These two works commissioned by pianist Pelletier
are performed by him with stupefying virtuosity. Brégent’s Variations
Parallèles were written for piano and Ondes Martenot, but
the performance of the Ondes part proved beyond the ability of any available
player, so on this recording the pianist performed to (against?) a MIDI
controlled computer synthesiser file mimicking the Ondes. The extremely
dense harmonic and rhythmic piano texture ("controlled sonic delirium")
will remind one of parts of Messiaen’s Vingt Regards and the
Sorabji Opus Clavicembalisticum. The work begins and ends with
a "Reger-like" harmonisation of the chorale O Haput voll
Blut.
The Ondes Martenot is an electronic keyboard instrument
that can also produce portamento and glissando effects similar to a
Theremin giving an enormous range of expression. This MIDI computer
approximation is satisfactory during the keyboard-like sections, but
is nowhere near what a real Ondes would sound like in the cadenza near
the end of the work when the Ondes would be expected to soar freely
and sing rhapsodically. The MIDI computer synthesiser track, pre-recorded,
and with which the pianist simply plays along, just presents the notes
as would an electric organ. So this fascinating work has yet to be performed
in the manner intended by the composer, but we get a pretty good idea
what it should sound like. The work is overwhelmingly dense—each few
minutes has a much music as a whole movement of a more conventional
piano sonata—and my feeling is that when an Ondes player is found who
can manage it, cutting about 25 minutes from the middle section will
provide a more satisfactory immediate musical experience. No doubt on
repeated listening the overall structure would become evident and the
full length version would become more accessible.
The Vivier work is a solo piano work which, again,
shows off Pelletier’s astounding virtuosity. The title pays tribute
to two blind Iranian singers heard by the composer, which experience
inspired the work. Of Iranian singing I could hear very litte, but mostly,
again, Messiaen-like tone clusters with perhaps a little of John Adams’
repetitive textures and some Lou Harrison gamelan music thrown in. This
music makes more of a dramatic statement and is less "delirious."
The skeptic in me must point out that with both these works only the
composers, and they’re both dead, would know if the pianist actually
played their scores or merely improvised a lot of plausible banging
around.
That’s not actually fair; I really enjoyed much of
this music, but I’m uncommonly tolerant, uncommonly open to new experiences.
If you are also, then you will enjoy this important new release—certainly
a must-have for those specially interested in modern Canadian music.
Paul Shoemaker
Louis-Philippe Pelletier,
piano 
