Louth
Contemporary Music Society LCMS 1202
The
Louth Contemporary Music Society has done it again. They’ve produced another
excellent CD of Slavic and Central Asian music, fitting squarely into their
already established corporate identity, yet filled with surprises. Each of the
composers featured here has already been introduced on previous LCMS releases,
but the music each of them provides for this one fully justifies a further
showcase of their work.
The
theme this time is music for cello ensemble. Cellist Ivan Monighetti is an LCMS
regular, a virtuoso soloist who clearly shares the sociey’s taste for new music
from Central Asia. He’s also on the staff at the Basle Academy of Music, where
he leads Celli Monighetti, an ensemble made up of his present and former
students. It is they who feature here, but don’t be alarmed, as these are
anything but student performances. The quality and sensitivity of the playing
is excellent throughout. Nor are they just a backing group for Monighetti
himself; all this music is truly ensemble work, and Monighetti’s solos, fine as
they are, are kept to a minimum.
The
programme opens with Perotin’s Viderunt
Omnes by another LCMS regular Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky. Perotin’s famous work
is treated as a repeating ground, over which YY plays out a range of ideas and
sounds. For those with an interest in the future direction of religious
minimalism, this work should provide some reassurance that things are moving
on, and in wholly interesting and worthwhile directions. YY is not afraid to
repeat, and repeat at length, but he also develops. The result is a musical
structure that combines atmospheric minimalism with symphonic rigour. That’s
quite an achievement, considering how many composers have tried and failed with
that combination in recent years.
Shyshtar
Metamorphoses by Franghiz Ali-Zadeh is the most ‘ethnic’ offering
here. As with much of her work, the piece evokes Ali-Zadeh’s Azeri roots
through allusions to the country’s folk music. Cello ensemble proves the ideal
medium for this music, as the instruments can convincingly evoke the sounds of
Central Asian stringed instruments, but in a sufficiently generalised way that
the listener does not spend the whole work trying to identify them. Curiously,
the richest and most intense textures in the piece are achieved when the cellos
play in unison, a testament to the range of colours Ali-Zadeh draws from the
ensemble. And when she seeks a warm, round sound, the players are always able
to oblige. (Sound engineer Alexander Van
Ingen deserves credit for this too, and for the richness and clarity of
the sound throughout the album.)
Alexander
Knaifel’s O Comforter is a real
treat. This work is very much in the spirit of his masterpiece In Air Clear and Unseen. Both are slow
and quiet works for strings that maintain the interest through unexpected
harmonic shifts, and chords that are never quite as consonant as they seem. It
is as if Knaifel has resurrected a mediaeval organum style, but one entirely of
his own making. The work was originally for choir, but if anything works even
better for cello ensemble.
The
Knaifel is framed by two works from Sofia Gubaidulina, On the Edge of the Abyss and Mirage:
the Dancing Sun. The composer’s famous Canticle
of the Sun is evoked by both works, especially the latter, as its name
suggests. But the exotic percussion of Canticle
returns in On the Edge of the Abyss,
this time in the form of two waterphones. But the focus throughout is on the
cellos, and (thanks perhaps to her many works for Rostropovich) Gubaidulina has
an impressive grasp of the wide range of possibilities the instrument offers.
As on previous LCMS releases, the Gubaidulina works are the most sophisticated and the most
successful, especially On the Edge of the
Abyss, which has by far the most sophisticated textures of any of the works
here. Just one small grumble about it though: it is based on the plainchant for
the Dies Irae. When Berlioz did this it was effective, but the extent to which
this theme has been repeatedly abused in the intervening years (especially by
Rachmaninov) has turned it into a hopeless cliché. Gubaidulina evidently
expects us to listen with innocent ears, but that can be quite a struggle.
As
ever, LCMS provide classy packaging and detailed notes. The programme notes are
by Martin Adams, who does the project a huge service by giving us all the
information we need, and without all the abstract and irrelevant rubbish we
would have to sift through if this was an ECM release. Nobody has yet told him
that Rostrpovich has died however, and I’m sorry to have to be the one to break
it to him. But otherwise the information here is all pertinent and correct.
These
recordings date from October 2011, and LCMS have been engaged in a number of
other projects since then (Drogheda seems gradually to becoming Ireland’s
capital for new music). So keep an eye out for their next recording. In the
mean time, this one is highly recommended.
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