Classic chamber works

From June 4, 2015:

Since its premiere at the Cambridge Elgar Festival in 1994 Thomas Ades’ Arcadiana has become a standard of the string quartet literature. I’ve heard and enjoyed the Endellion Quartet (who performed the premiere) on Warner Classics, and the Signum Quartet on Capriccio, and there are other performances you can listen to on YouTube. It’s such an appealing and interesting piece, and so well played by the Calder Quartet on this new Signum Records disc. Ades quotes Mozart, Schubert and Elgar in some of the characteristic pieces that make up the suite, and I swear I heard a bit of Ravel’s Introduction & Allegro in the first Venetian gondola movement. But all of this music has the distinctive sound of Ades, which I find so appealing.

This disc also includes two more recent works: the Piano Quintet from 2001, and the world premiere recording of The Four Quarters from 2011. The latter work is an extension of the sound world of Arcadiana, though it has its own programme, and is more complex rhythmically. It’s just as appealing as the earlier work, though, and should have its own popularity on the concert stage and in recordings in the coming years.

The Piano Quintet is often angular and forceful, and when things quieten down, there’s an instability to the music that’s a bit unsettling. The composer himself plays the piano part, so one feels the authenticity of the performance. Indeed, we are in good hands throughout this excellent program.

Bold and provocative music, beautifully played

From May 16, 2014:

Tracy Silverman’s concerto for electric violin and string quartet Between the Kiss and the Chaos has an interesting programme. Each of the five movements is a personal musical response to a painting or sculpture. The work as a whole speaks to issues of creativity. “It’s about that need to share an idiosyncratic vision” says Silverman in his illuminating liner notes, “because there is something innately human about the need to tell someone, to share your experience, to get someone else to see the world through your eyes.” The chosen artworks, by Michaelangelo, Matisse, O’Keeffe, Van Gough and Picasso, are all bold and provocative, and Silverman’s music has a matching thrust and drive.

Silverman quotes Georgia O’Keefe: “I said to myself - I’ll paint what I see - what the flower is to me but I’ll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it.” The task of attracting attention for one’s art is even harder today than it was then. Silverman got this project off the ground with a successful Kickstarter campaign, and the involvement of the Calder Quartet and the Delos label will bring listeners as well. The musical ideas and the presentation by these talented musicians will fully justify that marketing success.