gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE october 2014 I

RecoRdings & events A special eight-page section for readers in the US and Canada

S Brown Solo cello Suites – No 1, ‘takakkaw Falls’; No 2, ‘Fire’; No 3, ‘there Was a Lady in the east’ Hannah Addario-Berry vc

Stephen brown F SJb1362cD (60’ • DDD)

Affectionately self-described as ‘beasts’ and written in a tonally elegant, homespun style

analogous to furniture makers who never repeat a design, with deeply satisfying beauty at every turn, Stephen Brown’s Solo Cello Suites Nos 1-3 (Nos 4-6 have been composed

but are yet to be recorded) could make a powerful evening’s concert for enterprising cellists. The three works began in 2003 as a five-minute piece for solo flute to be played at a memorial service in sight of a spectacular falls in the Canadian Rockies. With the close collaboration of cellist Hannah Addario-Berry, Brown arranged Takakkaw Falls for solo cello, tapping into both the elemental forces of nature and Canadian musical sources; the piece was premiered in Victoria, British Columbia, the following year.

Fire followed in 2005, influenced by Jimi Hendrix, Procol Harum, Cream, the Stones and the Eagles; as in the two accompanying suites, Bachian references and devices played

an important but clearly secondary, non-derivative role. In the third suite, There Was a Lady in the East, Brown returned to weaving folksongs and fiddle tunes, both direct and implied, into his wandering musical fabric. Whether folk or rock, it is the integrity and strength of the materials Brown draws on, such as the Newfoundland outport song ‘Who is at my window weeping’, which sets the musical tone and its simple focus on humanity.

The recording in St Stephen’s Anglican Church, the oldest in British Columbia, has an honest, intimate sound that makes you feel as if Addario-Berry were in the room, speaking to you with her cello. Laurence Vittes

talks to...

Hannah Addario-Berry……on recording Stephen Brown’s folk- and rock-infused solo cello suitesThe first suite, Takakkaw Falls, was originally written for flute… I’ve known Stephen since he was my pre-college theory teacher, and I’d always thought it would be wonderful if he wrote something for solo cello. Back in 2003, I was home in Victoria, British Columbia, for Christmas and I heard this piece for solo flute, which Stephen had been commissioned to write for a memorial service at Takakkaw Falls in the Canadian Rockies. It’s such lyrical, vocal writing and I felt that it could work on any single-voice instrument that had a singing quality. How much did it need to be changed? That Christmas, Stephen and I played around with different keys to find those that best used the open strings and resonance of the cello, and there might have been some switching of octaves, but mostly it worked really well as it was. What I love about working with Stephen is how open he is to the performer’s input – there were no dynamics and very few articulations so we worked those things out together. He really gave me freedom to find my own voice.

Both this suite and the third, There Was a Lady in the East, are inspired by folk music… Most of it is from the East Coast – Nova Scotia, Newfoundland – and when Stephen explained to me about the genesis of this music, I found out all I could about it and listened to many recordings. When you’re playing vocal music, it’s really helpful to know what the words are and where the emphases fall. What’s the appeal of folk music on the cello? Folk music goes beyond any instrument in a way, but of course the fiddle is used so much in this music and, although certain techniques are easier on the violin because of how it’s held, some of those do translate to the cello – the open fifth, for example, that produces that droning sound so typical in folk music. You’re a Canadian living in California… Whenever I play Canadian music in the States, I definitely feel like a Canadian ambassador – it feels really important and meaningful to me. But when I play music infused by Canadian folksong, it does feel like I’m truly representing Canada. You can imagine the cold winds on the rocky cliffs…I do miss it if I’m away too long.

The second suite, Fire, is very different… I don’t have a rock background so Stephen was a good coach in that way – we had a lot of fun throughout the whole process. The second movement that uses bits from Jimi Hendrix is really the ‘Fire’ of the piece and definitely brings out my wild side! addarioberry.com

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Goldenthal Double bass Sonataa. brass Quintet No 2b. three Pieces for Solo Pianoc. String Quartet No 1, ‘the Stone cutters’d dTom Chiu, dConrad Harris vns dLiuh-Wen Ting va dMariel Roberts vc aTim Cobb db aStephen Gosling, cGeila Perach pfs bExtension Ensemble

Zarathustra F 00-2 (39’ • DDD) crecorded live 1974

Elliot Goldenthal pits his astringent new String Quartet No 1, The Stone Cutters,

published in 2013, against three works from his days in the mid-1970s working with John Corigliano and Aaron Copland. Inspired by Robinson Jeffers’s 1938 poem about ‘foredefeated challengers of oblivion’ and other victims of creative torment, Goldenthal’s new 13-minute work was originally scored for soprano and quartet. It has moments of Bartókian abandon and could not have been written without late Beethoven and the serialists, but the experience is no less memorable for that, especially as played with a stratospheric sense of spiritual ecstasy by Tom Chiu, Conrad Harris, Liuh-Wen Ting and Mariel Roberts.

Goldenthal’s Sonata for double bass and piano, which he describes as ‘a 1945 Bugatti racer grumbling into life’, begins by tuning the E string down to its lowest possible pitch; after that, dedicatee Tim Cobb and pianist Stephen Gosling conspire over the course of 10 riveting minutes of dialogue, much of it jazz-inspired and dominated overall by the double bass’s striving for a more lyrical voice, to set up and beautifully reach a touching, bittersweet moment at the end, in which the piano is subjugated to a final, secondary role.

Also included are Goldenthal’s golden tour de force Brass Quintet No 2, in a superb, previously available recording by the Extension Ensemble; and the seven lyrical, romantic minutes of his Three Pieces for solo piano, recorded live by Geila Perach at the Manhattan School of Music in 1974. Laurence Vittes

Levering Furiesa. Il mare dentrob. Drinking Songsc. Partite sopra ciacconad. Parallel Universeb cKrista River mez cFranziska Huh, cAmanda

Romano hps cdDonald Berman, cdJohn McDonald

pfs cScott Wheeler cond bBoston Modern Orchestra

Project / Gil Rose; aSequitur / Paul Hostetter

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Arthur Levering has been active as a composer for more than three decades,

during which time he has created works full of enchanting and vibrant soundscapes. This recording, performed to the dramatic hilt by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and other superb artists, focuses on pieces from the past decade, confirming his continued exploration of colourful territory.

All the works have titles suggesting a narrative but what’s most intriguing is the composer’s ability to maintain a constant flow of organically shaped material. Furies (2006), for example, rumbles and glistens, with Stravinsky-like wind textures and motoric rhythms, tolling of bells and ominous flourishes. The aura in Il mare dentro (2008) alternates between menacing and dreamy as it evokes the motion of the sea, even quoting Debussy’s La mer, as if that music were naturally wedded.

The tonal roots often anchoring Levering’s art are most apparent in the four Drinking Songs (2005), charming and heartfelt evocations of verses in English, Latin, French and Middle English. The collection is scored for mezzo with two harps and two pianos, giving the songs distinctive, sleek ambiences, with hints of gamelan.

Levering uses an old form with imaginative depth in Partite sopra ciaccona, in which two pianos dart about their respective keyboards (based on material from Furies) and engage in antagonistic volleys and bell-tolling at the extremes. The disc derives its name from Parallel Universe (2004), a gripping theme and variations for string orchestra marked by anxious swirls and urgent interweaving of thematic lines. Donald Rosenberg

Lieberson ‘Music of Peter Lieberson, Vol 3’ Piano concerto No 3a. Viola concertob bRoberto Diaz va aSteven Beck pf

Odense Symphony Orchestra / Scott Yoo

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Even in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, traditions welcome renewal.

The concerto, for example, received a jolt of energy from Peter Lieberson, two of whose works in the genre are treated with dramatic

flair and expressive vibrancy on this exceptional disc. Both the Piano Concerto No 3 and Viola Concerto deserve a regular presence in concert halls.

The piano concerto, written for Peter Serkin, exemplifies Lieberson’s ability to take tried-and-true elements and build narratives that keep the ear on edge or exert haunting impact. The three movements pay homage to literary works by Neruda, St Francis of Assisi and Charles Wright, but only as starting points in a series of typically urgent Lieberson sonic adventures. Soloist and orchestra are often at absorbing odds, only to coalesce in passages rich in texture and thematic development. Lieberson’s occasional penchant for soaring lyricism – so in blossom in his Neruda Songs, composed around the same time – is present here, especially in the central ‘Canticle’. The propulsive nature of much of his writing dominates the outer movements, with spicy harmonic ideas adding surprising flavours.

The Viola Concerto is no less compelling, in part because Lieberson revised the 1993 score in 2003 to add a new poetic section to open the finale. The work embraces the viola’s dark-hued character while traversing a range of emotional states and formal settings. Pianist Steven Beck and viola player Roberto Diaz are dynamic, rhapsodic soloists in collaboration with the fine Odense Symphony Orchestra, under Scott Yoo. Donald Rosenberg

Mamlok confluences. 2000 Notes. Polyphony I. From My Garden. rhapsody. String Quartet No 1a Spectrum Concerts Berlin; aArmida Quartet

Naxos american classics B 8 559771 (57’ • DDD)

recorded live in the Kammermusiksaal of the

Philharmonie, berlin, February 1, 2013

On February 1, 2013, at the Berlin Philharmonie’s chamber music hall,

Spectrum Concerts Berlin and the Armida Quartet presented a retrospective of Ursula Mamlok’s music. Played alongside Janá∂ek, Wolf and Mendelssohn, the concert celebrated the composer’s 90th birthday and unofficially marked her return to the city where she was born and from which she was expelled in 1938. By complementing and to some extent overlapping the four volumes of Mamlok’s music already out on Bridge, Naxos has confirmed the importance of a delicate, highly tuned voice with a minimalist’s flair for pace and flow.

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As intricately fascinating are the short single movements but it is two more extended works, From My Garden for solo viola (played elegantly by Hartmut Rohde) and Rhapsody for clarinet, viola and piano, that contain the most individual touches, such as the broken piano chords and brief hints of Brahms in the latter, which may also be the most heartfelt expression of Mamlok’s art.

Mamlok’s composing adventures are not yet finished: viola player Rohde, who has recently been named Artistic Director of the NFM Leopoldinum Chamber Orchestra in Wrocπaw and who ‘strongly believes that she is an extraordinary composer of our time’, told me that the 91-year-young composer ‘just wrote a viola and piano piece, and will write a quartet for piano, viola, cello and clarinet for us!’

Habakuk Traber’s detailed, absorbing booklet-notes are complemented by a seven-minute recorded chat between Mamlok and Spectrum Concerts Berlin’s Artistic Director, Frank Dodge. Laurence Vittes

Rands ‘Piano Music (1960-2010)’ tre espressionib. espressione IVab. Memo 5b. Preludesa. Impromptua aRobert Levin, bUrsula Oppens pf

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Pianists who want to test their mental and physical abilities can turn to many

composers to keep them challenged. Among the creative voices that have contributed rigorous and compelling works to the keyboard repertoire is Bernard Rands, as independent, original and resolute a composer as any in recent decades. His music for piano on this new disc, spanning the period 1960-2010, confirms his stature as an uncompromising and vibrant craftsman.

The idea of contrast is paramount in Tre Espressioni (1960), in which the pianist leaps across the keyboard, tweaking textures and dynamics in sudden gestures of anxious

character. There are moments of repose but something new and piquant is always lurking around the corner.

A similar air of suspense pervades Espressione IV for two pianos (1964), in which the players move from spiky rivalry to interplay leaning towards consensus. Rands maintains vehement vitality in Memo 5 (1975), another piece for solo piano in which sonic possibilities are explored in writing full of striking conflicts.

The disc’s most expansive work is a solo collection, Preludes for piano (2007), which reveals a composer in full command of freshly minted music with roots in the distant past. These 12 superb miniatures explore vast expressive terrain, taking time to pay atmospheric respect to late composers Luciano Berio and Donald Martino. Rands offers a trill-bedecked variation on ‘Istampia’, from the Preludes, in the disc’s most recent work, Impromptu (2010).

Nothing Rands sets down appears to throttle Ursula Oppens and Robert Levin, who are intrepid and galvanising interpreters both as soloists and collaborators. Donald Rosenbergp

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the armida Quartet join Spectrum concerts berlin in looking back at the work of Ursula Mamlok, a ‘highly tuned voice with a minimalist’s flair for pace and flow’