CLASSICAL NOTES

REVIEWS by Nick Boston

Marco Albonetti & Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana Romance del Diablo: The Music of Piazzolla (Chandos CHAN20220).

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) brought Argentinian ‘Nuevo tango’ to concert platforms around the world, and his music has been performed in many guises. Here, Italian saxophonist Marco Albonetti, with the Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana, plays his sensitive interpretations which demonstrate how well the saxophone (mostly the soprano instrument) is suited to taking the role of Piazzolla’s bandonéon (a kind of concertina). The title track, Romance del Diablo, is a sensuous and intimate piece, with the devil definitely in seduction mode. Albonetti plays with aching melancholy, and the orchestral playing is sumptuous throughout. In Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires), several soloists from the orchestra get the chance to shine, with percussive effects in Autumn, and dark, sensuous rumblings in Winter. There’s more virtuosity in Spring, and Summer is lively, with pulsing pizzicato strings beneath the sax solo, before the sliding doublebass builds the tempo, to a final scream from the sax to finish. For Años de Soledad (Years of Solitude), Albonetti ups the melancholic ante by switching to the baritone sax, and the warm tones, contrasted with the jabbing orchestral tango rhythm, make this a highlight of the disc for me. Two of Piazzolla’s most well-known works are here too. In Oblivion, after a solo sax improvisation over a pulsing double-bass heartbeat, the slow, melancholic milonga tune takes over, with evocative inflections from Albonetti. The disc ends with Libertango and once this gets going, the sax repeats its hypnotic, twisting motif over the piano and bass stamping out the tango rhythm. I’ve heard interpretations with greater abandon here, but Albonetti and the players are certainly captivating to listen to. A disc full of life and romance.

Sarah Shafer & Lysander Piano Trio Mirrors: 21st Century American Piano Trios (First Hand Records FHR111).

The American Lysander Piano Trio mark their tenth anniversary with a collection of premieres of works by six living American composers. The opening work, Around the Cauldron by Gilad Cohen (b.1980) has seven short movements depicting scenes inspired by the three witches in Macbeth. Cohen particularly exploits the high registers of the three instruments for ‘witchy’ effect, and hand-stopped piano strings evoke an electric bass, with lots of glassy string effects too. Reinaldo Moya’s (b.1984) Ghostwritten Variations take inspiration from fictional composers, including Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus. Moya makes great use of turbulent perpetual motion, as well as reverberation effects from repeated, pulsing chords, and ghostly high piano ripples against glassy sustained string chords. For Jennifer Higdon’s (b.1962) Love Sweet, the trio are joined by soprano Sarah Shafer for a set of five songs following the trajectory of a relationship from birth to death. Shafer has a bright, incisive tone, and expresses the changing moods well here, from the sprightly opening Apology, through the ominous, even disturbing Absence, the elegiac and intense A Gift, to the painful end in A Fixed Idea. They return to Shakespeare for Sofia Belimova’s (b.2000) Titania and Her Suite, and in this delightful miniature, the piano ripples and the violin delicately tweets like a bird. A wild dance builds, with all three players bumping into each other rhythmically, and the result is a beautifully light and wispy confection.

William David Cooper (b.1986) turns to Psalm 137 for An den Wassern zu Babel, and he exploits the lyrical potential of the string instruments here, with a sense of frenzy building through the fifth variation, and then driving through to an almost violent conclusion. Jakub Ciupinski’s (b.1981) The Black Mirror concludes the disc, with some incredibly evocative and effective writing. He creates a ‘seagull’ effect with glissandi (slides) on harmonics, and there are hints of Pärt in the rising and falling lines. As the intensity builds, the ‘seagulls’ swoop around piano chords, then the strings wind around in repeating, minimalist patterns. The Lysander Piano Trio demonstrate exceptional virtuosic and expressive talent across this diverse selection, thus creating an excellent showcase for all six composers, and their 10th anniversary – Happy Birthday!

Talivaldis Kenins Violin Concerto; Concerto for 5 Percussionists & Orchestra; Beatae voces tenebrae (SKANi SKANI088).

Composer Talivaldis Kenins (1919-2008) left Latvia following Soviet occupation after WWII, emigrating via France to Canada in 1951. Despite being one of Canada’s most performed composers, few works have been recorded. So the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andris Poga, are rectifying that, with a disc of three works, his Violin Concerto, his Concerto for Five Percussionists and Orchestra, and the single movement orchestral piece, Beatae voces tenebrae. His music combines a certain romanticism with the neoclassicism of his French training, and it is a fascinating mix of lean, often angular counterpoint with lyrically striking melodies. In the Violin Concerto, performed here impressively and with conviction by Latvian violinist Eva Bendere, the spiky, virtuosic lines, over often sparse and brittle orchestral accompaniment, contrast with expressive falling and rising lines in the slow movement. An extended cadenza begins the finale, and percussion and racing strings herald a race to the finish. The Concerto for Five Percussionists and Orchestra, performed here by members of Perpetuum Ritmico, is highly dramatic. A live performance would carry an added visual benefit, as a dazzling array of instruments are made use of here (not all of which I could identify aurally). There are crashes and knocks from cymbals, woodblock and gong, as well as queasy tuning slides on the timpani, and even a siren for a wild finish. To conclude the disc, Beatae voces tenebrae is a mixture of serene calm and anguish of grief – it was written after the sudden death of two close friends, but also possibly commemorated the 100th birthday of his mother, as well as ‘deported loved ones’, victims of the occupation. From a low, rumbling opening, Kenins gradually builds tension, with moments of true anguish from the strings, and some strange effects from the horns. The end brings calm, although the percussion continues to knock away disconcertingly in the background, before the harp rises into nothingness at the end. A fascinating window into a new composer for me, and one I will definitely explore further.

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