Metamorphosis: Bartok, Ligeti, & Kurtag; Cuarteto Casals (2010)

Bartók, Ligeti, Kurtág - Metamorphosis (2010)
Contemporary Classical | Harmonia Mundi | 2010 | 54:13 | EAC (APE, cue, log) | Booklet | 221 MB

Three transformative works by three Hungarian composers—Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4, Sz. 91; Ligeti’s String Quartet No. 1; and Kurtag’s 12 Microludes for string quartet, Op. 13—conspire to create a program steeped in the incessant sonics of the 20th century.

Cuarteto Casals—violinists Abel Tomàs and Vera Martinez, violist Jonathan Brown, and cellist Arnau Tomàs—deliver a profoundly exciting performance of these challenging pieces.

The Bartók presents intense sonorities and prolonged pizzicato passages (often demanding a sharp “snap back” sound on the fingerboard), but it is the sense of mystery, not technique, that the Casals capture to great effect.

The Ligeti is a like an “E” ticket on a sonic roller coaster fraught with ever-shifting dynamics and rhythmic drive. It, too, is steeped in nocturnal moods that offer no respite for the ensemble, which are instructed to play the eight movements without a break. At one point, the instruments play close to the same register in a blinding wave that feels deceptively void of meter or pulse.

Once again, mystery is the name of the game in Kurtag’s wonderfully imaginative and highly advanced 12 Microludes, a 1978 work that represents his latter foray into the world of string-quartet composition. The piece is dedicated to the cellist, conductor, and composer András Mihály and was a gift to him on his 60th birthday. The title references Bartók’s Mikrokosmos though musically it is grounded in Bach’s The Well Tempered Clavier as well as the music of Webern, but the goal is to capture the essence of raw emotions.

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Sofia Gubaidulina: Orchestral Music.(1994)

En esta entrega compartimos el volumen Sofia Gubaidulina: Orchestral Music, que contiene tres piezas compuestas en dos periodos radicalemente distintoss de su carrera composicional: Pro et Contra de 1989 que corresponde ya al periodo de exito y reconocimiento, despues de abandonar la URSS, y Concordanza y Märchenbild ambas de 1971 escritas durante el duro periodo de la censura bajo el dogmatismo sovietico durante la guerra fria.
Se recomienda escuchar este disco con especial cuidado en la ecualizacion para lograr escuchar los bajos.

This CPO disc contains three pieces by Russian-Tatar composer Sofia Gubaidulina. This first was written in the late 1980s, when the composer had finally found recognition abroad and had reached the height of her talent. The second two, however, are early works from 1971. The Radio-Philharmonie Hannover des NDR performs, led by Johannes Kalitzke in the first two pieces and Berhard Klee in the third.

Gubaidulina's "Pro et contra" for large orchestra (1989) does not, as the title suggest, feature strongly clashing moods or tempos. Instead, the piece consists of subtly contrasting groups of instrumental sonorities. For example, bass drums and tam-tums contrast with bells, celestra, harpsichord, and harp. Overt tonalism contrasts with minor seconds and chromaticism. The melodic material, and indeed the entire development and spiritual significance of the work, is based on the Russian Orthodox "Hallelujah" chant. Portions of the music vie for or against the chant, creating a chronicle of initial religious doubt and final certainty. Indeed, the material is continued in Gubaidulina's later piece "Alleluia" for choir, boy soprano, and orchestra (1990) and the oratio "Lauda" (1991), and all together they form the trilogy "Prayer for the Age of Aquarius". There is so much to like about "Pro et contra", its vast dimensions, the hammering tones of its final confession of faith, the skillful orchestration, but you'll need a good stereo system to really get it. At first I thought the piece was a failure, feeling that the second movement dragged on and on with excessive silence, but that was only because you can't hear its low basses on lesser equipment. Now, I'm hooked. What makes this version stand apart from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Tadaaki Otaka recording on BIS is Kaliztke's considerably faster pace, leading to a total time of 33'50 (I: 8'44, II: 17:53, III: 7'13) compared to Otaka's 39'59 (I: 9'49, II: 20'54, III: 9'01). I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, the form as a whole is more readibly visible here, but there's less of a religious sentiment than in the brooding meditations of Otaka.

"Concordanza" (1971) is one of Gubaidulina's first overt avant-garde efforts. It uses such novel techniques as atonality, though (like in "Pro et contra") in the typically Russian fashion as something to be seen as antagonistic, and whispers from the performers. The title refers to an attempt to make harmony--legato, tonality, the smooth flow of sound--out of discord, namely staccato from the winds, pizzicato, the murmuring of the players, and (a jab at Soviet aesthetic values?) march rhythms. The writing is clearly skilled, but the piece is for me, somewhat juvenile. Gubaidulina really came of age in the late 1970s. The same can be said about "Fairytale Poem (Maerchenpoem)" for symphony orchestra (1971), the shortest work here. Originally written for a children's radio play called "The Little Chalk", the piece lacks the specifically Orthodox Christian focus of her finest work.

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Kancheli: Styx, Gubaidulina: Viola Concerto

Free download. Descarga gratuita.
En este disco una pieza de Giya Kancheli:Styx - for Viola, mixed choir and orchestra (1999), y otra de Sofia Gubaidulina:Concerto for Viola and Orchestra (1996), ambas en la ejecucion incomparable de Yuri Bashmet (Viola) , la direccion orquestal de Valery Gergiev, y el sonido de la Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre. Un registro obligado para los seguidores de Gubaidulina, en formato FLAC.

Kancheli's Styx casts the viola as the mythological river that bridges life and death, the finite and the infinite. Typical of Kancheli's works, it's full of silences, long stretches of delicate pianissimo music, and eruptions of massive blocks of orchestral (and in this instance, choral) sound. Time seems suspended throughout its 34-minute length, and interest is held by the sound of Bashmet's viola, ranging from rich and deep to high, thin eeriness, and by the aura of mystery pervading the work. Gubaidulina's Viola Concerto shares some of those characteristics. It opens with a questioning viola solo and a halting, tentative-sounding orchestra, each punctuated by pregnant silences. Bashmet's viola is center-stage for most of the work and he plays with rapt concentration, bringing out the contrasts between light and shade that are a central motif of the work. Gubaidulina's Concerto shares Kancheli's sense of mystery, but her music has a tougher core. Both pieces are significant additions to the repertory, and it's hard to imagine better performances than those of Bashmet, Gergiev, and the other musicians. --Dan Davis

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Sofia Gubaidulina: Orchestral Works & Chamber Music

This disc brings together three pieces by the Russian-Tatar composer Sofia Gubaidulina, among the greatest of modern composers and a very unique voice on the scene of contemporary composition. The pieces represented are on the periphery of Gubaidulina's most substantial work, but still worth listening to.
The "String Trio" for violin, viola, and vioncello (1988) is tremendously exciting. The first movement begins with scratchy austerity and eventually breaks into every interplay of the strings that one can imagine. The second movement has a clockwork rhythm reminiscent of Ligeti's second string quartet, while the third, final movement summarises what came before and breaks it down into a meditative lull. This piece fits with the most religious parts of Gubaidulina's oeuvre, such as her "Seven Words" for violin and bayan, or "Hommage a T.S. Eliot." This performance by Yevgeniya Alikhanova, Tatyana Kokhanovskaya, and Olga Organovich is, I feel, the best available. There is also a recording of the piece by the Danish Trio on CPO which is less satisfying but still worth tracking down.
"Hour of the Soul", dating from 1974, is a setting of the second part of the poem of that name by Marina Tsvetaeva, whose poetry Gubaidulina further used in the a capella "Hommage a Marina Tsvetaeva". However, the first twenty minutes of this half hour-long piece are purely instrumental, and there is a use of percussion in some places reminiscent of the sixth and seventh parts of her "Johannes-Passion". The performance by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra seems committed, and the singing of Lina Mkrtchyan is spine-tingling. I do not understand why this piece did not come to gain more attention after Gubaidulina's introduction to the West.
"Night in Memphis", a cantata written in 1968, is one of the few earlier Gubaidulina works available. A friend had asked her to set some Egyptian texts to music. As this predates Gubaidulina's commitment to Russian Orthodoxy and her drive to express her faith in music, the piece might fairly justly be called juvenalia. It is not a bad piece, but simply one that does not call the listener back to listen again very often.
It is a pity that the recordings of the latter two pieces are less than ideal. "Hour of the Soul" has all the downsides of a live recording, with murmuring and coughing, while "Night in Memphis" is often nearly inaudible. "String Trio" is, happily, an exception and it is perhaps the finest recording of the piece available. The liner notes are sparse, and I would have preferred a libretto for the latter two pieces. This disc would probably be a dreadful introduction to Gubaidulina's work. If you have never heard anything by this greatest of contemporary composers, I'd recommend the OFFERTORIUM disc on Deutsche Grammaphon, the recent inexpensive disc on Naxos, or perhaps her "Johannes-Passion", which is her masterpiece and the greatest work of Christian piety of our time. If you're already a fan of Gubaidulina's ouevre and looking for more material, this is a good choice.




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Sofia Gubaidulina: In the Mirror

IN THE MIRROR is a 2002 collection of three works by Sofia Gubaidulina, one clearly juvenalia, another from her early maturity, and the last from 1993 when she had already established herself as one of the greatest living composers. While nothing here is disappointment, the contents of this disc are minor works and the CD is not an essential purchase for Gubaidulina neophytes.
"Quintet for Piano, Two Violins, Viola, and Violoncello" dates from 1957, the third year of her studies at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. It is the second earliest piece the composer has retained in her official catalogue of works.
The premiere performance was by the Komitas Quartet from Armenia with Gubaidulina herself playing the piano part. As this piece was written before Gubaidulina's entrance into the Russian Orthodox Church, there is none of the spiritual depths of her later, mature pieces. Instead, the Quintet is a vaguely Romantic piece with clear inspiration from Shostakovich. This is pleasant music, but most useful as a document of her youth.
The one-movement piano concerto "Introitus" (1978) is a considerably more mature work, firmly rooted in Gubaidulina's interest in Christian mysticism. Like with many other compositions by Gubaidulina (such as "In Croce" for organ and cello, or the JOHANNES-PASSION), there is a contrast between the temporal/horizontal and the eternal/vertical. In the first portion of the work, the first theme the chamber orchestra is assigned represents Man, while the chromatic range is religious understanding. Gubaidulina goes on to develop a range of symbols too complex to describe here, but suffice it to say that this is a very good display of her spiritual aims in the art of composition. However, it does not rank with the best portions of her oeuvre and might be remembered as a minor work. The Kyiv Chamber Players conducted by Vladimir Kozhukhar give an admirable performance, though I was not very impressed by the piano playing of soloist Beatrice Rauchs.
"Dancer on a Tightrope (Der Seiltaenzer)" for violin and piano was written in 1993. The violin represents a tightrope walker attempting to keep his balance, while the piano, first played on the strings with a glass tumbler, is a symbol of risk. It's an interesting experiment, though not as successful as most of Gubaidulina's work. Gidon Kremer, who first brought recognition to Gubaidulina in the West through his performance of her "Offertorium", plays excellently here, while Vadim Sakharov accompanies him well on piano. This performance was recorded live at the 1995 Lockenhaus Festival. There is another disc on BIS which collects more of that festival's performances of the music of Gubaidulina, as well as some pieces of Viktor Suslin, with whom she founded the traditional music ensemble Astreja.
This would probably be a very poor introduction to Gubaidulina. For those who have never heard the music of this superlative composer, I'd recommend the JOHANNES-PASSION, her masterpiece and possibly the greatest work of Christian piety of our time, or the OFFERTORIUM disc in Deutsche Grammphon's "Echo 20/21" series. Leave IN THE MIRROR for when you've already become fascinated with her music.





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Sofia Gubaidulina - The Seven Last Words, Rubayat & Vivente - Non Vinete

Sofia Gubaidulina - The Seven Last Words, Rubayat & Vivente - Non Vinete
EAC | FLAC+CUE+LOG | SCANS | 1 CD | 236 MB | Filesonic
XX Century Classical | Released: 1990 | Label: Melodiya

Drawing upon her own faith and upon musical examples provided in past centuries by Heinrich Schütz and Franz Josef Haydn, Gubaydulina composed her Sem' slov na kreste (The Seven Words on the Cross) in 1982. Unlike the two earlier works, Gubaydulina's is entirely instrumental (although she does borrow one thematic idea from Schütz's work). The first performance of the work came in that same year of 1982, with cellist Vladimir Tonkha and bayan soloist Friedrich Lips (to whom the work is dedicated), along with the Ricercar Chamber Orchestra conducted by Y. Nikolayevsky. On this Melodiya CD also Rubayat for Bariton and Chamber Orchestra and Vivente-Non Vivente for synthesizer.



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