What better 40th birthday present could a composer
get from a record company than a well-filled, handsomely presented
overview of his output? I for one would be over the moon and I
suspect Joe Cutler, quiet and unassuming as he appears to be,
will secretly be very pleased indeed. Currently Head of Composition
at Birmingham Conservatoire, this disc really does appear to include
many of his most popular and important works, wide-ranging in
their appeal and all superbly performed and recorded.
If I have to start
with a favourite, it has to be Sal’s Sax. It’s the earliest
piece here and one of his most successful, originally for chamber
group but re-scored (or re-mixed, as the score has it) into
large amplified ensemble for the virtuoso Dutch minimalist band
Orkest de Ereprijs, who here give a stunning rendition. It is
perhaps the ultimate example of the composer’s fascination for
the often aggressive mix of American minimalism and pop/ rock
influences that so characterise the Dutch school, headed by
veteran Louis Andriessen. Indeed, it was no coincidence in the
planning of last year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
that the lunch hour concert featuring Sal’s Sax should also
have in the second half one of its closest models, Andriessen’s
funky 1984 masterpiece De Stijl, both works getting enthusiastic
renditions from the University student orchestra of which Cutler
was once part. He was in the capacity audience and was greeted
with warm applause, not surprising since the punchy rhythmic
energy and cool, jazz-inspired quieter moments really seemed
to strike a chord with the younger listeners. It’s a marvellous
score, toe-tapping one minute, wandering into Miles Davis/ John
Coltrane territory the next, before pinning you back in your
seat with rock-like pumping rhythms.
The composer’s score
indications for Music for Cello and Strings also tell
you quite a bit about the nature of this piece’s three movements
– ‘Lush and bluesy’, ‘Unstoppable, with flair’ and ‘Dark but
dreamlike’. It’s an intense, atmospheric work, beautifully scored
and redolent, as Peter Burt’s entertaining liner note tells
us, of Ives, Messiaen and the wispy qualities of Bartok’s ‘night
music’. It also seems light years away from the ‘polished barbarity’
of Sal’s Sax whilst making an effective counter-weight.
Cutler enjoys many
modern influences that are more abstract or non-musical - Kerouac,
Ishiguro, Primo Levi, Willem de Kooning are all mentioned –
so the word setting of Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska for In
Praise of Dreams seems wholly appropriate as Cutler spent
fruitful years at the Chopin Academy in Warsaw. The mood is
pensive, sensitive to the texts subtle shifts, quite tonal and,
yes, easy on the ear.
Rhythmic intensity
and swirling, repeated note patterns again mark out the shorter
pieces, particularly Clavinova Music, where the Ligeti
Etudes come to mind, and Buckley’s Hot Licks, where manic
stride gestures from Art Tatum and bluesy riffs are suddenly
interrupted by the pianist reciting words to us about a ‘party
lasting three years’. Peter Burt’s note memorably describes
it ‘as if Conlon Nancarrow had taken a swig out of Jack Kerouac’s
whisky bottle’.
Most of the pieces
are short, great fun, superbly crafted and brilliantly performed
throughout. Cutler wears his influences proudly; absorbing,
re-working and re-thinking them as all artists do, finally emerging
with his own very special sound world. I would go as far as
to say there’s something here for everyone and NMC have done
him proud.
Tony Haywood
Sarah Leonard
(soprano); Andrew Sparling (clarinet); Darragh Morgan (violin);
Mary Dullea (piano); Stephen Gutman (piano); Robin Michael (cello)
