MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

 

CD REVIEW

 

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

 


alternatively AmazonUK

Larry SITSKY (b. 1934)
Concerto for Violin, Orchestra and Female Voices (No 1) Mysterium Cosmographicum (1972) [36:21]
Violin Concerto No.2 – Gurdjieff (c.1982) [22:53]
Violin Concerto No. 3 I Ching; The Eight Kua (Trigrams) (1987)
Jan Sedivka (violin)
Female Voices from the Tasmanian Opera Company Chorus and The Lyric Singers
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra/Vanco Cavdarski (No. 1) Omri Hadari (No.2) Christopher Lyndon-Gee (No. 3)
rec. Hobart, 1974 (No. 1, 2) 1992 (No. 3)
ABC CLASSICS 476 5252 [59:14 + 36:31]



Larry Sitsky has dedicated his Violin Concertos Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 to Jan Sedivka, a good friend.
 
The first in 1972 takes Kepler's Mysterium Cosmographicum as its sub-title and poetic force. The musical material is derived from Busoni's Faust - taking chordal progressions and other material - and is cast in five movements lasting thirty-six minutes. Doubtless Sitsky's immersion in Busoni's music, which does lend an impressionistic tint to it, in part derives from his studies with Busoni's great pupil and propagandist, Egon Petri. The Concerto opens with an elusively complex violin cadenza, which forms the introduction. Sitsky's scoring should be noted, as the violins and violas don't make their appearance until towards the end of the work. Sitsky employs a battery of percussion at climactic moments and some driving lower string writing; the texture can also be eruptive and violent but there is also real lyrical expression here, albeit one with a keen edge to it. The central movement is slow and glinting (Harmonicus is the title Sitsky gives to it) with shafts of light flecking the score. In the final panel the chorus sings the titles of each movement before a return to the opening material via the agency of the soloist.
 
The second concerto bears the subtitle of its inspiration – the mystic and occultist Gurdjieff, whose interest in Central Asian music is an enthusiasm shared by the composer. It’s cast in seven movements, all short, the whole concerto lasting just under twenty-three minutes. It’s lightly but colourfully scored with the composer utilising varieties of percussion for telling effect. The violin is the orator, debater and reflective interlocutor, now assertive, now passive. The most intense sense of mystic concentration comes with the Dolce opening. Later on the violin scurries over percussion and high wind and later still a remarkable Allegretto sees a noble brass melody unfold with stately Asiatic steadiness, the violin joining with its obbligato and deferential commentary.  Sitsky is also clear in his evocation of antique-sounding melodies that have a sense of timelessness. 
 
The Third Concerto (1987) is much more gently scored than the First and was inspired by the I Ching. Thus the work is divided into eight sections - Water, Wind, Mountain and so on - and all are quite short, unified by the all-embracing theme. Sitsky, who was born in China but left when he was sixteen, attempts here to evoke the sound of Chinese music but not to replicate it; his approach is mystical and spiritual. Technically he makes use of the so-called Chinese string portamento with accompanying percussive support. Rhythmically there is plenty of dance material - as in the second movement Wind, a dance that is skittish and accompanied by a truly impressive Chinese brass section. There is an eternal horizon feel to Mountain and a brassy enveloping in the nocturnal Mist - that picks up the brass motif from Wind. Sitsky evokes these elements of Chinese music with great sensitivity and timbral and rhythmic intricacy. I particularly enjoyed the propulsively percussive writing in Heaven, a moto perpetuo, and the contemplative and elliptical Fire. Fittingly Earth explores the registral depth of the bass and the height of the flute in its encompassing wholeness.
 
Throughout, Sedivka is a protagonist and interweaver of distinction; he mediates between Sitsky's elevated vision and the violin's technical realities with perfect judgement. The recordings sound very well indeed and the notes are not too florid; just right, in fact.
 
The First and Third concertos were previously on Tall Poppies TP124 (see review).
 
Jonathan Woolf

 




 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

Return to Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.