The All Star Percussion Ensemble

All Star Percussion Ensemble/Harold Farberman
Moss Music Group/Vox MCD 10007
Total Time: 42:31
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

In the 1980s, just prior to the explosion of CDs, record labels began increasing the number of recordings being made digitally.  The Moss Music Group, which included the Vox Classics label (and I believe the Vanguard catalog at one point), launched a whole host of digitally-recorded albums that include some quite excellent releases featuring the Cincinnati Symphony (with some classic Michael Gielen performances), the St. Louis Symphony (with excellent Gershwin and Rachmaninoff sets under Leonard Slatkin), and the Minnesota Orchestra (with Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, including a fabulous Beethoven overture and incidental music collection).  One can hope that their catalogue’s acquisition by Naxos, and reappearance on CD at a mid-price point, is an indication that some of these releases will return to the catalogue.  We will be trying to highlight some of these as they become available when possible.

First though is this rather delightful collection of arrangements made by Harold Farberman who began as a percussionist with the Boston Symphony (the youngest player to ever do so) but was encouraged to consider composition by Aaron Copland.  He would continue his writing, but turn mostly to conducting.  Over the years he would make a complete set of recordings of the Mahler symphonies as well as explore symphonies by Michael Haydn.  His conducting students include Marin Alsop and Leon Botstein.  So it is even more fitting that we get a chance to begin with his first love, percussion.  For the album, recorded in 1982, he assembled 10 performers from major symphony orchestras (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Metropolitan Opera, Royal Danish Orchestra) for this rather delightful album, many of them his own students.

Farberman’s arrangements manage to both honor his source material and transform them into something unique and new at the same time.  Some may be familiar with Shchedrin’s more percussion-laden Carmen Ballet which was a popular concert work.  Farberman has distilled some of those same familiar Bizet themes into his own Carmen Fantasy.  What strikes the listener in this arrangement that blends pitched and non-pitched percussion in such a way that even the latter seem to provide a pitch in the midst of the different melodic lines.  These tend to be assigned to mallet percussion.  The approach here is then spread to rather more unconventional possibilities in first the “Scherzo” from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, the Pachelbel Canon in D, and Berlioz’s “March to the Scaffold” (Symphonie Fantastique).  That these each work so well is a mark of Farberman’s own skill as an arranger and the program itself is aided by the familiarity of the music which enables even the casual listener to appreciate the color shifts that occur here.

Sometimes the Vox releases could be a bit muddy but that seems to have improved in this repressing.  Some performance sounds still can be discerned but these are really mild considering the quick shifts needed from time to time in the music.  The idea of all percussion arrangements of music is still a seemingly rare one and it will be a rather wonderful thing to have this back in the catalog to delight budding players that might consider taking their skills to another level altogether.  The album featured the Bizet on side one and the other three pieces on side two.  The worst thing really is that it is such a brief release at just over 40 minutes.  The notes and cover art repeat from the original release and there is not much updated here for Farberman’s own bio or other information.  When some of these were reissued in the later 1980s they were put in cardboard sleeves.  These are back in the traditional jewel case.  This is an important release all the same worth tracking down.

 Mozart/Beethoven: Violin & Cello Duos

Boris Abramov, violin. Carmine Miranda, cello.
Navona Records 6118
Total Time:  77:32
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

With a fine Schumann/Dvorak release, and as one of the youngest cellists to record the Bach suites, Carmine Miranda turns to the music of Mozart and Beethoven for this new Navona release.  Lest one think that some new musicological discoveries have been unearthed, this release of duos are arrangements for violin and cello.  Boris Abramov is the violinist here.  He is currently on the faculty of Columbus State University.

Perhaps at first glance one might balk at the “rewriting” of Mozart or Beethoven.  It was not uncommon into the latter 18^th Century for chamber music to be available for different combinations of instruments, but the practice that had been “normal” through the previous 200 years was beginning to change as composers focused on exploring the capabilities of the improving instruments and virtuosi of the time.  In Mozart’s case, the String Duos, K. 423/4 (1783) were dashed off for the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg.  They were included in a set by Michael Haydn to see whether or not the Archbishop could detect any difference.  Michael Haydn’s music, as adept as his more famous brother, maintains a classical poise and tends to be more cautious.  Mozart’s duos, originally for violin and viola, are mostly “safe” structurally, but brought the two instruments more closely to an even footing.  One can also hear in the opening allegro of K. 423 the somewhat Baroque-like counterpoint that Mozart tended to blend into the more typical phraseology and structure of developing Classical style.  The slow movements are likely where one gets a better glimpse of the melodic and lyrical beauty of Mozart with the outer movements providing some flashes of wit.  The central slow movement of K. 424 has some quite exquisite harmonic turns that one finds in the quartets.

Though the rich quality of the viola is one of the interesting components of these duos, the shift to cello will likely fluster purists.  It is certainly aided by Miranda’s excellent lyrical playing here in the upper register.  Abramov also has a fine command of this music.  The performances work rather well with those slow movements really be the highlight of this recording.

Beethoven wrote three duos for clarinet and bassoon (WoO 27)which were published in 1815, but more likely written earlier.  The composer had hoped to study with Mozart but the latter died before that occurred and so had to work from whatever published music was available to him.  At least one of the duos bears a key similarity.  While in terms of register, the shift to strings here is not a big leap, but here is more a case where the original lets us here Beethoven seeing what the clarinet can do and we might even be so bold to think he was interested in these particular wind colors for a reason.  That said, these arrangements allow us to hear this music in this new light.  We can glimpse some of the possible similarities between what Beethoven was trying to “copy” in terms of counterpoint and line.  The arrangement has been filled in a bit to allow for some double stops and string-specific effects that help with the shift to the strings here.  Both performers feel very comfortable here in this music with the interactions making the music even more enjoyable.  This comes through quite well in the final rondeau of the C-Major Duo.  The ”aria” slow movement for the F-Major duo is also quite beautiful.

The balance here is excellent.  Sometimes the cello line might be a bit too much bass, but this is easily remedied and more an issue of taste.  It is most noticeable in the Mozart, and nonexistent in the Beethoven.  The album notes that these are performances made without edit.  This is equally impressive as it gives the listener a chance to hear essentially a “live” concert without the extraneous noise.  But more importantly, it allows us to hear the longer shape of these pieces unfold in real time.  The result is that the architectural shape of the music is clear and the repeated sections have that sense of just slight variation that comes in live performance in a good way.