July 22, 2019

  • Music for 2 Pianos by Daniel Ott

     

    Falling Pieces: The Music of Daniel Ott
    88 Squared: Jeffrey Savage and Karen Savage, pianos.
    Navona Records 6233
    Total Time:  28:00
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Composer Daniel Ott currently teaches Julliard and Fordham University.  He is a recipient of honors from the Academy of Arts and Letters and ASCAP Foundation with numerous commissions for his music all over the world.  The current brief release focuses on two pieces for two pianos.

    First is a single-movement work Pieces of Reich (2004, rev. 2008).  The music’s reference is to Steve Reich’s Music for Pieces of Wood.  Ott’s contribution was to serve as a prelude to a choreographed presentation of the other work.  He transcribed the Reich for two pianos and then created this piece as the opening companion.  The sound of the music here is a more modern one with explorations of motives and whirls of sound that are transferred in dialogue between the two instruments.  There are some rather fascinating moments of Romantic-like melodies as well as pulsing references to the Reich along the way.

    The other work on the release is Fantasy on a Falling Line (2014) which was commissioned by the performers here.  Seven sections move seamlessly exploring the opening falling chords that start the “Prelude” with a somewhat unassuming way.  There is a sort of sadness to them which will be exploited as the work continues.  These falling harmonies are punctuated by echoes in the nether regions of the piano.  Ott blends the more atonal structures and angular lines with more traditional, almost romantic suggestions, as the two concepts enter into interplay between the two pianos.  The music has some great drive with ostinato patterns being transferred from one instrument to the other while a primary melodic thread pops over the top.    Each of the three “movements” further explore one aspect of these falling motifs separated by interludes.  The work concludes with a “Postlude”.

    Both pieces are important additions to the two-piano repertoire giving performers a chance to shift mood from more intense atonal writing to often touching open arabesques.  88 Squared are perfectly matched to create performances that are well-shaped and filled with excellent interaction enhanced by technical clarity and great virtuosity.