Maurice OHANA
Concerto for piano (Jean-Claude Pennetier)
Concerto for cello (Sonia Wieder-Atherton)
T'Haran-Ngo.
Orchestre Philharmonique,
Luxembourg/Arturo Tamayo.
timpani 1C1039 66
mins
Timpani
This is just a brief review to welcome another important CD in the Ohana
revival. T'Haran-Ngo is the first of his few works for large symphony
orchestra, a powerful piece in five sections with a ritual dance and finally
an episode for strings with harmonics and glissandi and a coda with dense
dissonant chords eventually dissolving into darkness.
The second cello concerto is his last orchestral work and it alludes to the
world of Blues and Jazz. It falls into two sections, separated by a Blues
interlude, with every opportunity for the soloist to display the range of
possibilities for his instrument.
The Piano Concerto (1981) is a complex virtuoso work, with an independent
unbarred solo line, divided into four main sections. Not an easy piece, one
needing several hearings, but rewarding to come to know.
A valuable CD, with exemplary performances and the usual good notes supplied
by Harry Halbreich, who has no doubt been instrumental in bringing this project
to fruition - I anticipate that his essays will be brought together as a
book in due course.
I recommmend, however, that those unfamiliar with Ohana's unusual and somewhat
elusive style should sample first the CD of the piano solo (and duo with
percussion) Etudes [Harmonia
Mundi H/CD 9354], also reviewed.
Reviewer
Peter Grahame Woolf
