A fluid fusion of melody and dance

Dance: Music for guitar and string quartet by Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Aaron Jay Kernis and Luigi Boccherini

When I listened to this new CD from guitarist Jason Vieaux and the Escher Quartet, I was reminded of a phrase of John Eliot Gardiner, who said of the Baroque music of Bach and Rameau that it had "the fluidity of gesture and step and the fusion of melody and dance". Though the music of Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Luigi Boccherini and Aaron Jay Kernis is a bit later (disco was after the Baroque, right?), this is definitely what's happening on this album, from the first habanera to the last fandango.

Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Quintet for Guitar & Strings earns its place on this dance-card with the tarantella & habanera in the finale, but the entire work is delightful. It has that perfect balance of folkloric and erudite music of the best chamber works of Villa-Lobos, for example, or Bartok. Vieaux and the Eschers judge everything just right.

The title of Aaron Jay Kernis's 100 Greatest Dance Hits is a very funny reference to the K-Tel TV ads of the 1970s, but the music itself begins in a mainly serious mode. The elaborate percussive effects of the Introduction set the stage for a most interesting and unexpected 20 minutes of music. It might not remain serious, but it's always clever. The 3rd movement, "Middle Of The Road Easy Listening Slow Dance Ballad" contains absolutely gorgeous melodies, but Kernis keeps turning the screw, and the piece veers hilariously, and then perhaps seriously, off the rails. The laughs come fast and furious in the final movement, "Dance Party on the Disco Motorboat," with its slapstick coda. I was reminded throughout this music of the Brazilian composer Gilberto Mendes, whose Ulysses in Copacabana Surfing with James Joyce and Dorothy Lamour for orchestra is somewhat in the same vein. Successful classical music humour is rare indeed, so it's nice to have Mendes and Kernis to give us some comic relief every now and then. Vieaux and the Escher Quartet must have had a ball performing this - I expect if the musicians don't, everyone will notice.

Take a moment before moving on to the Boccherini Guitar Quintet, so that it doesn't sound fussy and old-fashioned after the Kernis. Because it isn't fussy, and the musicians play it with perfect sensitivity to its Enlightenment ethos, making it sound fresh and alive, but always civilized. Still, Boccherini really lets his inner Tony Manero out in the Fandango Finale, which has been a crowd pleaser, I'm sure, since the 18th century. It's introduced by a lovely little mock-serious movement that for a moment crosses over into Mozartian pathos. This Boccherini Quintet is a triumph for Jason Vieaux and the Escher Quartet; it brought me as much pleasure as many a more substantial chamber work by Haydn or Mozart or Beethoven.

Catching a musical wave

American Rapture: Higdon Harp Concerto; Barber Symphony no. 1; Harlin Rapture

The literature for Harp and Orchestra is amazing, and amazingly under-valued. One work which I admire most highly is Alberto Ginastera's Harp Concerto, written in 1956 and revised in 1968. Our harpist in this new CD American Rapture, Yolanda Kondonassis, recorded a very fine version of this work, released in 2016 for the Ginastera Centennial. Another is Heitor Villa-Lobos's Harp Concerto, written in 1953 for Nicanor Zabaleta. This is not as good a work by any means, but it's completely typical of Villa's late period when the bulk of his composing time was taken by commissions. Jennifer Higdon's Harp Concerto was written for and dedicated to Yolanda Kondonassis; it was commissioned by a consortium of orchestras - the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, Lansing Symphony Orchestra and the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra. It receives its first recording here. It's full of vitality, ingenuity and sentiment, and shows off the many sounds this remarkable instrument is capable of. When Kondonassis described what she wanted from the composer she said "... it should have a groove that allows the harpist to catch a musical wave with the orchestra once in a while." That's one of the great thing about the concerto form; I've been very much aware of trying to describe those moments while listening lately to Mozart Piano Concertos for a review. Higdon jams so much into this twenty minute work, but there's a coherent structure to the piece that becomes evident after a few listens. The final movement, Rap Knock, is a stand-out; the witty, percussion-based music looks to Leonard Bernstein as much as the more avant garde sounds Ginastera included in his Concerto. The Rochester Philharmonic, under the direction of Ward Stare, provide able support in a work that occasionally calls for virtuoso playing, especially from the percussion section.

So check out Harp Concertos; I know you'll thank me. I'll link to some recordings of other composers' works below, but begin with the Higdon, please!

After the Ginastera, I'd place the Harp Concerto by Reinhold Glière. There's a fine disc played by Anneleen Lenaerts that also includes the Concertos of Joseph Jongen and Joaquín Rodrigo. The fine Harp Concertino by Germaine Tailleferre is played by the great Nicanor Zabaleta, along with Boieldieu's Concerto. People don't value the music of Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer highly enough, and his Harp Concerto deserves to be much better known. Perhaps Yolanda Kondonassis could champion it next!

Alberto Ginastera wondered about what tied together music from the American continents, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego; this remained for him, and of course remains for us, an open question. American Rapture is about a subset of that really big thing, which he termed estadounidense. This disc is generously filled with works that explore this particular geographical and cultural space, from Samuel Barber's folk-infused First Symphony, written in 1936, to the intensity of Patrick Harlin's Rapture, which like most of this fine young composer's work has a special link to the soundscapes of the natural world. With three such interesting works the question of their American-ness becomes less important. At the very least there are two things these three works have in common: the magical richness of musical imagination and very fine performances.

A Personal Testament from a Fine Guitarist

From May 22, 2014:

I'm a big fan of guitarist Jason Vieaux, especially his recordings of South American composers and Bach. His new CD is really outstanding, so much more than just a collection of encore pieces. In his fine liner notes Vieaux shows a personal connection to each piece. He explains how particular composers and performers have helped him perfect his own art as a guitarist. My favourite pieces in this collection include Tom Jobim's Felicidade arranged by Roland Dyens, the Ponce version of the classic Mexican tune Por Ti Mi Corazon, and Vieaux's own arrangement of Duke Ellington's In a Sentimental Mood. The Ellington piece is cleverly designed for solo guitar, and Vieaux provides the proper amount of swing as well as the requisite elegance. I enjoyed listening to this track along with Duke's own recordings while I read Terry Teachout's excellent new biography Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington.

Highly recommended Piazzolla

From February 14, 2012:

Piazzolla's music thrives in many different environments, from the standard concert stage to the jazz club, and in many instrumental & orchestral forms. In this new disc from Azica we have an intimate chamber work (Histoire du Tango, written for flute & guitar, but presented here in Julian Labro's version for bandoneon & guitar), along with two works written for or arranged (again by Labro) for guitar, bandoneon, and string orchestra.

Histoire du Tango works especially well, I think, in its new arrangement. It's a trip from Tango's traditional home, at the turn of the 20th century in the bordellos of Buenos Aires, through newer versions of the dance which Piazzolla himself contributed to or invented. The long, slow second movement (Cafe 1930) is a real highlight for me, my favourite amongst all of Piazzolla's works. Music is one of the best ways to communicate the full range of emotions that we call nostalgia, and this is a great re-creation of what would likely have been among Piazzolla's earliest musical memories. Of course, the sound of the bandoneon certainly belongs here.

Piazzolla can take pride in his own contribution to the jazzy Nightclub 1960 version of the tango; he brings 'cool' to the new form of tango (nuevo tango) he developed. The angular, avant-garde sound he brings to the final Concert d'Aujourd'hui introduces his other contribution to the form, musical ideas borrowed from classical composers from Bach to Stravinsky. This movement points to the more adventurous 'alt-classical' scene of today. The recording, made at the Cleveland Museum of Art, is warm and intimate.

Vieaux and Labro play along with A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra in Piazzolla's concerto Hommage a Liege, and in Labro's version of Las Cuatro Estaciones Porenas for the same forces. The performances are polished and alive. The recording is bright, though balancing these solo instruments with the orchestral forces is problematic. Still, this disc is very highly recommended!