CHARM, PASSION, AND ACROBATICS / Navona Records / Review

CHARM, PASSION, 

AND ACROBATICS

MISHA GALAGANOV, Viola

JOHN OWINGS, Piano

Navona Records NV6434  

 

How should one title a disc of viola works by French composers who are not household names? The French Viola does not sound particularly inviting, and perhaps La Viola Française has a certain ring about it. But what about Charm, Passion and Acrobatics? A little cheesy, but truth be told, all the six works in this album have a high quotient of these qualities.

 

Take Charm, for example. The programme opens with the Nocturne (1905) by composer-conductor Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht (1880-1965), originally a work for cello. It is possessed with a rare lyrical beauty that never outlives its welcome. In fact, it ends all too soon, but the slightly longer works, Prélude et Saltarelle (1907), the latter a fast tarantella-like dance, and the more austere Impromptu (1922), reminiscent of chromatic late Fauré, provide more than adequate compensation.

 

Inghelbrecht, Kunc and Chausson,
French composers who deserve to be better-known.

The major discoveries here are works by Pierre Kunc (1865-1941), a contemporary of Debussy, whose hitherto sequestered (and hence never re-printed) scores were made recently available for general viewing and study. His Viola Sonata (1921) is a major work, in four movements which play for almost 35 minutes. Comparisons have been made with Cesar Franck’s famous Sonata in A major (1886), but it is closer in spirit to the masterly Sonata in G major (1892-93) of the tragically short-lived Guillaume Lekeu (1870-1894).

 

Passion is written all over the massive opening movement (Très modéré), its brooding particularly well captured by the viola’s dark and dusky tone. The brief second movement Intermède, also titled Schumann, is march-like, with an insistent quality redolent of the great German composer. The last two movements just exceed the opening movement in duration, beginning with an absolutely gorgeous slow movement (Très lent) followed by an ecstatically-charged finale (Assez animé) that radiates pure joy. Acrobatics? There’s lots of it too.

 

Rapsodie (1939), in three continuous movements, is Kunc’s last work. Despite its late date and inexorable rise of modernist movements, it retains all the tonal devices and virtuosic demands of the late Romantics. Charm, passion and acrobatics, all rolled into one. Violists all around the globe ought to be beating down the door to master these rare and precious gems.

 

Undoubtedly the best-known of the three Frenchmen was Ernest Chausson (1855-1899), whose Poème is one of the violin repertoire’s most celebrated works. His Piece (1897, interchangeable for viola, violin and cello) does not quite plumb the same depths, but makes for a satisfying lyrical end to this excellent recital.

 

Russian-American violist Misha Galaganov’s tonal lustre and committed advocacy of these works is touching, and is well supported by American pianist John Owings, no mere accompanist but a true partner in championship. This is an invaluable recording of viola works that deserve to be heard, and be afforded a permanent place in the violists’ repertory.

You can sample / purchase this recording at:

Charm, Passion, And Acrobatics – Navona Records

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL / YOKO HIROTA, Piano on Navona Records / Review

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL

MINIATURE PIANO PIECES

Yoko Hirota, Piano

Navona Records NV 6294

 

I will not be the first or last to declaim that atonal music is best heard in small doses. This is also the credo of Japanese-Canadian pianist Yoko Hirota’s Small Is Beautiful, a new edition of an album originally released on Phoenix Records in 2009. The sixteen works here (in 35 tracks) cover some twelve composers, seven of whom are Canadians. Hirota has developed a solid reputation as an authority on Schoenberg and contemporary Canadian piano music, thus continuing the sterling work of her compatriot, one Glenn Gould.

 

The album opens with Arnold Schoenberg’s Six Little Pieces Op.19 (1911), which together with his Three Piano Pieces Op.11 (not included here) represent the first atonal works for piano. These are aphoristic miniatures, variegated in spirit and inspiration, piqueing the ear for brief moments without overstaying their welcome. The harmonies in the sixth piece, written in memory of Mahler who died earlier in the year, are otherworldly. The Eight Piano Pieces Op.110 (1946) by Ernst Krenek, who was briefly married to Mahler’s surviving daughter Anna, are also rather accessible.

 

Yoko Hirota follows in the hallowed tradition
of the great Canadian pianist Glenn Gould.

Three further giants of 20^th century music follow. Gyorgy Ligeti’s Invention (1948) is Bach updated to modern times. Luciano Berio’s Erdenklavier (1969), Brin and Leaf (both 1990) are separate pieces from his Six Encores, which span 35 years of his creative output. These make an excellent and painless introduction to the great Italian. Elliott Carter’s 90+ (1994, written for Goffredo Petrassi’s 90^th birthday) is built upon 90 accented notes of different duration, restlessness being a recurring feature.

 

The second part is devoted to the Canadians, with works dating from 1951 to 2007, and the contrast is immediately palpable. The transition from Elliott Carter’s Retrouvailles (2000, written for Pierre Boulez’s 75^th birthday) to John Beckwith’s The Music Room (1951) is sharply delineated. Aggressive atonality gives way to some semblance of melody, with little or no obligation to completely avoid tonal centres. The longest work is Bruce Mather’s Fantasy (1964) at nearly 7 minutes, its atonality sounding more impressionistic than serialist, as is Brian Cherney’s Elegy for a Misty Afternoon (1976).

 

John Weinzweig’s Canon Stride (1986) is rhythmic and entertaining in the manner of the boogie woogie. Aris Carastathis’ Traces (1991) also explore rhythm patterns, the second of which hints at a fugato. Gary Kulesha’s Two Pieces (1994) are slightly more extended essays where atonality no longer sounds jarring, instead being almost easy to the ears. Robert Lemay’s 6 Ushebtis (2003) which return to the same spirit of Schoenberg’s miniatures which opened the disc. A neat case of symmetry, before closing with Lemay’s Tanz vor Angst... Hommage a Paul Klee (2006), a more than fitting bookend.

 

Like Beethoven’s Bagatelles or Schubert’s Moments Musicaux, these diminutive mini-masterpieces are well-crafted diversions which are an added dimension to the composers’ art. Hirota plays these with love and conviction, which make for compelling listening. 

To sample / purchase this recording:

Small is Beautiful – Navona Records

TEXTURES IN CLASSICS on Navona Records / Review

 

TEXTURES IN CLASSICS

SANG-HIE LEE, Piano

JOHN CORINA, Oboe

Navona Classics NV6448 / TT: 75’34”

This album by Korean-American pianist and academic Sang-Hie Lee, an artist who combines music with medical research, begs several questions. The recordings were undertaken in 1975 and 1977, but why wait till 2022 for their release? And what is an oboe sonata from the 1960s doing in a recital of classical and romantic piano repertoire? Besides Lee’s students, friends and relatives, for whom is this album targeted?  

 

For the recital’s first half, one finds an artist with something valid to say. Beethoven’s late Sonata No.30 in E major (Op.109) is occupied with a restless spirit, befitting the Romantic age, and her reading has both poetry and lyricism. Mozart’s early Sonata in B flat major (K.281) is much less persuasive, with intermittent rococo sensibilities peeking through stiff mechanical and charmless playing. Between the sonatas are two Debussy Preludes, The Girl with the Flaxen Hair and The Interrupted Serenade, which were pleasant enough.

 

Bizarrely inserted into the programme is the three-movement Sonata for Oboe and Piano (1965) by Rhineland German composer-organist Hermann Schroeder (1904-1984), whose claim to fame was having taught the avant-gardeist Karlheinz Stockhausen. The music is dissonant and chromatic, resembling Hindemith’s quirkily approachable modern idiom, but receives a sympathetic performance from Lee and the late American oboist John Corina (1928-2014). Worthy of a listen.

 

Then it is downhill all the way. The gnomes of Liszt’s concert etude Gnomenreigen dance with lead-filled boots in what was a dispiriting experience. Even worse has to be the most wretched and technically challenged performance of Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Handel (Op.24) ever committed to disc. This reading is one almighty struggle (for both performer and listener), with lapses, fumbles and wrong notes littered all through its course. When the memory is all too fallible, was not a printed score at hand to lend assistance? And has nobody involved in this project ever heard of editing? Warts and all, this was at least a honest traversal, and a honestly bad one at that. Why even bother? With poor and recessed recorded sound, here is a rare dud from Navona Records.

For more information on this album:

Textures In Classics – Navona Records

MOMENTS MUSICAUX by ANTOINETTE PERRY / Navona Records / Review

MOMENTS MUSICAUX

ANTOINETTE PERRY, Piano

Navona Records NV6442 / TT: 77’30”

 

This album was taken from a 2014 live performance by American pianist Antoinette Perry at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School’s Newman Auditorium. It is essentially a collection of short pieces or “musical moments”, a term which Franz Schubert used for his six short pieces published in 1828. The term was also used by Serge Rachmaninov in 1896 for his six Op.16 short pieces, which are more complex and extended numbers than Schubert’s. Moments musicaux could also apply to short works in sets like Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, Grieg’s Lyric Pieces, Janacek’s On The Overgrown Path and their like.

 

Both Schubert and Rachmaninov’s sets of sixes were not performed in their entirety, but neither was there a need to as the selections were well chosen, exhibiting a variety of musical palettes. Schubert’s Musical Moment No.3 in F minor is the famous Hungarian-flavoured one, while Nos.5 and 6 are suitably contrasted, violence juxtaposed alongside a song-like sublimity. Perry’s choices of Rachmaninov’s Moments Musicaux Nos.1 (Slavic melancholy personified) and 4 (coruscating brilliance) were also excellent.  These were preceded by the Russian’s well-known Prelude in G sharp minor Op.32 No.12, a wellspring of introspection.

Antoinette Perry

 

The recital’s second half is dominated by a single work: the 18 conjoined short pieces of Robert Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze Op.6, which are also musical moments reflecting states of mind of the German composer’s alter-egos, impulsive Florestan versus reflective Eusebius. This receives a very coherent performance, filled with much lyricism, colour and nuance, and with close and loving attention paid to its various dance rhythms. Never a dull moment in its just over a half-hour duration.

 

There are two pieces of Americana, both delicious encores to close both halves of the recital, which could deservedly be called musical moments: Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s Souvenir de Puerto Rico: Marche des Gibaros and Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm. The recorded sound is vivid and other than applause and cheers, the audience is perfectly behaved. An enjoyable listen from start to finish.

 

You can sample and purchase this recording at:

Moments Musicaux – Navona Records

PIANO SPECTRUMS / ANNA KISLITSYNA, Piano on Navona Records / Review

PIANO SPECTRUMS

ANNA KISLITSYNA, Piano

Navona Records NV6413 / TT: 76’00”

 

How does one approach a piano recital album where every single composer it is not previously known to the listener? Listen with an open mind and ears, and then listen again. When impressions form, or connections are made with past memories, make a note of them. And then listen again. Some works would became friends, while others remain remote and elusive. The cost of listening is time, and there is certainly not too much to go around. And then decisions are made. The pieces you get, you get to keep. As for the others, some other time... perhaps.

 

I have listened to Russia-born and California-based pianist Anna Kislitsyna’s album several times through. There are 20 tracks in total, all short pieces, representing nine composers based in USA, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia. Five of these are slightly lengthier works, running 6 minutes and more, with some comprising multiple movements. Here are some random thoughts and very brief notes.

 

Among the longer works, Tara Guram’s Piano Sonata is in three movements, showcasing  mild dissonances of the Hindemith variety, a central movement with jazzy rhythms, and a funeral march in A minor after Chopin. Zhiyi Wang’s Etude for Concert has a slow, quiet beginning filled with Coplandesque harmonies, later builds up in tempo and volume with syncopated rhythms before closing quietly. Jacob E. Goodman’s Variations on a Theme of Beethoven is very approachable, based on the well-known Andante Favori in F major. One variation incorporates children’s ditties and another a fugue. Eric Chapelle’s Place in Landscape (Taormina) is a single-movement gentle and impressionistic soundscape of a Sicilian seaside town, both atmospheric and minimalist.

 

There is much variety in the short pieces. Michael Cohen’s Prelude is neo-Bachian, with a bluesy feel. Richard Vella’s selections from Book Two of Mise-en-Scenes are atmospheric and minimalist. John Robertson’s selection of four Preludes are tonal character pieces, including  a tango (No.11) and  a menuet a la Haydn (No.12). David Nisbet Stewart’s Prelude No.7 brilliant and etude-like number, which would work equally well on a harp or guzheng. Two selections from Carla Lucero’s opera Wuornos: Rough Trick is bluesy while The Capture provides a dramatic and dissonant close. Bruce Babcock’s Time and Again: four shorts alternating between being gritty, kinetically charged and lyrical.  

 

Will any of these pieces become part of the mainstream, or appear in a concert pianist’s recital repertoire? Given the profusion of composers and compositions in these times, only an infinitesimally small fraction will ever become known to a wider public. Among these, Goodman’s Beethoven Variations and Chapelle’s Taormina might just gain some currency beyond this album. Kislitsyna’s playing is incisive and persuasive, which will bring these works new and receptive listeners. I am no clairvoyant, but this recording might just be the only chance of ever hearing these works again. 

To sample / download / purchase this album:

Piano Spectrums – Navona Records

REIMAGINE: BEETHOVEN & RAVEL / INNA FALIKS, Piano on Navona Records / Review

REIMAGINE:

BEETHOVEN & RAVEL

Inna Faliks, Piano

Navona Records 6352

 

It is curious to find Beethoven in 1825 crafting miniatures for the piano, so soon after his masterpieces Missa Solemnis (Op.123) and Ninth Symphony (Op.125), and before his late great string quartets (Op.127, 130 to 135). If truth be told, his Six Bagatelles (Op.126), which appear like shavings from a master’s work bench, are of a pithy and autumnal quality not unlike the shorter movements from his late piano sonatas (Op.101, 109 and 110). These are the foundation of Ukraine-born American pianist Inna Faliks’ recital album, where she invites six of her UCLA colleagues to compose responses to each of the Bagatelles.

 

Each new work precedes the original in the recordings. These are interesting by imaginatively transforming melodies, harmonies and rhythms, adding new asides and offering insights, while retaining some form and spirit of the originals. In Peter Golub’s Bagatelle, the original (No.1) is immediately recognisable before whimsically going off on a tangent. Tamir Hendelman’s etude-like Bagatelle uses a recurrent 4-note motif of the original (No.2), transforms and toys with it like a spinning top.

 

Richard Danielpour is arguably the most recognisable name among the six composers. His Childhood Nightmare begins innocently enough, with the Cantabile e grazioso description of the original (No.3) working itself into something darker and more sinister. The insistent earworm that is Beethoven’s Bagatelle No.4 is worked to perfection in Ian Krouse’s Etude 2A – Ad Fugam on a Non-Octave-Replicating Mode, the title of which is almost self-explanatory. Mark Carlson’s Sweet Nothings is a bluesy musing on the genteel original (No.5), a cantabile in stark contrast with the funhouse distorting mirrors of David Lefkowitz’s Bagatelle (after No.6), which brings the cycle to a scintillating close.

 

Another semi-recital takes place with three works, also commissioned by Faliks, inspired by Ravel’s masterpiece Gaspard de la nuit. Listeners would already be familiar with the triptych (not included on the disc) and might recognise the responses taken in the new creations even if nothing from the original is quoted. Responding to Ondine, Paolo Prestini’s Variations on a Spell comprises two movements. Water Sprite relives the fluid realm without obvious Lisztian influences, while Bell Tolls – Golden Bees, essentially a funeral march, already looks ahead to the bleakness of Le Gibet.

 

Timo Andres’ Old Ground, at over 15 minutes, is the longest and most minimalistic piece in the collection. A tolling ostinato rhythm pervades its entirety, casting a hypnotic spell but without the fear and dread of the original. The iconic first three notes of Scarbo are alluded to in Billy Childs’ Pursuit, a coruscating number that evokes genuine edginess, described by the composer like “a black man is being pursued by a slave catcher, KKK lynch mob or modern day police”. Inna Faliks is a brilliant pianist whose instinctual approach to music, makes these new works relevant, and just as importantly, come to live.

You can sample / download / purchase this recording at:

Reimagine – Navona Records

SOUND VISIONARIES / Christina Petrowska Quilico, Piano on Navona Records / Review

SOUND VISIONARIES

DEBUSSY / MESSIAEN / BOULEZ

Christina Petrowska Quilico, Piano

Navona Records NV 6358

 

Twentieth century piano music is an acquired taste. The dissonances of Bartok, Prokofiev and Shostakovich may be the limit of tolerance for those who luxuriate in the harmonic lushness of Rachmaninov or Ravel. The Second Viennese School likes of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern did conceive piano works of the atonal variety, but it was the French who led the way in crafting the unique soundscapes that defined the new epoch.

 

This excellent album traces the breaching of traditional tonality by way of Claude Debussy (1862-1918), further inroads made by his musical successor Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), to the outright atonality of Pierre Boulez (1925-2016). The chronological sequence of works performed progresses from 1912-13 with Debussy’s Second Book of Préludes to Boulez’s Third Sonata of 1955-57, as melody is deconstructed, tonalities dissipate and dissonances mount. All this makes for an enthralling aural journey.

 

Eight of twelve Debussy Préludes were selected, exploring piquant harmonies, complex rhythms and adventurous textures. It is interesting to note which Préludes have been omitted; namely the tunefully nostalgic Bruyeres, two involving jazzy rhythms (General Lavine and Pickwick) and Canope. The spareness and use of modal tunes in Canope actually looks ahead to Messiaen’s sound world, and would have made for the perfect transition. However, it is the bristling and near-atonal Feux d’artifice (Fireworks) that precedes seven of Messiaen’s Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jesus (Twenty Gazes on the Infant Jesus).  

Debussy, Messiaen & Boulez

 

Messiaen’s twenty Regards (1944) were conceived with sacred and spiritual inspirations in mind, and like Romanesque cathedrals, are austere, astringent and awe-inducing at the same time. His two most popular Regards (Kiss of the Infant Jesus and Spirit of Joy) are not included, but shorter ones that make the most impact. These are not played in published sequence but still make logical sense on listening. Regard XVI (Gaze of the Prophets, Shepherds and Wise Men) begins with heavy chords but works through several ostinato figures before arriving at a sequence that strongly resembles the familiar Twilight Zone theme on television. That its composer Marius Constant was a student of Messiaen’s is too much of a coincidence.

 

The Messiaen group closes with an unusually aggressive portrait of Christmas, Noël, which ushers in Boulez’s First Sonata (1946), at ten minutes the shortest of his three piano sonatas. By this time, the ears have undergone the gradual process of acclimatisation, such that Boulez’s freely atonal and seemingly random procession of notes becomes less of an arduous listening challenge. Whether one chooses to continue listening and include Trope, the second movement of the Third Sonata, is a matter of taste and test of one’s curiosity.

 

Canadian pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico is a compelling artist, one who makes light of the myriad technical challenges and gets to the heart of the music. This primer of twentieth century French piano music gets better with each repeated listen.  

You can sample / purchase this album at:

Sound Visionaries – Navona Records

 

RAVEL COMPARED / Elaine Greenfield, Piano / Review

RAVEL COMPARED

Elaine Greenfield, Piano

Navona Records NV 6401 (2 CDs)

 

This is a very interesting recording and listening experiment: a piano recital performed twice, on two different period pianos with the results compared and contrasted. The subject is the piano music of Frenchman Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), whose relatively small output for the instrument may be conveniently classified in two broad categories: neoclassical and impressionist works. A fair selection from each has been included by American pianist Elaine Greenfield in two recitals of an identical programme running just over an hour each.   

 

The two pianos are an Erard (1893, Paris), the same model as one owned by Ravel himself, and an Ivers & Pond parlor grand (1917, Boston) from a now-defunct American manufacturer. Both pianos were in existence during Ravel’s lifetime, now privately owned in Massachusetts and New York respectively. The Erard has a softer edge and mellower tone, and able to sustain longer resonating notes. Performances are generally slower than those on Ivers & Pond with one notable exception: Ondine from Gaspard de la nuit. The 10-second differential (8’36” compared with 8’46”) and added reverberance gives Erard the nod here.

 

For neoclassically inspired pieces like Pavane pour une infante defunte and the Sonatine, one prefers the more detached and “dryer” sonorities afforded by Ivers & Pond. Similarly, the Spanish dance rhythms of Alborada del gracioso from Miroirs should always sound nippy, so the 20 seconds gained on I&P is an advantage. Alborada should not play for 8’08” (Erard); contrast this with Dinu Lipatti’s 5’48” in his classic Columbia recording. The converse holds true for the impressionist hues of Oiseaux tristes (also from Miroirs), which is more alluring on the Erard. One wished for the inclusion of the classic water piece Jeux d’eau, and imagine what Greenfield could have done with it.   

 

In Valses nobles et sentimentales, eight waltzes inspired by Schubert, honours are more even as both pianos have their merits in these dances of varied moods. Still, the slightly speedier account on I&P holds greater interest on repeated listening. Finally, the coruscating Toccata from Le Tombeau de Couperin is slowish (5’47” and 5’31”) and enervating on both pianos, when other performances clock in under 4 minutes.

 

While Greenfield’s sensitively nuanced and somewhat cautious performances may not displace established favourites by Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Pascal Rogé (both on Decca), Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (MDG), or oldies like Walter Gieseking (Warner) and Robert Casadesus (Sony), these are still worth listening to. The exercise of comparisons also makes for an absorbing parlour game for inveterate pianophiles.

 

You may sample / purchase this album at:

Ravel Compared – Navona Records 

AETERNUM / BACH & BEETHOVEN / Eliane Rodrigues, Piano / Review

AETERNUM

BACH & BEETHOVEN

Eliane Rodrigues, Piano

Navona Records  NV 6285 / TT: 74'00"

 

Browsing through the catalogue of the New Hampshire-based Navona Records label, the name of one artist truly stands out: Brazilian pianist Eliane Rodrigues. Now based in Antwerp (Belgium), she has amassed an impressive discography, having garnered a reputation of being some kind of a super-virtuoso. This album confirms her prowess as both an imaginative transcriber and a stunningly original performer.  

 

Transcriptions of J.S.Bach and Beethoven for piano have been dominated by the likes of Ferruccio Busoni and Franz Liszt for as long as the instrument’s history, and one imagines that the efforts of both pianist-composers to be unsurpassed. What more can be said about the already familiar music in multiple recordings, but Rodrigues brings many surprises to the table.

 

Four Bach works selected here were originally for organ, but with ingenious reworkings of voices and harmonies (and not the musical themes), these translate perfectly well for piano. The Prelude and Fugue in G major (BWV.541), comes like faceful of ice cold water, an onslaught of unlikely intervals in the brief prelude. This rash of dissonances has a transformative effect but parity is restored in the fugue. The better-known Fantasia and Fugue in G minor (BWV.542) sounds more like an improvisation, both in the first half as well as the indestructible fugue which is a truly rocking affair.

 

The dense organ textures of Prelude and Fugue in A minor (BWV.543) are swept clear to reveal a slick and sleek torso while revelling in altered harmonies. The portentous opening of the very familiar Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV.565) is retained, with certain harmonies reconfigured to pique the ears. The music box effects and fanciful sweeps of arpeggios in the fugue are playful excursions not to be found in the original or Busoni and Tausig’s famous transcriptions. The idea to insert Beethoven symmetrically between the Bach works was also a good one.

 

There is less intervention in Rodrigues’ take on Beethoven’s Symphony No.5 in C minor (Op.67), which is built upon Liszt’s mighty transcription. Without compromising its architecture and supporting structures, she instead fills in various textures and details, like octaves and added beats, while removing obstacles which impede the music’s inexorable flow. Everything is accomplished in big broad strokes, conveying its might and grandeur without apology. Her infallible technique and physical endurance holds up well to Lisztian (as well as self-imposed) challenges, conquering these as if she were a modern-day Liszt herself.

 

One might already possess the famous Beethoven-Liszt recordings by Glenn Gould (Sony), Cyprien Katsaris (Warner) or Konstantin Scherbakov (Naxos), but this highly personal take by Rodrigues provides different lenses to view the warhorse, and is a compelling one at that.  

 

You may sample / purchase this CD at:

ÆTERNUM – Navona Records