I've
had as many "wow!" moments with the Australian Tall Poppies
label as any other in recent times, and this new collection of
piano works by Carl Vine goes right to the top of the heap - I'm only sorry that the Musicweb-International
'Discs of the Year 2006' listings have already been completed: this
would be a very strong contender for inclusion.
Carl
Vine is one of Australia's leading composers, having established
himself with music for dance, a great deal of chamber music,
and currently with seven symphonies to his name. If being
asked to write music for the closing ceremony of the 1996
Atlanta Olympics (the Sydney 2000 presentation) isn't some
kind of recognition as a composer, then I don't know what
is.
There
is an impressive, irreversible strength to the work on this
disc. Piano Sonata No.1 begins quietly, with block
chords which have a hint of Messiaen in them, soon broadening
out with thematic developments and layers of texture which
crystallize into music of driving rhythm and virtuosity,
played with unparalleled magnificence by Michael Kieran-Harvey.
The first time I played this recording I had to stop listening
for a while just to spend some time assimilating what I had
heard, so overwhelming was the experience. Wow!
Just as Vine is reluctant to offer detailed explanations of the
compositional processes involved, I find it hard to put the dead
hand of analytical comment on this recording. I think it is
however safe to say that this music is more than accessible - being
the modern equivalent of (for instance) some of the sonatas
of Prokofiev, but without the gruff Russianness. Piano
Sonata No.2 comes hard on the heals of No.1, which
was written for Michael Kieran-Harvey and helped win him
the Ivo Pogorelich International Piano Competition. While
the first sonata has appeared on Tall Poppies before this
a new recording: the present recording of the second sonata
has already appeared on TP120, Carl Vine's Chamber Music
Vol. 2 (see review).
Like
the first sonata, the second is divided into two sections,
but has a more ordered structure. The first movement has
a rhapsodic, pianistic restlessness, the left hand constantly
providing a harmonic landscape over which melodic flights
are allowed to develop. The second half of the movement evolves
into a slow ground bass over which the melodic right hand
is given bell-like sonorities. The second movement immediately
introduces a jazzier character, the bass almost breaking
into a fast boogie-woogie at some stages. The logic of this
material dictates a slower central section in which the
'dreamier' side
of the material can be explored, the closing passages recapitulating
the character of the opening, to a spectacular climax.
Five
Bagatelles is a diverse collection
of small piano pieces which grew around the fifth
'Threnody' movement,
a quiet, meditative memorial for innocent victims, written
as a solution for the composer's dilemma at what to play
at the Australian AIDS Trust. The pieces are generally
lighter in 'heft' than with the sonata content, but have
moments of great beauty, and grand jazzy fun. Red Blues
is a set of four short pieces written as instructional music for
students. The jazz-fun element is prominent as you might expect,
and I can imagine many students finding their technical demands
quite a high hurdle to leap - they're
certainly beyond my feeble abilities.
The
most recent works on this CD, The Anne Landa Preludes,
were commissioned by John Sharpe as a memorial to Anne Landa,
whose contribution as a patron of the arts and positive
force behind young pianists in Australia is sorely missed
since her untimely death in 2002. Knowing this context, the
final Chorale of this set of pieces is quite
moving. This is their world premiere recording. These pieces
are intended as a successor to the Five Bagatelles,
but whereas the earlier set was the result of a burst of
energy, the Preludes emerged slowly, creating their
own problems and questions for the composer. Each piece is
given a short description, sometimes indicating some inner
meaning to the music, or referring to the technical/pianistic
aspects of playing which the composer is addressing. The
result is a collection of contrasting works with a high level
of refined compositional craft, and with the nice addition
of plenty of wit and humour.
The recordings on this CD are excellent, and despite coming from
a variety of session are reasonably consistent, at best being of
demonstration quality - whatever that means: if I'm keen
to 'demonstrate' new pieces to musical colleagues it is almost
invariably for the musical content rather than the tonsil-rattling
qualities in the sound. For its incredible music and musicianship,
this is most certainly a CD which I shall be 'demonstrating' to
the piano fraternity in The Hague and beyond.
Dominy Clements
Michael Kieran-Harvey
(piano) 
