This CD was originally released in 2001, but has recently been
re-issued by Nimbus. Bulgarian-born Alexis Weissenberg will
certainly be better known to all as a pianist - see this recent
review,
for example. The reviewer's use of the past tense seems to imply,
incidentally, that Weissenberg is deceased, whereas he is in
fact alive. [After this review was published
we have learned that on Jan 8th 1012 Weissenberg died]
Not even his own website
- a contender for the most dysfunctional on the internet! -
has anything on his music, other than a reference to this particular
CD, which, by the way, appears to be the first and only dedicated
to Weissenberg the composer.
Simon Mulligan himself has written music, subsequently recorded
with his own Quartet - including saxophonist Frank Walden, who
puts in a cameo appearance here - on the catch-all CD Baby label.
That album, featuring tracks tellingly entitled 'Wet Walnuts',
'Pure Meths', 'Sauna Trauma' and 'Blues for Frank', is best
filed under 'Jazz'. Those wondering about this Nimbus disc can
rest assured: despite Weissenberg's titles and the presence
on one track of an alto saxophone, and even despite the fact
that this disc was reviewed in jazz circles when it first came
out, the material here is more 'classical' on the whole.
One caveat: the booklet gives the misleading impression that
the Four Improvisations are by Weissenberg, whereas in fact
they are Mulligan's own improvisations on material of a different
kind - La Fugue is an obscure 1960s French musical that Weissenberg
wrote the score for, presumably because the money was good.
Mulligan's first Improvisation is prettily pleasing, in a jiggy-jazzy
kind of way. The second, with the tell-tale addition of that
sax, is sure to satisfy those who like their jazz easy listening,
going nowhere, saying nothing, never ending … and strangely
only four minutes long. The third, 'C'est si Facile' is beautifully
delicate and fragrant, although by the end of fourteen minutes
Mulligan has stretched the already sparse material quantum-thin
- but that is, admittedly, a defining trait of this kind of
international bluesy style. The short 'finale' is Gershwin at
2.00am, winding down with a mug of cocoa.
In other words, there are only forty minutes' worth of Weissenberg
proper, but they are of some value. Le Regret is evocative in
a Gallic kind of way: the music is gentle, somewhat long-winded,
and sounding a bit like Skriabin if he had been into jazz rather
than mysticism. The most interesting work, at least for those
not out for the jazzier end of things, is the Sonata. Mulligan
has some stiff competition: the Sonata appeared on a Hyperion
CD in 2008 as one of a number of jazz-flambéd works played by
Marc-André Hamelin - see review.
Hyperion gave that disc the subtitle of Weissenberg's Sonata,
but if "in a state of jazz" seems to verge on the
semantically vacant, the explanation is that first translations,
however duff, have a habit of sticking. 'En état de jazz' should
be idiomatically rendered by 'in jazz style', as Weissenberg's
own English-language notes indicate.
The Sonata is one of an intended cycle of seven Studies, each
attached by title to a different state of mind. The influence
of jazz can be heard in the rhythms and harmonies, but above
all in the improvisatory nature of the music, which is of course
illusory - Weissenberg uses up to four staves to communicate
his intentions to the performer precisely. Nevertheless, the
work, though generally lyrical, spends much of its time ranging
intricately in chromatic territory, with forays into groove-free
Skriabinesque atonality that will have jazz aficionados grabbing
their coats. The four movements each represent a once-popular
dance style - tango, Charleston, blues and samba - that add
up to a nostalgic, attractive, if not always strictly coherent
whole.
Simon Mulligan is a fairly high-profile performer; indeed, he
can be said to be known to millions through two particular
recordings much beloved of Classic FM and compilation CDs: Peter
Maxwell Davies's Farewell to Stromness and Michael Kamen's
Band of Brothers main theme. Unlike some pianists, however,
Mulligan is fully deserving of the plaudits he has received
over the years. He takes the technical complexities of the Sonata
in his stride with room to spare, and seems genuinely to relish
the rhythmic and harmonic vitality injected by the jazz idiom.
On the other hand, what a treat it would have been to hear Weissenberg
himself playing his own music!
Sound quality is very good. The English-French booklet is one
of Nimbus's better ones, with a cinematic cover and black-and-white
photos, clean and clear layout and informative notes by Weissenberg
and Mulligan.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at reviews.gramma.co.uk
Simon Mulligan (piano); Frank Walden (alto saxophone) 
