Fanfare Reviews
from May/June 1990

GOTKOVSKY: Concerto for Symphonic Band. Concerto for Saxophone and Symphonic Band¹. Poem of Fire, for Symphonic Band. Norbert Nozy conducting The Symphonic Band of the Belgian Guides; Jean Leclercq, alto saxophone¹. RENÉ GAILLY CD87 037 [DDD]; 63:16. Produced by Ida Gotkovsky. (Distributed by Qualiton.)

We have all had that rare feeling, hearing a work for the first time, that here is big-league music, by a heavyweight composer. The Concerto for Band by Ida Gotkovsky (b. 1933) strikes me that way; this is forceful, impetuous music, written in 1974 in an accessible yet suitably advanced and original style. It has a big, confident air about it, moving with the mighty strides of symphonies by Hindemith (the B-Flat, and the E-Flat) and Stravinsky (Symphony in Three Movements). The three movements are Lyrique, Expressif, and Obstiné; the first progresses from a violent opening to a calm close, the second works its way slowly to a lengthy, harsh climax and back again, and the finale bubbles with rhythmic excitement and glistening sonorities, whirling to a perpetual-motion coda which is cut short by one swift final chord.

The saxophone concerto (1980) gets right down to business: after half a dozen loud boisterous chords, the soloist is off and running. In this virtuosic concerto, the soft smooth colors of the alto saxophone are contrasted with glaring grim tuttis. A nice touch is the pairing of solo instrument with other single winds in brief duets. Gotkovsky has the wit to end the opening Allegro con fuoco with a brief, quiet coda. In the Andante cantabile, the expected sweet song is crushed several times by stabbing, trilling chords from the full orchestra, but always emerges intact. A Presto finale--the longest movement--is filled with dazzling passages for the soloist and explores many moods; this time Gotkovsky pulls out all the stops, as a wild cadenza leads to a fortissimo coda. A stunning concerto, and Jean LeClercq plays a fabulous alto sax.

Poem of Fire (1978) is also intense, driving music. Like the other works, it has a Populist flavor--let it all hang out--which may put off some listeners, but I find it very convincing. Gotkovsky digs deep and comes up with gutsy music; I'll admit that an hour's worth at one sitting is too much, leaving one stunned and exhausted, but I do find that returning to this music provides continuing stimulation and satisfaction. I don't know what kind of an organization the Belgian Guides is, but their symphonic band is in the same league as the Eastman Wind Ensemble, realizing all the power and punch of Gotkovsky's music. The recording, too, is deep and broad, capturing the solid low brass particularly well, and conveying all the strengths of the group. The notes tell us that Gotkovsky was born in France, and lists more than fifty of her works--in all the classic forms--plus many composition prizes that she has won, ending with a brief statement that she teaches in Texas. A most appropriate combination, for her music sounds Texan: big, brash, and open. Highly recommended to those with an appetite for new musical barn-burners.

James H. North

KIRCHNER: Concerto for Violin, Cello, Ten Winds, and Percussion¹. Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano². Five Pieces for Piano³. Music for Twelve⁴. Leon Kirchner conducting the Boston Symphony Chamber Players^1,4; with Malcolm Lowe, violin^1,2; Jules Eskin, cello²; Gilbert Kalish, piano². Leon Kirchner, piano³. ELEKTRA/NONESUCH 9 79188-2 [DDD]; 58:44. Produced by Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz.

A piano student with Artur Schnabel, a composition student with Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and
Sessions, among others, outspoken polemicist against doctrinaire polemicists such as Boulez, professor at Harvard University, and composer of a small body of extraordinarily intense works, Leon Kirchner is one of the major but also most neglected figures in contemporary music. This
superb, beautifully recorded Elektra/Nonesuch sampling of two early and two recent works from Kirchner's oeuvre will, I hope, lead to future recorded investigations of this consummate artist's output. There are, perhaps, two keys to Kirchner's music: the first is a probing lyricism, often tinged with deep sadness, that is never far from even the most complex, dissonant passages. The second
is a solidly non-tonal harmonic language that ventures, like Berg's, into the domain of atonality while maintaining subtle ties with the tonal system from which it departed, particularly, in Kirchner, via the frequent presence of strongly triadal chordal structures. On other levels of his music as well, Kirchner rarely establishes patterns that continue into predictability. Indeed, another strong characteristic of the composer's music--certainly apparent in all of the compositions recorded here--is an ongoing ebb and flow between tension and meditative calm.

Of the works recorded by Kirchner and his Boston colleagues, the 1960 Concerto for Violin, Cello, Ten Winds, and Percussion is probably the most severe and the most energetic. One also hears in it certain rhythmic and instrumental figures that evoke the music of his mentor, Roger Sessions. The 1954 trio, on the other hand, while sharing some of the concerto's manic energy, ventures subtly and quietly into darker and perhaps deeper areas of feeling. Similar areas of feeling likewise dominate the recent (1985) Music for 12, although here the moods do not seem quite as dark. Indeed, Joseph Horowitz, in his program commentary, sees in the style of Music for 12 a "mellowing of this composer's signature volatility." The 1987 Five Pieces for Piano are a reworking of five of the six settings of Emily Dickinson poems that make up Kirchner's 1983 The Twilight Stood. Although these interlinked songs-without-words often relax into the sweet simplicity via which the composer's meditative lyricism most often expresses itself, the bravura style of these pieces, with their fast-moving, blockbuster chords and their dazzling passage work, could only have come from the pen of a thoroughly accomplished pianist. Indeed, one senses in this music the same kind of direct link from the fingers on the keyboard to the notes on the paper that one feels, for instance, in the music of Maurice Ravel. As for the performances, Kirchner, to put it simply, plays the hell out of his own music. But then, he likewise elicits thoroughly committed, expert, and involved performances from the Boston Symphony Chamber Players. I once had the unique experience of hearing the composer, during an interview I did with him, play through his entire opera, Lily (based on Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King), at the piano. The thorough immersion in every element of the music I felt that day can be felt in every performance on this CD. Although I would have liked a tad more presence from the piano, the recorded sound is rich, realistic, and perfectly balanced. One would not suspect digital technology, except in its positive aspects, behind the aural warmth one finds here. The program notes also contain a wonderful "snapshot" appreciation of the composer by John Adams.

Royal S. Brown

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Fanfare Reviews from May/June 1990

Fanfare Reviews
from May/June 1990