The American composer
Pierre Jalbert, born in 1967, studied
at Oberlin and the University of Pennsylvania.
His works have been more and more widely
disseminated and commissions and prizes
have been forthcoming. British readers
may remember the name because he won
the 2001 BBC Masterprize Competition
for In Aeternam. He is now Composer-in-Residence
with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.
This disc covers a
raft of his chamber compositions dating
from 1995-2002. The Trio is in two movements
and the first is abrasive, propulsive
and full of drive. It takes in some
Eastern European folk keening as well
as some strong pizzicato-laced colour
and moments that put me in mind of Jazz-meets-Le
Revue de cuisine. The second, marked
Agnus Dei has a pleading intimacy
and a refined religiosity underlined
by strongly reduced dynamics and a prayerful
intensity that acts as a powerful contrast
to the first movement. The Toccata takes
nineteenth century digital fireworks
and translates them for contemporary
use. This is a translucent workout for
the fingers and subtly colouristic as
well, full of technical demands and
matters of evenness and articulation.
The composer shows us how it should
be done in this recording. Transcendental
Windows is written for twelve instruments
and is cast in nine sections inspired
by the stained glass windows of Louis
Tiffany (which one can see on the booklet
cover.) They’ve inspired Jalbert to
a broadly symmetrical setting, starting
and ending in contemplative, subtle
reflection and reaching a moment of
drama with repeated brass calls and
syncopation The Flowing Waters comes
mid-point, rippling and dulcet, and
the whole piece is delightful and evocative.
The earliest of these
chamber works is the 1995 Quartet and
it’s the one I tend to find the least
effective. In three movements and lasting
twenty-three minutes it’s also the longest
piece but the rasps and pizzicato fissures
and ostinato power of the second movement
sound only fitfully impressive. The
most complete statement is the slow
final movement, the longest, which wears
a sustained threnody-like profile before
some waspy rasps – ones that ran through
the second movement – return to haunt
it. Visual Abstract is, by contrast,
the most recent composition, written
in 2002 for the group that perform it
here, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble.
Here Jalbert compresses a deal of material
into three short movements; stasis informs
the second but the third is made of
sterner stuff. In its mix of percussion
and flute/clarinet sonorities and subsequent
pounding piano dramas this has the feel
of the music for a 1960s TV cop show.
Inventive and imaginative.
Performances sound
thoroughly idiomatic and precise and
the notes are very much to the point
– and written by the composer.
Jonathan Woolf
The
complete Gasparo catalogue is available
through MusicWeb
Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble 
