Recent Releases No. 46 (CD Reviews)

by Karl Nehring

Steve Reich: The String Quartets. Reich: WTC 9/11; Triple Quartet; Different Trains. Mivos Quartet (Olivia De Prato & Maya Bennardo, violins; Victor Lowrie Tafoya, viola; Tyler J. Borden, cello). Deutsche Grammophon 486 3385

 

American composer Steve Reich (b. 1936) once said that he “never expected to write a string quartet,” but as music author/radio host John Schaefer notes in his liner note essay, “that all changed in 1988, and the solution was as simple as it was elegant: Reich treated the string quartet as a single, composite instrument. Suddenly, the format of soloist with recorded tracks, used in the ‘Counterpoint’ works, made sense. The result was Different Trains… the piece wove together voice samples with multiple layers of string quartet, three of them pre-recorded and the final layer performed live. It was the first of three pieces Reich would compose for the Kronos Quartet. The purely instrumental Triple Quartet followed in 1998, and WTC 9/11, built around voice samples relating to the World Trade Center attacks, in 2010. This recording marks the first time that all three have been gathered in one place, and it was the composer himself who suggested that the Mivos Quartet take on the challenge.”

 

When I mentioned I was reviewing this CD to Bill Heck, he said that he just could not bring himself to listen to the first selection on this recording, finding it too emotionally upsetting. I understand his feelings. WTC 9/11, with its recorded telephone sounds and voices bringing back memories of that tragic day, truly does pack quite an emotional wallop. But it also connects on a musical level, as the quartet echoes the speech patterns of the voices while also providing a pulse that drives the music forward with a restless, relentless sense of energy. Reich says of his Triple Quartet that it was inspired by the energetic ending of Bártok’s String Quartet No. 4. The work is not for twelve strings, as the title might seem to imply, but rather is a relatively brief string quartet in three movements. The opening movement begins with a rhythmic pulse that shifts toward a dance rhythm, the second movement at times has a hint of Middle Eastern sounds and at times incorporates a striking echo effect, and then the third movement begins tentatively but gathers energy that builds into a frenetic dance. Different Trains once again features the quartet playing over the sounds of a prerecorded soundtrack, this time of train sounds and voices from America before WWII, Europe during the war, and finally after the war. The pulsing sound of Reich’s writing for the strings lends itself well to evoking the feeling of trains, and the members of the Mivos Quartet seem to be able to lean right into this music with full conviction. The idea of mixing prerecorded sounds with voices might sound gimmicky, but it works; moreover, the engineering team has done an excellent job of making everything cohere. Fans of Steve Reich should rejoice at having these three works brought together in these three first-rate performances.

Chicago Clarinet Classics. Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1977): Sonata in One Movement for Clarinet and Piano; Stacy Garrop (b. 1969): Phoenix Rising for Solo Clarinet; Leo Sowerby (1895-1968): Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, H 240a; Shulamit Ran (b. 1949): Spirit for Solo Clarinet (in memory of Laura Flax); Teresa Reilly (b. 1976): The Forgiveness Train (for two clarinets)*; Robert Muczynski (1929-2010): Two Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 43. John Bruce Yeh, clarinet; Patrick Godon, piano; *Teresa Reilly, clarinet. Cedille CDR 90000 218

 

John Bruce Yeh (b. 1957) joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1977 as bass clarinet by Georg Solti at the age of 19, the first Asian musician ever appointed to the CSO. Two years later, he was named assistant principal and E-flat clarinet. He is now the longest-serving clarinetist in CSO history, so it is not surprising that a series of events including being asked by the Chicago-based Cedille label about recording the Leo Sowerby’s Wind Quintet would eventually lead to this album. In the course of researching Sowerby, Yeh discovered his Sonata, a large (26:32) four-movement work that forms the centerpiece of this album. It is a solidly entertaining work; given that it was first published in 1944, I am surprised not to have come across a recording of it before. While doing his research, Yeh next discovered the Tcherepnin Sonata, the sprightly little (5:04) piece that leads off the program with a burst of joyous energy. 

 

Yeh notes that “with these two contrasting Sonatas, grouped with Robert Muczynski’s 1983 Time Pieces, already a classic with clarinet players, my long-time piano collaborator, Patrick Godon, and I had the basis for an album. Jim [Ginsburg, producer at Cedille] agreed that diversity in the form of three 21^st-century clarinet works by outstanding composers with whom I’ve had decades-long associations, would be the ideal complement to this collection. Accordingly, we are delighted to present the first recordings of Stacy Garrop’s 2017 Phoenix Rising for Solo Clarinet, Shulamit Ran’s 2017 solo clarinet work Spirit, and my wife Teresa Reilly’s recent clarinet duet, The Forgiveness Train(2020).” All the composers have ties to Chicago – thus the album’s title. Although the whole album is enjoyable, especially if you are happen to be as big a fool for a clarinet as I am other highlights include the three pieces by women composers: Stacy Garrop’s colorful and evocative Phoenix Rising, in which Yeh is able to produce some startling tones from his instrument; Shulamit Ran’s Spirit, dedicated to a dear friend of the composer and expressing a wide range of emotion; and Teresa Reilly’s Train of Forgiveness, on which Yeh and Reilly play together, clearly enjoying the opportunity. 

 All of the music on this generously-filled (76:51) CD, though, is enjoyable. Don’t let the fact that this is music from the 20^th and 21^st centuries from composers with names that may be unfamiliar give you the idea that this must be music that would be harsh and forbidding. This is not music that is dissonant, strident, screaming, or screeching. No, it is music that is enticing to the ear. Not syrupy sweet, but rather thoughtful and enduring. There are liner notes with helpful essays on the music and background information about the performers, and the sonics are up to the usual high Cedille standard.