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.

 

Leo Sowerby: The Paul Whiteman Commissions (CD review)

Andy Baker Orchestra; Avalon String Quartet. Cedille CDR 90000 205.

By John J. Puccio

Jazz bandleader Paul Whiteman’s greatest contributions to music were probably his commissions, like George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Ferde Grofe’s Grand Canyon Suite, which he premiered with his band. However, these were not the only works he requested, and on the present disc we get two scores he commissioned from American composer Leo Sowerby (1895-1968), as well as three other Sowerby pieces, which are here rendered as closely as possible to their original versions by the Andy Baker Orchestra and by the Avalon String Quartet.

First up on the program is Synconata, a work Whiteman debuted in 1924. In offering the commission to Sowerby, Whiteman requested something that would incorporate the typical American idioms of jazz, gospel, and folk in an orchestral setting and fit into what the bandleader called his “Revolutionary Concerts.” Because Sowerby never published a definitive edition of this work and several of the others, the disc rightfully calls the present arrangements world-premiere recordings.

There’s a good deal of jazz in Synconata, probably more so than we find in Gershwin, yet it all works in fine, high fashion. There is nothing gaudy, tacky, or showy about the music; it’s just a good combination of classical jazz and jazzy classical, with a profoundly rhythmic forward pulse. The band plays it with zeal and provides it with all the color it deserves.

The other Whiteman commission is Symphony for Jazz Orchestra (“Monotony”), which followed Synconata in 1925. It’s subtitled “A Symphony for Metronome and Jazz Orchestra,” a description that pretty well describes its four movements. As befitting the symmetry of the album, it closes the show. This one is more symphonic in structure than Synconato and appears to borrow a tad more from Gershwin. Moreover, this time out Sowerby is more whimsical than before, as well as more melodious. The ragtime element isn’t quite as prominent but the 1920s’ jazz element is. While the piece may be a little too long for its material, it is certainly fun stuff and infectious. It’s almost impossible not to smile and enjoy it.

In between the Whiteman commissions on the disc there are three Sowerby chamber works. The first is the Serenade in G Major for String Quartet from 1917, one of the composer’s first important pieces. It is here ably performed by the Avalon String Quartet. One can see why Whiteman a little later wanted Sowerby to write something specifically for him. The Serenade is not a serenade in the strictest sense, but it does impart a strong classical sense, along with a snappy vigor.

After that we hear the String Quartet in D minor (1923) with the Avalon Quartet and Tramping Tune for Piano and Strings (1917) with pianist Winston Choi, double-bassist Alexander Hanna, and the Avalon players. The D minor Quartet is a bit more serious than the earlier Serenade and considerably longer, placing it more strongly in the traditional classical genre. However, as it goes along, it opens up to a fluent, springy gait and a generally warm, affable cheerfulness. The little Tramping Tune is obviously a nod to World War I and marches along in hearty fashion.

Producer James Ginsburg and engineer Bill Maylone recorded the music at Kennedy-King College, Chicago, Illinois in January 2020 and at Boutell Memorial Concert Hall, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois in January 2021. Cedille’s crackerjack team produces a sound that is the cat’s meow. It’s a snazzy combination of transparency, dynamics, ambience, air, wide frequency response, and naturalness. In other words, it’s a doozy and could hardly be better. Zowie!

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click below: