East West
Duo Aliada
rec. Wiener Musikverein, Gläserner Saal, Magna Auditorium,
no date given
Reviewed as downloaded from press preview
HÄNSSLER HC 20081
[54:43]
Duo Aliada was formed in 2013 when Polish saxophonist Michał Knot and
Serbian accordionist Bogdan Laketić met in Vienna and found that they had
similar attitudes to music making. Their playing quickly caught the
attention of the classical music public, and they have toured widely. Their
debut album in 2015 got rave reviews, and the follow-up is certainly worth
anyone’s attention – as long as one can accept transcriptions of classical
music at all. Their technical ability is stunning and the arrangements
congenial. The scope is wide: East vs West; folk music vs art music; Nordic
vs Balkan; Medieval vs Contemporary – it is a fascinating mix.
In effect this is a collection of miniatures, none more than 4½ minutes
long, which means that the programme is very varied. The items are chosen
to create the greatest possible contrasts, also within the pieces – and
there is nowhere a sense of longwindedness. I will be quite brief in my
commentaries and leave it to my readers to explore the riches of this
issue.
Stravinsky’s Danse Russe from Trois Mouvements de Pétrouchka is in itself an arrangement from
the ballet, made by the composer for Artur Rubinstein. It is rhythmically
captivating, played with irresistible lilt, while the slow middle section
is sensitively restrained.
Edvard Grieg’s many Lyric Pieces are often descriptive and often
also inspired by Norwegian folk music. In Bekken (The Brook) one
can hear the water ripple. The soft and slow Melodi in 6/8-time is
just melancholy, while Trolltog (March of the Trolls) is one of
his most exuberant pieces. The trolls tread away energetically and fast,
but are interrupted by a slow, beautiful midsection – like a folksong. Then
the trolls resume their ravages. Still in Scandinavia we hear two pieces
from the Danish Quartet’s 2017 album Last Leaf. Drømte mig en drøm (I dreamed a dream) is the oldest known secular
song in the Nordic countries. It is from the 14th century with
text and melody from Codex Runicus. It is melancholy and
beautiful. The other piece is Polska from Dorotea. Dorotea is a
place in Lapland in the north of Sweden, and a polska is a rustic dance,
very common in Swedish folklore. It’s fast and played with enormous verve
and swing. Being Swedish I naturally took it to my heart – even though I
never was a dancer.
Moving south-eastwards to the Balkans, we hear two traditional pieces,
collected by Vlastimir Pavlović and then arranged by Duo Aliada. The Improvisation is slow, exotic and fascinating, a Zikino kolo is a fast dance. Kolo is a common dance in the
Balkans, and it can be found now and then in art music – and also in
operetta, for example in Lehár’s The Merry Widow.
The most contemporary piece in this collection is Tomasz Skweres’s Doloroso from Coffin Ship. “Coffin ship” may call for an
explanation. The term refers to the defective ships that transported Irish
immigrants across the Atlantic during the Great Famine in the 1840s. Lack
of food and water, bad hygienics and disease-ridden passengers on board the
crowded ships led to many deaths, often 30% or more. Skweres’s music is
ghostlike and frightening – one can easily imagine the sense of
helplessness among the passengers.
Those who survived, however, were lucky and settled in the New World, and
the rest of this programme is spent over there. Aaron Copland’s Three Moods are interesting – but I’m not sure that every listener
will find the music appropriate to the title. Embittered should be
dark and sad, but the end is clearly optimistic. Wistful, on the
other hand, should be optimistic – but sounds gloomy. Jazzy is
exactly jazzy, Benny Goodman-influenced.
Gershwin is given generous space – and rightly so. He was certainly one of
the greatest 20th century composers in America. His Three Preludes are masterpieces in their original piano version,
and they are well-suited to these arrangements. The four snippets from the
Gershwin Songbook are also marvellous, and both Fascinating Rhythm and I Got Rhythm are real swingers.
Chick Corea’s Children’s Songs for piano have also become
classics. The four pieces Duo Aliada have chosen are charming, and even
though the original version feels definitive – I couldn’t resist the
temptation to revisit a couple of them before I listened to Duo Aliada –
theirs have a charm of their own. No. 7, for instance, has some thrilling
sound effects.
The journey ends in Brazil, where the young Darius Milhaud spent a couple
of years in the late 1910s at the French embassy in Rio and fell in love
with the rhythms and folk melodies. Brazileira is probably his
most popular work, and Duo Aliada’s riveting reading is a rousing finale to
this programme.
I have nothing but praise for the recording, the playing is, as I’ve
already intimated, stunning and the programme greatly entertaining. Full
marks in every respect.
Göran Forsling
Contents
Igor STRAVINSKY (1882 – 1971)
Trois Mouvements de Pétrouchka:
1. Danse Russe [2:53]
Edvard GRIEG (1843 – 1907)
Lyriske Stykker:
2. Bekken [1:47]
3. Melodi [3:36]
4. Trolltog [3:00]
Anonymous / Danish String Quartet
Traditional Scandinavian:
5. Drømte mig en drøm [3:25]
6. Polska from Dorotea [3:09]
Duo Aliada / Vlastimir PAVLOVI
Ć (1895 – 1965)
Traditional Balkan:
7. Improvisation [4:28]
8. Žikino kolo [1:23]
Tomasz SKWERES (b. 1984)
Coffin Ship:
9. Doloroso [4:13]
Aaron COPLAND (1900 – 1990)
Three Moods:
10. Embittered [1:08]
11. Wistful [1:53]
12. Jazzy [1:27]
George GERSHWIN (1898 – 1937)
Three Preludes:
13. Allegro ben ritmato e deciso [1:50]
14. Andante con moto [3:51]
15. Allegro ben ritmato e deciso [1:12]
Songbook:
16. Clap Yo’ Hands [0:46]
17. Fascinating Rhythm [1:03]
18. The Man I Love [1:51]
19. I Got Rhythm [1:20]
Chick COREA (b. 1941)
Children’s Songs:
20. No. 6 [2:16]
21. No. 4 [2:23]
22. No. 11 [0:47]
23. No. 7 [2:46]
Darius MILHAUD (1892 – 1974)
Scaramouche:
24. Brazileira [2:32]
