I am always intrigued
by contemporary music recital CDs with new names – they offer
hope for some of the scores I have gathering dust under my desk.
Once premièred and all too often largely forgotten thereafter,
it is every composer’s dream to have their work preserved on
record. This gives at least the possibility of a larger audience
through broadcasts, a few purchases on the back of hopefully
positive reviews, maybe even the occasional commission from
that rare breed of patron – the appreciative, artistically aware
- and maybe even wealthy - client who wants to invest in that
most intangible of arts: music.
There are some composers
who many will recognise here, but excellent performances are
produced from both well-established and newer names – making
this a superb showcase for some fine works of art. The traditional
nature of the violin and piano duo means that the listener always
has a familiar point of reference. There is nothing to be afraid
of, really, so read on.
Hugh Wood’s Poem
opens the CD impressively, with a declamatory statement
from both piano and violin. Wood admits that the piano is in
a largely accompanying role, with the violin evolving a music
which is ‘straightforwardly lyrical ... one long tune.’ Much
of this piece is rhapsodic, almost impressionistic in nature,
with some flowing arpeggiations in the piano and openly romantic
melodic motifs from the violin. It’s a walk in a flower garden,
with some dramatic and colourful shoots alongside delicate and
dew-dropped blooms – with only the occasional thistle.
Huw Watkins’ Coruscation;
Reflection was written for the violinist Daniel Bell. The
music springs from pentatonic scales, which almost invariably
have a dual effect of exoticism and recognisable open tonalities.
The first piece is the more dramatic and angular of the two,
with the piano often leaping over the violin’s register and
stabbing with rhythmic accents in the bass. The second of the
two works was written some months after the first, and is a
more lyrical and atmospheric Reflection on the material
in the first.
Well programmed
after the quiet nature of Watkins’ second piece, Timothy Salter’s
Chimera opens with playful staccatos and linear counterpoint
in a ‘restless’ marking. Written for the duo which plays it
here, this is the longest of the works on this CD. In a single
movement, much of the continuity is provided by a rhythmic device
in which semiquavers alternate between groups of five and three,
but with fluctuating tempi. Echoes of the opening figures resonate
throughout, and the contrasts between Bartók-like power playing
and moments of reflective quiet are effectively balanced. This
is a tougher nut to crack than some of the other pieces, being
less explicitly tonal or thematic over its 11 minutes, but it
is never less than intriguing, and will reward concentrated
listening.
Philip Cashian’s
Stobrod’s Violin takes its title from a character in
Charles Frazier’s novel Cold Mountain.
High, sustained notes from the violin are frosted with ‘icy
filigree piano detail’ in the opening section, and in the second
half introduces a ‘hymn-like chorale’ upon which the violin
is allowed to comment in more lyrical and passionate mode. Gorgeously
atmospheric, I like this work’s understated and relatively simple
approach, which beguiles the listener into accepting the composer’s
sound-world as if it were a short story.
Romance by
Helen Grime runs from Stobrod’s Violin almost like a
second movement, but soon shows its individuality in its subtly
flowing harmonic rhythm. This piece is like a musical fragment,
poetic and fragrant. The composer admits to a ‘somewhat incomplete’
ending, but the piece’s close is more suggestive of a further
organic unfolding in silence rather than any kind of disorientating
cut-off.
Chaconne with
Chorale by Colin Matthews was written for the eighty-fifth
birthday of the composer’s friend Berthold Goldschmidt, and
Moto Perpetuo for another friend’s birthday, Elliot Carter’s
wife Helen. The Chaconne takes the form of a slowly moving,
almost rumbling bass line, over which the violin develops an
extended monologue. The Chorale pops out like a fish
jumping in water at first, and then brings the work to a grand
apotheosis, before finally descending into the dark regions
of the opening. Moto Perpetuo does what it says on the
tin, with the piano playing a series of ostinati, and the violin
adding punchily rhythmic comments over the top. The instrument’s
roles are temporarily reversed, and the whole thing ends in
a crisp climax – a superb miniature.
Michael Zev Gordon’s
False Relations brings us back into more dreamy realms.
The title refers to the juxtaposition of some of the source
material, from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, with Gordon’s
own modern idiom. It also refers to the ‘exquisite example’
of the Renaissance understanding of a ‘false relation’ as a
particular kind of dissonance occurring as part of a cadence
or resolution in Robert Johnson’s Pavana from the aforementioned
Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. All this amounts to a rich
and colourful duo in which the piano covers a wide range in
dialogue with the violin, with many an expressive moment, not
the least of which being the more direct comment on Johnson’s
Pavana toward the end.
Daniel Giorgetti’s
Dialogue opens with what at first impresses as being
the most modern and ‘far out’ of the pieces here, but the ear
soon tunes in to the verbal discourse and wit which the instruments
are having between themselves. The piano is played in part with
muted lower strings, making for gruff answers to the violin’s
frivolous pizzicati and absurdly high pyrotechnics. In the composer’s
own words, ‘the dialogue concludes with a sense of agreement
... much like a bickering elderly couple, finding mutual solace
in capturing pieces of a distant memory.’
I have greatly enjoyed
the musicianship of Alexandra Wood and Huw Watkins on this disc,
and wish to compliment them on their excellent taste in providing
us with such an intriguing and stimulating programme of new
music. The instruments are superbly recorded, and I have no
hesitation in giving the thumbs up to such an enterprising release.
Dominy Clements
AVAILABILITY
Usk
recordings
Alexandra Wood (violin)
