Fanfare Reviews
from March/April 1999
FRY Kaleidoscope1. Concerto2. 12 Studies3. Drift of the Eastern Gray4. Impressions5. Gloria6 • Elizabeth Rheude (cI)1.2; Jay Harshberger (pn)1; John Whitwell, cond; Michigan State Wind S2. Jane Solose (pn)3.4; Kathleen Solose (pn)4. Vladimir Mityakov (gtr)5. James Rodde, cond; University of North Dakota Concert Ch6 • CAPSTONE CPS 8653 (70:48)
James Fry is a composition professor at the University of North Dakota. The overall title of the disc is Kaleidoscope. The works on this disc are mostly set forth in short movements of particular character. Fry's style ranges from a fairly thorny modernism (the piano études) to pleasant Neoclassicism (Impressions for guitar) to Stravinsky emulation (Gloria for SATB chorus and piano duet). Kaleidoscope for clarinet and piano is structured in three movements, fast-slow-fast. The first and third are based on a steady pulse, while the second is a freely sung lament. The pitch language is atonal with a noticeable concern for harmonic progression and voice leading. The piano takes an accompanist's role for much of the piece, and both instrumentalists play with confidence and excitement.
At least half of the first movement of the two-movement Concerto for clarinet and wind ensemble is comprised of a cadenza for the clarinet with minimal accompaniment. There's almost no real interplay between ensemble and soloist. The frenetic second movement integrates the two a bit better, though there's not much of a feeling of concerto here. There's some nice rhythmic vitality in the second movement, including a quotation from The Rite of Spring. The piece seems unfinished, though, as if it should have another movement.
Twelve Studies for piano runs a gamut of mood types as well as techniques, though no approach receives more than a couple of minutes of exploration. The first study is the longest, at just under two and a half minutes; five of the pieces are less than a minute long. Fry calls for some in-strings work from the pianist, but restrains himself from using sounds completely outside the piano's usual timbral range. The movements tend to swing between fast, extroverted fingerwork and free-tempo, recitativelike passages. The difficult passages speed by cleanly at the fingertips of Jane Solose. Her sister Kathleen joins her in Drift of the Eastern Gray for piano duo, eight short "character pieces" and a more substantial finale.
Fry shows great understanding for the guitar in the three-movement Impressions (1997). The wonderfully idiomatic writing never sounds contrived. Fry employs a Neoclassic, tonally centered language here to lovely effect. Russian guitarist Vladimir Mityakov plays with a beautiful tone and sure knowledge of the piece, which encompasses quiet harmonics, jazz or rocklike strumming, and more traditional contrapuntal passages.
From its first chord, Gloria (1988) sounds utterly derived from Stravinsky's Mass. It begins in declaiming, homophonic chords and progresses to more lyrical writing, never wandering far from the sound world of Stravinsky, with only slightly more demure references to the Poulenc Gloria.
This is often very fine music, eclectic and well crafted, emotive and challenging and exciting. The performances are first rate, and the several recording venues and personnel maintain a consistently high level of quality throughout. The disc is thoroughly enjoyable.
Robert Kirzinger
Copyright © 1999 by Fanfare, Inc. Reprinted by permission from Volume 22, No. 4 (March/April 1999), pages 210-211.
VARÈSE The Complete Works • Riccardo Chailly, cond; Royal Concertgebouw O; ASKO Ensemble; Men of the Prague PCh; Mireille Delunsch, Sarah Leonard (sop); Kevin Deas (bs); François Kerdoncuff (pn); Jacques Zoon (fl) • LONDON 289 460 208-2 (2 CDs: 150:36)
Tuning Up. Amériques (Original Version). Arcana. Poème électronique. Nocturnal. Un Grand Sommeil noir (Orchestral Version). Un Grand Sommeil noir (Original Version) Offrandes. Hyperprism. Octandre. Intégrales. Ecuatorial. Ionisation. Density 21.5. Déserts. Dance for Burgess
This is the first compilation of Varèse music to feature a world-class orchestra since Boulez recorded some of the orchestral works with the New York Philharmonic (Sony). This should be another indication that contemporary music is no longer the exclusive province of specialists. The set is sensibly arranged with orchestral music on CD 1 and chamber pieces on CD 2. But a better indication of the care with which the project was assembled is the participation of Chou Wen-chung. Conductor Chailly sought the assistance of this preeminent Varèse authority, and Professor Chou served as a guiding force in the revision of scores and as a source of program notes and biographical material.
Arcana may be the Varèse piece best suited to regular symphony programs, and it has been recorded several times. Of recent performances, that by Leonard Slatkin with the Philharmonia (RCA) palls in comparison to Chailly. Slatkin presents blocks of sound that seem monumental and static: With its "ancient wisdom" subtext, it is easy to see Arcana as derivative of Le Sacre. What Chailly brings to the score, besides the dynamism inherent in the music, is its underlying drama. This makes his performance more reminiscent of Ruggles's Sun-treader. Chailly's 1992 recording has a wider soundstage and more depth than Boulez's excellent NYPO performance from 1977.
The other big work, Amériques, is presented as a "world premiere (original version)." There is a lyricism in this performance that Varèse is seldom credited with, and the sirens and percussion can be seen more as counterpoint to it than as mere noisemakers (the opening does sound like Stravinsky or early Prokofiev, and there are even stretches that seem like a savage Ravel). Boulez is more impressive than Nagano (Erato) in this piece, exploiting the different facets of the music more readily, and the Orchestre National de France is no match for the NYPO in full cry. With Chailly, there is again a deeper, more resonant acoustic that adds to the atmosphere of the recording. This original version is notable for the increased wind and brass, and for the effects produced by the steamboat whistle, cyclone whistle, and a crow call (!). These all add to the feeling of arrival that Amériques may be said to express, though its composer was not fond of literal interpretations. I find it a richer piece than Arcana, a piece that still sounds new in the way Le Sacre does.
I was not very kind to Nocturnal in my review of the Nagano performance (Fanfare 21:4). The performance here doesn't change my mind, though it's effective enough. The men of the Prague Philharmonic Choir sing/speak in a somewhat accented English, and Sarah Leonard copes with the demands of her music, though Phyllis Bryn-Julson (Nagano), as always, has a very pure-sounding voice, which is endearing. I can't help but imagine a Bela Lugosi B movie when I hear this piece--White Zombie, maybe?
I hadn't heard Poème électronique since the Robert Craft LPs were reissued in the 70s. It's an interesting assemblage of voice, bells, percussion, and voice, all subjected to various kinds of electronic distortion. It might have been very effective blaring from 400 speakers during the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels; as music, I prefer Revolution 9.
The remaining two pieces on CD 1 are hyphenated Varèse: Tuning Up is just that, reconstructed for orchestra by Professor Chou from drafts abandoned after a film-score commission fell through. To continue my Beatles analogy, it could serve the same purpose in a Varèse concert as the tuning up section at the opening of Sgt. Pepper did for that LP. Un Grand Sommeil noir appears twice: on this CD in an orchestrated version (by Antony Beaumont), and in its original form for voice and piano on CD 2. In the former, it is a heavy, Romantic song that would be right at home in a concert with pieces by Mahler, Strauss, or Zemlinsky. Mireille Delunsch sings in both versions. The original version is interesting as one of the only remnants of Varèse's student work; the other seems superfluous to me.
I'll be the first to admit that I'm a poor judge of Varèse vocal music: In general, I find it to be melodramatic, portentous in a grandiose way, and an odd pastiche of styles. That said, the Chailly performance of Offrandes is better recorded than either Boulez or Nagano, and Sarah Leonard is suavely animated rather than severely modern in interpretation. Ecuatorial has always seemed to me to draw on Varèse's strengths, and Chailly's performance is characteristically strong. His soloist, Kevin Deas, is a light-voiced bass, and he doesn't have the range of Nagano's Nicholas Isherwood (I'd like to hear Samuel Ramey, with his dark-toned voice and natural sense of drama, in this work).
Of the chamber pieces, Octandre, in three movements, is the oddity. Uncharacteristic too is the importance of melody: What rhythmic quality there is comes from pitched instruments. Its three miniatures appear almost Webernian, and it may be that which appeals to Boulez: His performance of Octandre is outstanding in its concentrated energy. Chailly's performance is likewise strong, marginally better recorded, and Chailly achieves a more dynamic flourish in the final Grave--Animé et jubilatoire section. Hyperprism is a slight, characteristic piece, and it receives a careful performance here.
Intégrales, with Déserts, calls for the largest ensemble of the chamber work. The Nagano performance is the best of the competition (though I harbor a sentimental attachment to Mehta's on London); Chailly's scores over it in more spacious recorded sound and in the crisp articulation of the various musical cells. Ionisation has received so many good recordings that it would be futile to label Chailly's "best," but it is impressive. The various drums sound terrific; in fact, all of the exotic instruments, from the low-pitched siren to the lion's roar, have a realistic timbre that is unparalleled. Chailly again brings a sense of drama to this music, and I find that a crucial ingredient. Boulez, for all his precision, presents Varèse as pure sound, and achieves impressive results. Nagano is closer to Chailly, but the latter adds a humanizing element that moves the music beyond sound effect.
Déserts always makes me sad, as a sort of threnody for postindustrial society. Chailly's sense of the dramatic animates his version. The indexing allows the listener to quickly cue the four instrumental episodes, or the three tape interpolations, a courtesy to the student often neglected in this piece. Another indication of the care invested in this performance is the inclusion of the original tapes from the Columbia Computer Music Center (no other tapes sound quite the same).
Density 21.5 communicates more directly than any other Varèse piece, and I've never heard a bad performance. The one included here by Jacques Zoon is quite beautiful.
At the risk of overdoing the humanizing theme, I found it wonderful that the austere Varèse wrote a piece for that marvelous character actor Burgess Meredith. The last world premiere recording of the set, Dance for Burgess, was edited by Chou from his own handwritten score of Varèse's draft for his contribution to a musical play directed by and starring Meredith. Though hardly typical Broadway fare, this slight piece is very concentrated Varèse. The ASKO performance is like a miniature Intégrales, and it has the same merits as that performance.
In summary, this integral set of the complete works surpasses the recent efforts by Kent Nagano in comprehensiveness, recorded sound, and performance standard. I would go so far as to say that anyone interested in more than the occasional Varèse piece could forgo most other Varèse recordings (keep the Boulez pair on Sony) and pick up this set. I will treasure it for Amériques, Ionisation, Intégrales, and Déserts, and it's the first entry on my Want List for '99.
Christopher Abbot
Copyright © 1999 by Fanfare, Inc. Reprinted by permission from Volume 22, No. 4 (March/April 1999), pages 353-354.
Home - Favorites - Composers - CD Big List- Reviews - Books - Links - Search - About Us