Claudio Mondini / Anna Pecora 2 VIOLINS

 

2 VIOLINS

 

Jean-Luc Menet PHILIPPE HERSANT Mnaomai

 

MNAOMAI

 

Giovanna Buccarella / Francesco Diodovich / Orchestra Filarmonica Pugliese / Giovanni Minafra DOUBLE CONCERTO

DOUBLE CONCERTO

 

Marcello Fantoni NICCOLÒ PAGANINI Ghiribizzi

GHIRIBIZZI

Trio Cavallaro VENERE BELLA

VENERE BELLA

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin / Roland Kluttig LUCIA RONCHETTI Schiffbruch mit Zuschauer - Pinocchio, una storia parallela - Il Sonno di Atys

LUCIA RONCHETTI

Francesca Ajossa VOCI DI DONNE

VOCI DI DONNE

Simona Marchesi QUEL CHE L'ARPA DICE

QUEL CHE L'ARPA DICE

MDI Ensemble MAURO LANZA - ANDREA VALLE Systema naturæ

                                                              SYSTEMA NATURAE

Liliana Bernardi AUSTRIAN BAROQUE FOR SOLO VIOLIN

                                          AUSTRIAN BAROQUE FOR SOLO VIOLIN

Prague Modern / Pascal Gallois GÉRARD GRISEY - FABIEN LÉVY

On this 2018 recording, Pascal Gallois conducts Prague Modern in performances of works by Gérard Grisey (1946-1998) and Fabien Lévy (b. 1968). Before addressing the compositions, some background on the three is warranted as their histories align. During the ‘90s, Gallois and Grisey were fellow instructors at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris, with Lévy a student in Grisey's composition course. Gallois's first encounter with him preceded that period, however. While performing in the Ensemble Intercontemporain in 1981 (having earlier graduated from the Conservatoire himself), Gallois was introduced to Grisey's Modulations (1976-77), which stunned him with its innovative techniques and use of microtonality. Recalling that experience, Gallois said, “I remember leaving the first rehearsal with a real enthusiasm and the feeling of having discovered a world that would leave its indelible mark on my life.”

Grisey, who studied with Messiaen and Dutilleux and attended seminars with Stockhausen, Ligeti, and Xenakis, studied electroacoustic music in the early ‘70s in Paris, was attached to IRCAM in 1980, taught at the University of California at Berkeley (1982-86), returned to teach at the Paris conservatory and give seminars in Europe before dying from a ruptured aneurysm in November 1998. Lévy, who like his one-time teacher developed an association with IRCAM (as pedagogical advisor from 1999-2000), lectured at the Sorbonne, taught composition at Columbia University in New York (2006-12), and currently teaches composition at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold in Germany. On the Prague Modern release, two pieces by Lévy precede Vortex Temporum (1996) by Grisey.

As a title, Querwüchsig, a German neologism formed from Quer (diagonal) and Wüchsig (to grow or sprout), captures the angular and development-focused aspects of Lévy's composition; the word also echoes Unwüchsig, which refers to lustiness and primitiveness, and Wildwuchs, uncontrolled growth. Such meanings also come into play in the thrust with which cells advance from one part to another, a technique inspired (the composer's own admission) by the cross-rhythms of Central African polyphony. Performed by a thirteen-member ensemble, Querwüchsig is a remarkable creature whose metamorphoses command the attention for fifteen knotty, action-packed minutes. Lévy exploits to maximum effect the instrumental resources, with woodwinds, horns, strings, percussion, and piano all engaged in bringing his challenging material into being. It's hardy one-dimensional either, with contrasts in dynamics, mood, and tempo similarly explored. And while Querwüchsig isn't a serial composition, you might find yourself reminded a little bit of Berg's writing during the rather playful sequence that follows the aggressive intro.

Scored for a five-member unit, Lévy's second piece is Risala fl-hob-wa fi'lm al-handasa (“small treatise on love and geometry”), its parts called “Muqarnas” (geometric figures used in Arabic architecture) and Murassa (which means enameled, bejeweled, sequined). With both titles referencing techniques of ornamentation in Islamic art, it's little surprise that, despite the modest number of instruments in play, the two would be rich in colour and sophisticated in design. During the first, staccato, dancing figures alternate with initially subdued and then agitated expressions of fragmented phrases, the micro-elements coming together to form an intricate, mutating web. The second adopts a ponderous mien, stripping its presentation down to hushed gestures and bringing silence thoughtfully into the equation.

Writings by Grisey as a twenty-two-year-old reveal remarkable prescience in how accurately he foresaw the character his future music would assume. Among the things written, he stated that his music should synthesize the cerebral and the emotional, strive to achieve the “precision and brightness of Ravel,” and be “intellectual without that intellectualism being apparent.” The latter principle definitely applies to Vortex Temporum (Lévy's two also), the forty-three-minute work incredible on formal grounds yet accessible, too. A sextet of woodwinds, strings, and piano performs the three-movement work, which opens with a dazzle of Glass-like arpeggios before quickly leaving behind any minimalism associations. Liner notes by Lévy help bring Vortex Temporum into sharper focus, revealing, for example, that it's based on a flute line from Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé (not something you'd likely glean from listening alone) and that, consistent with its microtonality dimension, four piano strings need to be detuned for the performance. Yet while it's distinguished by formal innovations of various kinds, it bears repeating that it's also an eminently listenable work. Ivan Siller, the pianist on both Vortex Temporum and Querwüchsig, deserves mention for his contributions to the Grisey work in particular, whose opening movement includes an extended solo piano episode. 

As a document of representative works by Grisey and Lévy, this is an invaluable and important recording that speaks highly on behalf of Gallois and Prague Modern but also Stradivarius for making the recording available. That the ensemble recorded all three of its selections on a single day (March 11, 2018) certainly says much about the superior calibre of musicianship involved.

Alter Ego PHILIP GLASS Music in the shape of a Square

On 30 June 1999, the ensemble Alter Ego performed a concert of works by Philip Glass at the Opera Paese Gallery in Rome, one of the most innovative musical venues in the city and where Alter Ego has played regularly since 1996. Glass himself was present at this performance which was a replica of his own famous debut concert at the New York Film-Makers Cinemateque in September 1968. Under the guidance of Pietro Fortuna, the artists of the Opera Paese Gallery faithfully reconstructed the geometric installations which Glass had originally called for at that first performance. And over thirty years later, the audience in Rome gave the concert the same positive, enthusiastic reception it had enjoyed in New York — to the extent that Glass himself was suprised, as indeed he was by the modernity and abstract nature of several of his early compositions which he had neither played nor heard since that time.

2001 marks the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the ensemble Alter Ego which has earned a reputation as one of the major European chamber groups performing twentieth-century classical compositions and works at the cutting edge of new directions in music. Alter Ego has given concerts at principal venues in Italy, Europe and elsewhere, such as the Scala in Milan, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Beethovenhalle in Bonn, De Yjsbreker in Amsterdam, Musica in Strasburg, Nybrokaien 11 in Stockholm, the Akademie der Kunste in Berlin and the lllkom in Tashkent. Nonetheless, the ensemble has never felt that its sole purpose was to perform music in a traditional manner or setting, its prime objective being the development of creativity in contemporary art. This has constantly meant new, stimulating experiences as the ensemble works with artists from various disciplines, such as Italian rapper Frankie HI-NRG, DJ Robin Rimbaud (aka Scanner), visual artists Michelangelo Pistoletto and D-Fuse and performers synonymous with the musical avant-garde such as violinist Irvine Arditti or the Accroche Note ensemble. Such wide-ranging collaborations are also the result of Alter Ego’s conviction that the language of contemporary music will make greater sense if perceived as part of a total performance and a cultural event and will thus be understood by a broader audience than normally associated with the genre.

The Alter Ego ensemble also works closely with many of the major composers of our time, including Alvin Curran, Philip Glass, Giya Kancheli, David Lang, Frederic Rzewski and Kaija Saariaho. And Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino has declared that Alter Ego’s performances of his works are the benchmark by which all others are to be judged. It is thus wholly fitting that Alter Ego’s recording of various compositions by Sciarrino, “Esplorazione Del Bianco” on the Stradivarius label, should win the unanimous approval of both critics and record buyers.

Renata Arlotti SUITES AND HOMAGES

When talent meets devotion towards an artistic expression, and a particular musical instrument appears to win the attention of a young girl, this combination of precious factors fosters the start of a life dedicated to that instrument. Growing up in such a suggestive land as Sardinia, whose song has inspired some great artists and poets, this lucky one, now a successful guitarist, has been uprooted by destiny, which has offered her skills, numerous challenges, and opportunities to fulfill her growing ability to express herself at her best in some of the most important centers of the Western world. This release, her first attempt to show guitar lovers and fans an exceptionally ambitious choice of classical Italian and Spanish repertoire, will be a successful step into the clan of our best recording artists. Renata Arlotti has chosen Tedesco and Asencio's solo masterpieces for this album. Renata Arlotti began studying classical guitar in her home town of Sassari before continuing in Milan with Lorenzo Micheli. She earned her Bachelors degree from the Conservatoire de la Vallee dAoste, graduating in 2011 with highest honors. She went on to study at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiano and then the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Michele Marelli KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN Harlekin

HARLEKIN is a remarkable, and successful, extreme of variation form. A great deal of the long-lasting fascination of Stockhausen's music is produced by its exploration of the extreme boundaries of music, of what music can be. This work explores the extremes of music within a seemingly traditional framework, extensive variation of melody, a feature that provides a special fascination of its own.

Over a span of 45 minutes, the listener is confronted with nothing but one single melodic formula, with innumerable variations (in its original form the formula lasts about one minute, but mostly it is contracted to a much shorter duration). Broadly speaking and a little simplified (as will become clear later), the entire work consists of just a single chain of successive, yet varied, repetitions of this formula, connected like pearls on a string.

This alone would be remarkable enough, yet even more striking is the variation technique employed in relation to the duration of the entire work. Even though the work is so extended in duration, no complete transformation of melody takes place, as found for example in some late works by Beethoven, such as the Diabelli variations or the fourth movement of the String Quartet op. 131 (where the transformations of the material during the variation process are so huge that they amount to magical transfigurations).

On the contrary, in HARLEKIN the basic shape of the melody is mostly preserved, only slightly bent or furnished with different accents during variations, and there are wide stretches of the work that do not even split the formula melody up into motives. A similar kind of variation technique is often heard in slow movements of the Classical period. Among the better-known examples from this period, there are very successful ones, but also some where the music merely drags itself from one little 'neat' variation to another, inevitably producing some boredom on the part of the listener.

Such boredom is not inherent in the proceedings of HARLEKIN: What is so astonishing is that the small variations presented in the composition can hold the listener's attention during the entire duration of 45 minutes, a much longer duration than that of any variation movement in previous music.

An experience of this nature, however, can only take place once the listener has 'locked into' the formula, and therefore becomes able to follow all the alterations in a state of suspense. Given both the unusually expansive breath for this kind of music and the fact that the formula only slowly is 'un-wound', 'locking into' the formula may prove challenging for the listener. This may be why some listeners, even Stockhausen fans, do not initially find the work very compelling. Reasonable appreciation of the musical processes may require repeated listening.

The humour so central to the work, audibly and – in a live performance – visibly (keep in mind that this is very much a theatrical work), is an important vehicle for adding interest to the variation processes. It often contributes to special vividness and meaning of changes in accentuation of the formula.

HARLEKIN can be considered a showpiece of Stockhausen's solid compositional craft. Few composers could have accomplished this kind of composition with such evident mastery, and it becomes abundantly clear from listening to this and many other works that Stockhausen is not one of the dubious cases of contemporary composer whose music's 'fancy weirdness' conceals a lack of basic compositional technique and skills.

It should not be overlooked that without these skills in "traditional" craft of composition also phenomena like the organic transformations found in even more radical works such as HYMNEN would be impossible. This is an important reason why achievements such as HYMNEN cannot be emulated by electronic-studio wizards who are less sure-footed in basic compositional technique.