned a Che Guevara portrait to the desk; it was intended to remind us of what had been concealed in the program with Henze’s approval: the oratorio is dedicated to the Latin American freedom fighter.

NDR program director Franz Reinholz didn’t appreciate this memento at all – he tore down the poster. He felt that politics and art did not go together.

The students didn’t think so. They put up a new poster and hoisted the red flag, and a team of anarchists, who had come with duck decoys and other hunting instruments, hung a black one next to it. Then the radio hit, the police joined in, the RIAS Chamber Choir began, but not in unison. “Lower the red flag,” demanded one singer, two singers left sobbing: “We are Berliners and have had enough of red flags.” to whose honor they should sing, left the stage and never came back.

The composer, however, was determined to prove his revolutionary sentiment to his comrades for the first time by saying, “The red flag,” said Henze, “it stays.”

While NDR director Gerhard Schröder (SPD), long since in the safe broadcasting van, stopped the live tumult at 8:19 p.m. and radioed his listeners a recording of the dress rehearsal, his deputy, Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord (CDU), countered in the hall the resistance of the demonstrators banners and placards; A little later, a squad of 25 police officers, visors on combat helmets, broke into the hall. “Nazis!” “Fascists!” shouted the audience. One artist yelled enthusiastically, “Down with the Reds!”

“The police,” Hammerstein explained, “were ready at the request of the NDR, which considered demonstrations possible and had to ensure the safety of its employees, the audience and valuable instruments.”

Ernst Schnabel, librettist

NDR employee Ernst Schnabel, librettist of “Medusa”, felt the precautions thoroughly. Several police officers threw him through a glass door, expedited him with six other delinquents to police headquarters, took his fingerprints, and locked him in cell 7 until midnight. Schnabel to Hammerstein-Equord: “We don’t have breakfast together anymore.”

Meanwhile, Hammerstein kept order in Planten un Blomen. When Henze informed the audience: “The intervention of the police prevented the discussion,” Hammerstein snatched the microphone from his hand. The hands in the stalls responded with rhythmic Ho Chi Minh clapping, and Henze clapped along — three times. Then he disappeared through a back door.

At that time the “raft of the Medusa” was already well advanced in the ether waves — on the usual counter-revolutionary course.

“Wherever”, the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” judged, “the choirs sang, there was the old, floating, iridescent Henze sound, which doesn’t hurt anyone and never becomes distinctive. The orchestra … strangely often reminded of Richard Strauss.”

The music critic Heinrich von Lüttwitz saw “Medusa” as a “tragi-comic absurdity” full of “romantic colours”, with “sometimes clumsy, sometimes fussy recitatives and melodramas”.

Henze biographer Klaus Geitel saw the “raft” in the “ocean of an emotional but overly extended, lyrically colored monotony”.

It may be that, as Henze puts it, this evening “brought him a little further” politically. But the Henze fans in the APO have failed — that’s how the currently most thoroughly analyzing music theorist Heinz-Klaus Metzger, who identifies with the “anti-authoritarian wing of the SDS,” puts it.

‘The APO, Metzger predicts, ‘will only have created meaningful conditions when German musicians no longer refuse to perform under a red or even a black flag, but instead perform a work by Henze. And for strictly musical reasons. Unfortunately, not even Tucholsky’s bon mot applies to this composer: “Because of bad weather, the German revolution took place in music.”

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So it went in 1968. The Oratorio performance was cancelled and the world premiere had to wait until January 29, 1971 when it was performed in Vienna by the ORF Orchestra conducted by Miltiades Carides. The recording of the first performance was achieved prior to the performance with the audience. That recording was released in 1969.

Many more performances followed but one of those performances, in 2001, was attended by a former chorister, Henning Sidow. He was twelve years old at that 1968 non-concert. And the following article on his experiences of that attempted performance was published in Der Spiegel in 2013.

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Blaze at the choral-concert. How the “Raft of the Medusa” went down.

He was anxiously awaiting the big performance: when he was twelve, Henning Sidow was supposed to perform on stage with the NDR boys’ choir in Hamburg. And indeed, the live performance of the oratorio was exciting – but for completely unexpected reasons.

The boys’ choir was founded in 1960 as the choir of the North German Radio and has been connected to the main church of St. Nikolai since 1967.

“As a twelve-year-old in 1968, I had only vague ideas about the political and social turmoil of the time. But on December 9th, as a member of the St. Nikolai boys’ choir, they became tangible experiences for me as a result of the unsuccessful premiere of the oratorio “Das Raft der Medusa” by composer Hans Werner Henze in Hall B in Hamburg’s Planten un Blomen Park.

I had been in the boys’ choir for four years, which belonged to the NDR until 1967 and was then taken over by the St. Nikolai parish in Hamburg. We “experienced” boys felt quite up to the task of taking part in Henze’s musically demanding oratorio and also appearing in a world premiere that was to be broadcast live on the radio.

The play tells the tragic story of the French frigate “Medusa”, which ran aground as the only ship in a convoy on the way to Senegal in 1816. Since there were not enough lifeboats for the 400 people on board, the crew built a raft that could accommodate around 150 men, women and children and which was to be pulled ashore by the boats. But the officers fled in the boats, leaving the people on the raft to fend for themselves. On the day of the accidental rescue 13 days later, there were only 15 survivors. The others fell victim to starvation, lack of water or cannibalism.”

Hide and seek in the empty hall

“Our boys’ choir was supposed to portray the children on the raft – first as living, then as dead. A difficult piece with a socially critical background, this “Raft of the Medusa”, we knew that. It meant not only intensive rehearsals, but also many afternoons and evenings of rehearsals. What we didn’t know was that the premiere was never to take place.

The location of the event and the preparations fascinated me. The hall seemed huge to me as a child. Large platforms were set up here for the performance, with countless instruments on them. There were people everywhere: stagehands, technicians, orchestra musicians, choristers and soloists – it was just teeming. Now we guys were added.

We had a lot of waiting time and were able to explore everything. So we crawled under the stage construction, played hide and seek, crawled under the platforms and shimmied over wooden struts until we got too many splinters in our fingers. And right next door there was another hall, several stories high – a gigantic glass box. There was no event taking place at the time, so the hall was yawning and unlit. We strolled through them, hearts in our pants because of the darkness and the eerie acoustics of the room.”

Protest in the concert hall

“Then things got serious, rehearsals began. In my memory, Hans Werner Henze was a small man who was already a bit bald at the time, but incredibly energetic. He radiated a mixture of warmth, ingenious artistry and normality. We boys found him sympathetic, but he had no airs and graces and met everyone completely naturally, friendly and patiently. He treated us as if we were adults, which I found very beneficial. When I was a child, I was used to other well-known personalities whom we had met here and there through our performances to be treated and professionally not taken very seriously.

Henze was excellent at conveying his music to the participants, it was lively, colorful and exciting like the story itself. The dramatic story and the historical background that he and the music told us captivated me even then. Conducting, however, was not his thing, I remember his somewhat awkward gestures. But that’s not so important in a professional ensemble, as long as the right impulses and cues come. In any case, we children liked and admired him and his music.

On December 9, 1968, as far as I can remember, the hall was filled to the last seat with an audience. There was talk of more than 1000 guests. Henze was already at the desk. But just before it started, there was a small crowd in front of the stage. A few protesting students stood directly in front of the podium and hung red flags to the left and right of Henze’s desk. It was not clear whether the master just put up with this or whether it had been agreed with him, as was later speculated. In any case, he didn’t seem to put up much resistance to the activities.”

The situation is escalating

“Shortly thereafter, the audience and the choir became restless. Because one of the choirs, the RIAS Chamber Choir, came from Berlin, the enclosed city. Red flags were literally a red rag for many who lived there. At first I – and I’m sure my fellow boys too – didn’t understand much of what was happening down there. But when voices from the Berlin choir grew louder and louder, refusing to sing under “the red flag”, I understood what it was all about. The adults feared that they and the music would be exploited by demonstrating communist students. In addition, a large portrait of Ché Guevara has now been erected, to which the work is dedicated.

Henze’s efforts to get the performance started were nipped in the bud by the boycott of the Berlin singers. The removal of the communist symbols was demanded louder and louder from the podium, before they would refuse to sing a single note. In the meantime it was getting more and more restless in the auditorium and in front of the stage there were small scuffles between the demonstrators and some spectators who got involved. Negotiations between the choir and the composer were taking place behind the scenes as to the conditions under which the performance could still take place.

We boys watched the whole thing with suspense, since the circumstances had now reversed: the auditorium had become the stage, and we on the podium had a box view of this live cultural scandal. Music was out of the question. In the back of the hall, the doors flew open and police officers in full riot gear marched in. Like a horde of ants, they came down the aisles from several sides to the podium. I don’t remember how many there were, maybe a hundred. They looked particularly martial with their helmets with full visors and the shields they – to protect against what actually: a few students, musicians and false notes? – carried in front of them.”

A dark chapter

“Henze had meanwhile disappeared unnoticed and downstairs young people were having their arms twisted behind their backs in order to be taken away. Among them was Ernst Schnabel, who wrote the text of the play. He was later charged with “resisting the authority of the state”. On the other hand, part of the audience did not like the actions of the police and protested, which did not prevent the state authorities from their plan to convict the “perpetrators” in flagrante delicto.

I can’t remember exactly how long the commotion lasted. In any case, it never came to a performance, and at some point we left the stage disappointed. It was incomprehensible to us children why a few red flags and the likeness of a bearded South American led to such an uproar. For us it was about art, about music. We felt cheated of our work.

The newspapers reported extensively on this event in the following days. Some tabloids insisted on turning it into a real political scandal. To this day it is unclear to me what the state authorities were thinking when they made this appearance. That’s for sure

That she was thin-skinned in those times and liked to overreact on such occasions. The fear that the ideology that prevailed behind the Iron Curtain could also spread to the West was too great.

For Hans Werner Henze, who died in 2012, this scandal is said to have been a dark chapter in his artistic career. Later, it is said, he did not want to be reminded of it.

My own memories of that evening only surfaced again years later: at the much delayed premiere in June 2001 in Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle. After 33 years I experienced “The Raft of the Medusa” a second time. The fact that I was still able to silently speak and sing along to the lyrics and the music showed how much the piece and the story it was based on had impressed me at the time. None of it was lost. I left the performance deeply touched.”

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So, here we are some 46 years after the riotous non-premiere of Henze’s fine oratorio/requiem, 111 years since the famed “riots at the Rite”. The Stravinsky has since firmly taken its place in the commonly performed orchestral and ballet repertory. The Henze work, never laying any claim to the seminal and visionary compositional methods that characterize Stravinsky’s landmark work, continues to receive performances and recordings having established itself as a substantial work, and himself as a significant composer with a rich and varied career.

NB: All translations are my own efforts. Historical photos are included under fair use terms.

Opus 961, Violist Noémie Chemali’s Auspicious Debut: New Music Activism From Emerging Lebanese Composers

Apr16

There are many ways to debut on the world stage and there are many ways to represent political activism. Violist Noémie Chemali has chosen, as her important first impression in her recorded debut, a selection of music from young composers whose heritage includes political oppression. The albums profits are promised to MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders. These works are not directly political, rather they are a carefully curated selection of new works produced by composers who, in varying degrees, have experiences of dealing with or having friends and family whose lives are negatively impacted by political conflicts and oppression. This is gorgeous music by emerging talents.

The good news is that these wonderfully creative artists persevere in creating great art and it is the celebration of that creative drive that lies at the heart of this fine release. While the pieces here variously reference tunings, rhythms, and melodies representative of their individual ethnic heritages, they are not confrontational. Rather the music here stands as evidence of the beauty of artistic invention which stands defiantly in contrast to the cruelty of oppression and warfare. That gentle activism casts a kinder and gentler image of people more commonly represented in the media as terrorists (actually a numerical minority) in a culture with ancient roots and a powerful artistic soul (the better descriptor of the actual majority).

Links to the composers’ web sites can be accessed by clicking the names of said composers.

The album’s contents are as follows:

Wajdi Abou Diab (1991- )

1. “The Moraba’ Dance” (2020)

This, the composer’s Opus 13C, is based on an Arabic rhythm called “Al Mouraba”. It is for solo viola and is cast in the unusual meter of 13/4, using an Arabic scale. The music imitates traditional music which ostensibly enticed horses to dance in times past.

Sami Seif (1998- )

2. “La’ib an-nard / The Dice Player” (2019)

This musical impression of a poem of the same name by Mahmoud Darwish. It is, in the composer’s description, a meditation on the random elements that affect our lives. It is scored for viola, cello, and double bass.

Layale Chaker (1990- )

3. Cadenza from “The Brown Texts”; movement one (2017-2020)

4. Cadenza from “The Brown Texts”;movement two

The term “cadenza” derives from the word “cadence” and it generally refers to the improvisations (by the soloist) in a concerto. The notion of a solo cadenza does not appear, as far as this listener’s encounters, until the mid to late twentieth century. Penderecki’s Cadenza for Viola is the only example that immediately comes to mind. Though that work is sometimes performed separate from the viola concerto from which it derives, its origin is in the classical/romantic tradition of a virtuoso work that displays the skills of the soloist. As with the previous work, this one is a musical rendition of originally poetic ideas, those of the late Nadia Tueni. And, unlike any other cadenza I’ve known, it is cast in two separate movements. The piece is a fine showcase for Ms. Chemali’s technical and interpretive skills.

Noemie Chemali:

5. “Kadishat” (2021)

Delightfully, Ms. Chemali has chosen to include one of her own compositions. She describes this as a set of variations on the ancient Aramaic Trisagion “Qadishat aloho”, a tune which has been firmly ensconced in the composer/performer’s consciousness from having heard it since her childhood. One could characterize it as one of the greatest hits of the Eastern Orthodox Church and one of its most deeply felt pieces. Chemali casts this work for violin, viola, and cello. This writer is reminded of another fine example of the incorporation of sacred hymns into the classical music tradition, that of Carolyn Shaw’s fine “In Manus Tuas” which mines that composer’s memory of hearing a sacred chant. Both works reflect the composer’s internal process of hearing and attempt to convey that spiritual experience to the listener.

Mary Kouyoumdjian (1983- ):

6. “The Revolt of the Stars” (2018/2020)

This piece, another musical expression of a literary work, namely, the Armenian fable that provides the title for this work which is cast for cello, voice, and electronics. It is presented here in a transcription for viola by the soloist. The fable deals with the strength in numbers that rise up against those in positions of power. It is a delightful work with dark implications.

Saad Haddad (1992- ):

7. “Dohree” (movements 1&2)

8. “Dohree” (movement 3)

This work, scored for viola, harp, and flute is cleverly written in three movements which, in turn, each give a solo to each of the musicians who are, in turn, accompanied by the others in the group. “Dohree” is an Arabic word which translates as “my turn”.

Six pieces over eight tracks with chamber groups ranging from solo viola to viola with electronics (in the Kouyoumdjian work) and small chamber groupings in the others. All in all a fine and engaging selection of music that bear witness to the beauty and creativity of people living with oppression. This music reflects the human experience that can get erased by merely identifying ethnicity.

In addition to Ms. Chemali this recording includes the following musicians: Shaleah Feinstein, violin; Raffi Boden, violoncello; Kebra-Seyoun Charles, double bass; Lauren Scanio, flute; Deanna Cirielli, harp. They really do honor to the spirit of this music and this album is beautifully recorded as well.

Kouyoumdjian was the only composer known to this reviewer prior to hearing this album but she is apparently in very good company here and listeners would do well to make note of these rising stars. We will doubtless hear from them again. Here’s hoping.

Noemi Chemali (from the Orchestra of St. Luke’s web page)

This is the artist’s biography as it appears on her website (linked above):

French-Lebanese-American violist Noémie Chemali received her Bachelor’s degree from McGill University’s Schulich School of Music, her Artist Diploma from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University, and her Master’s Degree from The Juilliard School. Her principal teachers include Becca Albers, Hsin-Yun Huang, and Carol Rodland.

During her time at Juilliard, she made her Carnegie Weill Hall solo debut in the UN Chamber Music Society’s Arabic Language Day concert and collaborated with dancers of the New York City Ballet. During her time at the McDuffie Center for Strings, she performed alongside faculty members of the Cavani and Ehnes String Quartets. In 2019, she also performed in “A Night of Georgia Music,” a tour the American South with violinist Robert McDuffie, guitarist Mike Mills of the band R.E.M., and pianist Chuck Leavell of the Allman Brothers Band/Rolling Stones. Some performance highlights from McGill include playing a concert with clarinetist David Krakauer in a program of Klezmer music, being selected to perform a chamber work by John Rea in a concert presented by the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ) alongside Schulich faculty and students, and participating in the 2018 Musical Chairs Chamber Music Festival, where she collaborated with students from the Mozarteum (Austria) and the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (Singapore).

Noemie has spent her summers at music festivals such as The Music Academy of the West, Sarasota Music Festival, Orford Musique, The Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance (LAMP), Scotia Festival of Music, Manhattan in the Mountains, and Green Mountain music festivals. While Ms. Chemali was a fellow at the Music Academy of the West, she played under the baton of esteemed conductors Larry Rachleff, Stéphane Denève, Gustavo Dudamel, and James Conlon. While at Sarasota Music Festival, she served as principal violist of the festival orchestra under the baton of Jeffrey Kahane and performed in a faculty concert as a member of a quintet with bassoonist Frank Morelli. She has, throughout the years, participated in various masterclasses with artists such as Joseph Silverstein, Ida Kavafian, Cynthia Phelps, Karen Dreyfus, Richard O’Neill, James Dunham, Jutta Puchhammer and the Pacifica String Quartet.

Passionate about diversifying musical audiences, she co-founded the Hildegard Project, which aims to bring music written by women composers to women’s shelters in the greater Montreal area and was invited to speak about her work at the Classical Evolution/Revolution Conference in Santa Barbara, CA. Most recently, she founded Music@Daybreak, an interdisciplinary performance and research project which features performances at homeless shelters in collaboration with the Sociology department at Mercer University.

Noémie is the recipient of a Juilliard Career Grant, George J. Jakob Global Enrichment Grant, Gluck Community Engagement Fellowship, Juilliard Entrepreneurship Grant, Barenboim-Said Foundation (USA) Grant, and a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Creative Engagement Grant. In January 2024, she will be releasing Opus 961, her debut album of music written by contemporary Lebanese composers.

Her website includes some YouTube videos reflecting the artist’s fascinating choices of repertory. Along with fervent activism, she demonstrates a pretty unique take on what she chooses to play. Her biography evidences an eclectic group of collaborators and influences that will likely characterize her career.

This is quite an impressive first impression from an artist who greets us at the beginnings of what this reviewer believes will be a long and interesting career representing a new generation of musicians with a unique and (hopefully more effective) approach to the ills of our age. Great art inspires, if not action, at least hope. And we desperately need hope. Thanks for that Ms. Chemali.

Homage by Heresies, Maya Beiser’s Insightful Homage to the Urtext of Minimalism, Terry Riley’s “In C”

Apr7

It is the duty of performers to infuse their performance with their nuances of interpretive skills until they (and, hopefully, composer and audience) are satisfied that they are doing justice to the music. When the music at hand challenges established norms and expectations that task becomes quite large. One need only look at the plethora of performances of Terry Riley’s seminal “In C” to realize that the nature and structure of this piece invites, by design as it were, experimentation with instrumentation and experimentation with the music itself which consists of 51 short notated cells.

The original release in 1968 has been followed by at least 40 recordings reflecting choices made related to tempo, instrumentation, etc. In an earlier review of the “In C” version by Brooklyn Raga Massive, I addressed the inherently heretical nature of this music in light of the etymology of the term “heresy” (derived from “hairesis”, the Greek word for decision or choice). And this music demands intelligent choices.

This 1964 composition has been definitively analyzed in Robert Carl’s fine volume, “Terry Riley’s in C” so interested readers should seek out this book for definitive analytical detail. My main point here is that the musics elicits the making of choices much more so than the traditional western classical notated score. And the present release says nearly as much about the performer/producer, as it does about the composer. It is Maya Beiser’s expertise on her instrument, certainly. It is her experience performing at the center of the new music performance scene to have a definitive grasp of the pluralities that are the nature of new music. And, finally, it is her daring to make choices that threaten to make her not merely a performer but virtually a co-composer. All that with managing to flatter the composer and engage adventurous listeners. She did something similar in her Philip Glass album. She even did it with her recording of the Bach cello suites. Now that’s heresy at its best.

There can never be a definitive recording of this work. That is a huge part of this music’s charms as well as its importance as a challenge to the very nature of western classical music. The music itself is heretical.

Not all listeners may appreciate this significantly new, innovative, and very personal performance but the composer shared an appreciative blurb on the album’s back cover and the reviews this writer has seen have been unanimously positive.

Beiser’s use of harmonics and, indeed, quite a few of her instrument’s extended capabilities (pizzicati, harmonics, etc) all conspire to her revisioning of this music. On top of that she even uses her own voice and employs two percussionists to round out her orchestration of the work.

The percussion accentuates the ritual nature of the music. The harmonics and multiphonics place this version in the spectral realm of new music and even suggested to this listener the Phil Spector “wall of sound”, another hallmark of some ritual musics.

It is an album that invites repeated hearings to grasp the subtleties and insights of this interpretation. Beiser here, even at her most transgressive, is not seeking to supplant other interpretations, rather she simply shows the power of this landmark work to inspire another generation of talented performers (and enlightened listeners, for that matter) to experience the enduring cultural significance of this masterpiece. Brava, Maya! And sincere thanks, Terry.

It’s a “Gotta Have” recording.

Joseph Luloff: New Stories for Saxophone and Piano

Oct24

Joseph Lulloff (1960- ) is an internationally known artist with at least 10 CDs currently available. He is on the woodwind faculty of Michigan State University. Lulloff reportedly started playing saxophone in part to deal with asthma (a useful adjunct to pharmaceutical treatment) and has made quite a career since. Lulloff is a new name to this writer but, after hearing this latest release, a name that will trigger alerts on my listening radar. He, like most saxophone soloists working today, is equally comfortable and competent in both jazz and classical idioms for his instrument.

The present release is a collection of works, all written for the Joseph Lulloff. Four works are presented by four composers, two of which (Dorothy Chang and David Biedenbender) are new names to this listener. Overall this is one exciting release with deeply substantive music which makes a case that tonality and quasi romantic writing are not dead, just evolving.

Pianist Yu-Liien The is a fellow faculty at Michigan State and one who is clearly a sympathetic collaborator. The Netherlands born pianist has a wide range of international performances to her credit and is a major asset in the interpretation of the works on this CD. Their friendly collaboration is reflected well in the album cover photo by Nick Zoulek.

The recording itself is lucidly captured by producer/engineer Sergei Kvitko. Subtlties of both the saxophone and the piano come across clearly and this album is rife with subtle but very effective inflections of tone. It is a warm listening experience.

Dorothy Chang contributes the work from which the album derives its title. New Stories (2013) is a four movement work that is major opus, practically a concerto in all but name. At ca. 20 minutes total duration it reveals several moods and many challenges for the performer. This American composer writes in the useful liner notes that she attempts to utilize Chinese elements in her composition. These are not immediately apparent to this listener’s ears but what is apparent is the composer’s ability to create a very compelling listening experience.

The four movements include: “Floating Worlds”, an ethereal melodic/impressionistic movement which demonstrate the soloist’s fine and nuanced breath control and ability to integrate microtonal and multiphonic inflections in this relaxing movement punctuated with mildly dissonant piano chords. It is followed by “Tall Tale”, a scherzo-like movement which demands intricate interplay between the saxophone and the piano. The third movement, “Reflection”, is a somber solo for the saxophone, almost a cadenza. It is a lyrical slow movement that is relaxing for the listener but a challenge for the soloist, one that Lulloff handles effortlessly. The last movement, titled “Folksong” is a playful, busy movement that also incorporates a solo cadenza-like passage. It is a challenging interplay between saxophone and piano with rhythmic intricacies that sound difficult to execute. All in all a large and substantial work that almost begs to be orchestrated. But it stands clearly on its own very satisfyingly as a chamber work.

David Biedenbender is a composer new to these ears. His “Detroit Steel” is a solo saxophone work, a paean of sorts to the workers of the steel industry. This is the shortest work on the album but Biedenberger manages to create a cohesive soliloquy that sustains attention for the entirety of its 6 minute duration. Doubtless there are references in the work that were not immediately obvious to this reviewer but, like its companions on this release, it is an appealing sonic document.

Stacy Garrop, whose work has received praise in several reviews on this blog, again does not disappoint in her three movement, “Wrath” (2019), another concerto like work which is, according to the composer’s liner notes, is a sort of reimagining of an earlier work, “Tantrum” (2000), also for saxophone and piano. Written for Mr. Lulloff, Wrath is perhaps a representation of the composer’s evolving style and maturity.

The work is is three movements (Menace, Shock, and Amok). The sinister first movement gives way to the second, “Shock” which is more like a post shock experience (PTSD perhaps) seemingly reflecting some resolution of said shock presumably from the encounters in that sinister first movement. The finale, “Amok” picks up in a way from the menace of the first movement in a sort of return to that first movement in a cohesive transformation of that makes for a very satisfying finale. Garrop’s work seems to these ears to have a cinematic dimension and that is also the case here.

The album concludes with a large work by Carter Pann, an American composer whose star is steadily rising. The work, “Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano” (2016) is a four movement work which, despite its ordinary sounding title, is quite a fascinating piece. It shares a similar sound world to that of Paul Creston and mid 20th century neoromantics. The four movements (the second broken into three separate songs without words) are:

Black Cat, apparently a set of variations which give the saxophone time to shine.
Songs Without Words, three separate songs ranging from the melodic, romantic “Reverie” to the “Soaring”, a faster piece, and “Consolation”, a slow contemplative piece.
Cuppa Joe, fast virtuosic scale work with manic piano accompaniment, sort of a scherzo.
Epilogue Lacrimosa (In memoriam Joel Hastings), a somber homage to the Canadian pianist who championed Pann’s work.

This is a very exciting release by two fine musicians whom listeners will want to keep on their radar. This album is a significant contribution to the chamber literature for saxophone and a pretty wild listening experience.

Fandango! Diversity Within Identities

Oct10

The primary importance of this new release is, of course, the presentation of these two major works but it also an exposition of the diversity (or do you prefer, “heterogeneity”?) that can become obscured by well intended terms like, “Latino” and “Hispanic”, or even conductor Gustavo Dudamel’s “Pan American”. All are well intended but racial, nationalist, and other categories are insufficient on their own in recognizing the rich diversity inherent in their cultures. Here we go, just in time for Latin History Month.

The concise liner notes tell us that even the album’s title, “Fandango” has multiple meanings depending on cultural contexts. The fact is that no single style or genre can be said to be representative of the marvelous diversity that exists within their intended scope which attempts to represent practically the whole of the western hemisphere as is the case with this release. So, while Fandango is certainly about the musical works presented, it also touches on the issue of diversity by the choice of two major works separated chronologically by some 80 years and representing composers from Argentina on the one hand, and Mexico on the other. Two different cultures that share a language in both words and , to some extent, music.

The centerpiece of this album is, of courses, the concerto that Maestra Akiko-Meyers commissioned from Mexican composer Arturo Márquez Navarro (1950- ). I’m sad to say that I am only now learning of this composer but delighted in his mastery of the orchestra and the grand romantic gestures of a past era along with an acute and personal appreciation of the folk idioms of his culture. At first I was skeptical of a “mariachi” inspired concerto because such attempts, even the most sincere, don’t always seem to work. Well, that is certainly not the case here. This is a strong contender for regular inclusion in the current canon of widely performed violin concertos. This one is a masterpiece which poses challenges to the soloist (which give her a chance to show her virtuosity) and surround it with rich, subtly, ultimately beautiful orchestral textures that support the soloist but which demand much of the orchestra and its conductor as well.

The concerto (written in 2020) is in the traditional three movements. The first, entitled “Folia Tropical” (tropical leaves) embraces the spirit of late romantic concerti like those of Bruch and Brahms. It is an extended movement that introduces and develops many moods and themes. It is a big symphonic movement worthy of a symphony and it gives the soloist much to do and upon which to demonstrate her musical and interpretive skills all the while with a very busy orchestra accompanying her.

The second movement, “Plegaria” (prayer) is a hugely substantive chaconne, the baroque contrapuntal variation form with a repeating bass line and thematic variations over the harmonic structures supported by those notes.. At least that is my listener’s understanding. But what is not necessary to “understand” technically is the emotional impact of this movement. This is an amazing use of the form. The soloist moves into different roles, sometimes very much upstage, sometimes an adjunct to the orchestra, sometimes not there at all. There is a slow, meditative beauty in this movement which is also characteristic of the romantic idiom in which this is written.

The third movement, “Fandanguito” (little Fandango) is a somewhat lighter and very energetic finale one might expect in a movement following the previous deeply emotional ones. And the composer does not disappoint. He writes a joyous, energetic finale which nonetheless stands up as substantially as its predecessors.

The composer Arturo Marquez with Maestro Dudamel and Anne Akiko-Meyers leaving the stage after a successful performance.

The joy, to this listener, is to hear a master composer in collaboration with a fine soloist both technically and interpretively. The composer has integrated his experiences and study of his own cultural folk musics and infuses the spirit of the music into his grand romantic idiom. That is, the concerto does not, for the most part use direct quotation from folk sources but uses structural elements in his composition. Maestra Akiko Meyers discharges her soloist duties with both startling facility and a deep understanding of the music and the composer’s intent.

Gustavo Dudamel is a joyfully rising star who brings his cultural proclivities and his own lens on western orchestral music. He is an exciting and incisive conductor. I don’t know the extent of Dudamel’s study of Latin folk musics but he really gets this work and brings out the composer’s subtleties in this gorgeous and exciting concerto.

The “B side” as they used to be called is no mere filler, it is the entirety of the Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983) ballet, “Estancia” Op. 8 (1941). Here, 15 separate movements are used in a five scene scenario. The work, usually heard in its four movement suite format and, even more frequently, just the spectacular finale, the Malambo.

In addition to its large orchestra, the ballet calls for a singer/speaker soloist who acts as both narrator and as soloist with orchestra. In this performance the challenge is admirably met by baritone GUSTAVO CASTILLO, another shining light cultivated by El Sistema. He performs well in both his baritone vocal duties and his narrator task in which he speaks Spanish in an elegant and, I’d say, almost Shakespearean grasp of the beauty of the language. The man understands drama as well as music.

This ballet is clearly a masterpiece. It reminds this listener of Prokofiev if he was born in Argentina. Nothing derivative here though. This is an intensely entertaining work, as substantial as Romeo and Juliet, similarly constructed in relatively brief musical segments designed to accompany a dance whose scenario is the story of the “gaucho” or cowboy that lived and worked hard lives, lives that were romanticized into a poem by Argentinian poet José Hernández (1834-1886). (click on the word “poem” for a link to an English translation of the poem).

All that to say that this is a truly enjoyable and important release. A valuable addition to the discography of Latin classical music.

Dudamel and his LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.

Andrew Rathbun’s “The Speed of Time”

Oct2

I rarely write about jazz, mostly because it is a genre with which I am less familiar. I confess to a lack of knowledge (though I’m working on it) of jazz, especially of the last twenty years or so. And as a result I have some reluctance to write about jazz but when I first listened to this disc I found that the music spoke to this listener’s ears immediately and directly. My desire to “understand” the music vanished in the face of this seriously entertaining and eminently listenable release.

All the music was written by Andrew Rathbun who has 18 previously released albums listed on his nicely designed website. This album seems to draw in part on bebop (think John Coltrane et al) and the band consisting of Rathbun on tenor and soprano saxophone (with a little help from multitracking), Gary Versace on piano, John Hebert on bass, and Tom Rainer on drums. though the saxophone clearly holds the lead here, Rathbun includes ample solo opportunities for each of the musicians. And they play with the coordination only accomplished by hours of practice and, I’m guessing, some personal musical familiarity.Kudos to all.

All 8 tracks succeed in their ability to engage the listener and they range from Post Bebop to a pleasant lounge jazz feel. There are many moods here nicely sequenced for a great listening experience. Though released on the Danish label Steeplechase, Rathbun is a Toronto native with a degree in performance from the New England Conservatory and a Doctorate in Jazz Studies from the Manhattan School of Music. He now teaches at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, a North American (to coin a term).

This is a highly entertaining release and has sent this listener to the composer’s website to begin to hear some of his other work which apparently includes forays into classical realms as well. This release now puts Rathbun on my listener’s radar which will alert me to pay attention to the next project from a truly fine musician/composer.

Samuel Coleridge Taylor, A Defining Survey of His Orchestral and Chamber Music

Aug29

Chineke Records (in partnership with DECCA)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge begat Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who begat Coleridge Taylor Perkinson… Wait, that’s not right. But these three men, listed in chronological order, became intertwined, much as they were admired, by their names. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1792-1834) is the great (white) British poet. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), named in honor of that poet (and the subject of this review) was a much lauded, though subsequently neglected British composer, as it happens a black British composer. Taylor Coleridge Perkinson (1932-2004), a much lauded and subsequently neglected black American composer named in honor of those predecessors. Stick with me, this comes together (for the purposes of this review) with the name of the orchestra on this recording, “Chineke”, a word taken from the African Igbo religion, meaning, “God”. Add an exclamation point and you get “Chineke!”, the orchestra which was founded in 2015 by the double bass player, Chi-chi Nwanoku CBE, to provide career opportunities for Black and ethnically diverse classical musicians in the UK and Europe.

All that to introduce listeners to this landmark of the recording industry, fulfilling in part the mission of this fine orchestra. This two CD set provides an intelligent selection of the music of Samuel Taylor-Coleridge which is nothing short of revelatory. Knowledge (at least outside of Britain) of his music, up until this release pretty much limited to his fine choral work “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast” and perhaps a short orchestra movement. The late great Paul Freeman included an aria from that choral work and one movement (Danse Negre) from his African Suite in his defining set of recordings on Columbia/Sony, “Black Composers”. These brief pieces were the introduction for many people, this writer included, to this composer’s work.

Chineke! now presents a far more representative selection of this man’s work with a truly nice touch of alreleasing the first recording of music by Coleridge-Taylor’s daughter Gwendolyn Avril Coleridge-Taylor (1903-1998) who wrote under the pen name Peter Riley (it is hardly a secret that both black people and women suffer from lack of recognition in the world of classical music).

Coleridge-Taylor’s output was large, comprising some 82 pieces with opus numbers and unpublished works as well. That’s a lot of music from a man who died at age 37 from pneumonia. This two disc set does a very nice job of presenting music from all eras of his brief career. From the Opus 2 Nonet (1894) to the Opus 80 Violin Concerto (1912) this release provides a larger perspective on this artist (dubbed by white musicians in New York, in what today would be judged a pejorative appellation, “The Black Mahler”). My guess is that the same people who would speak condescendingly about Coleridge-Taylor were also not appreciative of that Jewish Austrian conductor/composer.

Though it appears that all these works have appeared previously in recordings (appropriately on mostly British labels) this collection does a great service in demonstrating the arc of his truncated life’s work. Only the Avril Coleridge-Taylor work, “Sussex Landscape” (1940), is a world premiere recording.

For the purposes of this review I will be discussing these works in chronological order rather than the order on the recordings. Even a short career demonstrably goes through changes over time, led by social, political, historical, and musical experiences. A photo (above) shows the order on the discs.

The Nonet Op. 2 (1894) for strings, winds, and piano was written by the 19 year old (still a student at the Royal College of Music). This unusual combination, nearly a chamber orchestra in dimension as is the grand, late romantic, Brahmsian dimension. His skill in orchestration is evident here and serves to clarify the musical lines in these four large movements. It is virtually a symphony with a virtuoso piano obbligato.

Here, emissaries of the nascent Harlem Renaissance came to England in the the form of a 1896 concert by the Fisk Jubilee Singers who presented a program of “Negro Spirituals” (Fisk is one of the so called “Historically Black Colleges and Universities” which were formed to provide educational opportunities for Black Americans who were barred from admittance to other colleges). The following year Coleridge-Taylor met the Black American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906), who had come to England on a literary tour. His parents were freed slaves in Kentucky. Both of these experiences had a profound effect on Coleridge-Taylor and his music. Coleridge-Taylor would attend the first Pan-African Conference in London in July 1900. There he would explore the ideas and philosophies of Pan-Africanism which emphasised the importance of a shared African heritage. The orchestral works “Ballade in A minor” Op. 33 and the “African Suite” Op. 35, (both 1898) reflect those influences.

The two movement Ballade is a grand romantic work with no particular program but one that demonstrates the composer’s amazing command of the orchestra. The African Suite, one of his more popular works, was directly influenced by the work of Dunbar (whose career, like Coleridge-Taylor’s, also ended prematurely).

The two movement “Romance” Op. 39 (1899) for violin and orchestra is a foreshadowing of the later Violin Concerto. It is a heavily late romantic work with a beautiful and substantial violin part.

His “Petite Suite” Op. 77 (1911) is among his most popular works and arguably served as a precursor to what would later be termed, “Light Music”. The second movement strikes deep into this writer’s memory as one of those pieces whose charm prompted me to find out what it was so I might hear it again. Very charming and immediately listener friendly music.

The first work on this set, The five movement, “Othello” Orchestral Suite Op. 79 was published in 1909 and first performed in 1911. It was conceived and written as an orchestral suite, not a suite of music drawn from another work and is complete as performed here. It is a stunning example of the composer’s skills with orchestration and with dramatic writing.

Now we come to the Op. 80 Violin Concerto of 1911-2 which is dedicated to American violinist Maud Powell, a staunch advocate for female musicians, black composers, and new music in general (an early model for the likes of Rachel Barton Pine). This work of high late romanticism echoes Brahms and Bruch in its Melodie’s, it’s harmonies, and the grand sweep of its gorgeously orchestrated three movements. It is easy to imagine this as a regular repertoire piece.

Last and most certainly not least is the world premiere recording by Coleridge-Taylor’s daughter, Gwendoline Avril Coleridge-Taylor (1903-1998), her “Sussex Landscape” Op. 27 (1940). This is just a taste of her 60+ compositions but it is compelling enough to prompt listeners (and hopefully progressive organizations such as “Chineke!”) to pursue more exploration of her oeuvre.

Chineke! Truly achieves their goal in producing this wonderful portrait of a composer whose work has, until very recently languished in relative obscurity. Even this writer, whose obsessive interest in the new and interesting, has been seriously transformed by this release. You really have to hear this release. My thanks and congratulations to everyone involved in this fine Chineke! release.

New Music Buff

Random perspectives from a largely self educated new music fan.

Category Archives: music

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Fandango! Diversity Within Identities

Andrew Rathbun’s “The Speed of Time”

Samuel Coleridge Taylor, A Defining Survey of His Orchestral and Chamber Music

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20. New Music Buff » Experimental Music

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