July 1, 2019

  • Solos & Duos With Many Colors

     

    In Tandem: Solos & Duos
    Vit Musik, violin. Petr Nouzovsky, cello;
    Ondrej Jurceka, trumpet. Karel Martinek, organ;
    Lucie Kaucka, piano; Sauro Berti, bass clarinet;
    Christopher Morrison, flute. Stephanie Watt, piano.
    Navona Records 6227
    Total Time:  49:48
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Regular readers of Cinemusical are likely aware that this particular release has a personal connection.  In Tandem features music by five composers, and I am among that list.  I have debated not reviewing the album, but this seemed quite unfair to my colleague’s music which deserves your attention.  So, with that caveat in place, here is an overview of this collection of unique chamber pieces.

    There are three single-movement works on the album.  Lee Actor’s Duo for Violin and Cello (1978) opens the release.  The piece received the Eva Thompson Phillips Award for composition.  The music has a more dissonant quality that opens with angular rhythmic ideas and tense harmonic writing.  The three-part structure features a decidedly more lyrical section which is a canon between the two instruments.  The piece concludes with a great flurry of energy.  Aria by Peter Greve is a fascinating exploration of timbre created by melding a slow-moving trumpet line against changing harmonies in the organ.  The result is a rather meditative work that serves as a perfect contrast to the opening work.  Sidney Bailin’s Blue Plea explores the range of the bass clarinet.  Using motivic connections in the piece, Bailin explores the instrument’s many expressive capabilities with some subtle references to Brahms; Clarinet Quintet and hints of jazz in the several riffs that appear in the music.  These ideas are taken through a number of variations that are revealed with repeated exploration.

    The two multi-movement works are a violin sonata and a work for flute and piano.  The latter is Allen Brings’ Duo for Flute and Piano which is cast in three movements.  The opening has the quality of a Bach invention as the flute and piano lines seem to be moving in parallel musical universes until they begin to come together more at the end.  The central movement wavers between peace and more intense sections with the former attitude seeming to win out as the piano dissolves at the end.  The final movement continues to explore this back-and-forth interaction as it comes to an exciting conclusion.  At the center of the album is the four-movement Marian Sonata by Steven A. Kennedy (this reviewer!).  Each of the movements explores seasons of the Church year and merges specific Marian antiphons (for Advent, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost) with a French carol and specific hymns for the same seasons.  The opening movement features the most recognizable carol Il est ne le divin enfant.  It creates a more tonal focus with modern harmonic touches.  The second movement moves toward more dissonances with subtle references to Bach in the piano and a growing piled clusters that are created from the hymn melody, “O Sacred Head Now Wounded”.  A sense of growing excitement serves as the “scherzo” movement of the sonata before strange piano sounds hint at the breath of the spirit and celebratory nature of the finale.

    The performances throughout the album are really excellent.