Naxos’s
ever-burgeoning “American Classics” series has now reached the
work of Steven R. Gerber with this disc of diverse chamber works
dating from 1967 up to 2001. Not having heard any of his music
previously this proved to be a good way to sample his work within
this genre. Two things struck me immediately; firstly, whilst
the instruments called for are the most traditional of all chamber
instruments – strings and piano, the sounds that Gerber conjures
from them are far from standard. Yet it would be quite wrong to
imply from that that he ‘distorts’ these instruments – there is
no Cage-like “prepared piano” effects here. Rather the choice
of register, instrumental and timbral combinations, and musical
layering results in a very unique sound world. Secondly, Gerber
is indeed fortunate to have this disc performed by such an elite
group of players. The technical demands he makes of them could
have resulted in performances of far less assurance and panache
in the hands of lesser players. Here all are virtuosi in their
own right as well as sounding thoroughly committed to the sound-world
Gerber creates.
In his own informative and
interesting liner notes Gerber points out that the programme
of this CD moves from later works first to earliest works
last. I’m not convinced that this was a good or wise choice.
Personally I find it more interesting to hear a musical personality
evolve – OK, a little judicious track programming sorts that
out but most of us pop a disc in and just want to hit play!
As presented here the two most substantial works that end
the CD are for me the least individual and least convincing.
The external musical influences are the least digested - some
Messiaen-inspired birdsong leaps out of the Piano Trio about
halfway through the first movement only to be overwhelmed
by some thunderously modernistic passages. As he admits himself
these are clearly young man’s music – a real sense of gauntlets
being cast down. There is a dogged determination here NOT
to write any phrase or harmony that could possibly be mistaken
for being diatonic. By the time of the later works (represented
earlier on this disc!) Gerber seems much more at ease with
the idea of writing music of an essentially lyrical melodic
nature. But there are traits here that Gerber continued to
develop. He has a penchant for writing string parts cruelly
high – I can’t stress strongly enough how well these passages
are handled by the players. In the Blues-Etude which
forms the final movement of Gershwiniana there is a
manic cat and mouse chase by the 3 violins which must be devilish
to perform and littered with the possibility of going horribly
horribly wrong. But here the players toss it off with exactly
the kind of ovation-inducing insouciance that Gerber must
have envisaged. Oddly, it was this same movement - which I
really enjoyed - that raised one little query in my mind.
Clearly Gerber understands the instruments he writes for well.
Just occasionally though I couldn’t help thinking that the
music was being used to serve a technique or effect rather
than the other way round. Comparing the Three Folksong
Transformations of 2001 for piano trio with the previously
mentioned 1968 Piano Trio makes it clear just how far
Gerber has developed. I enjoyed the condensed aphorisms of
the later piece – no musical gesture is wasted - quite the
opposite of the prolix po-faced student work. In fact each
of these later works is a masterful study in concision.
Given the variety and brevity
of much of the music here everyone will have their own personal
favourites. For me the two groups of “arrangements” that open
the disc gave the greatest pleasure together with the haunting
Elegy on the name Dmitri Shostakovich. Interestingly
Gerber notes that this latter is his most-played work and
I can understand why. In its brief four and a half minutes
it encompasses a powerfully wide range of musical emotion
but here I feel the compositional technique is serving the
music. Kurt Nikkanen proves himself to be as adept on the
viola as he is elsewhere on this disc on violin. Because of
the diversity of the music on offer it is hard for a listener
new to Gerber’s music such as myself to know for sure where
the true musical spirit of the composer lies. Elsewhere on
this site discs of his orchestral works have been well received
and I would be interested to hear how he handles larger scale
forms and ensembles.
The 2002 recording – I’m guessing
licensed to Naxos from another company – is up close and personal
but as has been made clear none of the playing is in any way compromised
by that kind of intimate attention. Also, there is enough air
around the instruments to avoid the sound becoming claustrophobic.
Only in the unrelenting early works does any aural fatigue kick
in but this is more down to the compositions themselves. This
is a CD I enjoyed in parts, superbly performed throughout but
I need to hear more of this composer’s work to learn to recognise
the musician behind the technician.
Diverse modern chamber works
splendidly performed.
Nick Barnard
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