Bettina Skrzypczak
is a young Polish-born composer, currently
resident in Switzerland. Her music is
the subject of this CD by Musikszene
Schweiz, a mainly contemporary label,
which strangely seems to have a brand
name that changes language from French
– German – Italian depending upon where
the disc is produced.
It is a co-production
between Swiss Radio DRS 2 and Radio
Suisse Romande-Espace2. This label has
been releasing a number of recordings
of contemporary works in these ‘Composer
Portraits’ which contains works by a
number of composers. There is also a
CIP (Centre Internationale de Percussion)
disc.
The notes with this
release are very comprehensive, and
are in French and English, They contain
a one page dated biography of the composer,
plus texts to the vocal work. In addition
there is also a list of other works
by the composer, not included on this
disc.
The good thing about
this disc is that there is a certain
kind of variety about the works being
presented, so we get to hear the various
facets of the composer’s activities.
Bettina Skrzypczak
was trained by Witold Lutosławski,
Luigi Nono, Henri Pousseur and Iannis
Xenakis, to name but a few of the well-known
composers. The names featured in this
eclectic mix will perhaps prepare you
for the type of music you will hear
on this disc. In common with others
in this series, the notes are
as pretentious as you could hope to
find. They tell you just about zero
about the works, and much about the
thoughts and aspirations of the composer
as she goes about her way.
For example we are
told "I feel great joy at the prospect
of what I am going to discover, and
at the same time a feeling of responsibility
for the decisions that I make. And I
find it a shame that I can’t realise
fast enough the many thoughts that come
when I face the empty page in front
of me.
Bettina Skrzypczak’s
answer to the question of how she feels
when faced with an empty sheet of manuscript
paper is in many ways remarkable, and
sums up in the most apt way her basic
tenets as a composer. Her pleasure in
discovery, paired with creative responsibility,
speaks so unmistakably of the sheer
joy of composing that the notion of
hesitation in committing music to paper
or even – a worse scenario – the idea
that writer’s block is simply mocked.
Bettina Skrzypczak’s fear of the empty
page is not that it might stay white,
but that it can’t get black quickly
enough.
When one considers
the pain and suffering that all of the
great composers have spent over the
years on their manifold works, getting
the final effect that they were trying
to achieve, does this not tell us something.
Here we have a composer who can work
at speed, and although later on in the
notes we are blessed with the explanation
that it is not all done at break-neck
speed, one wonders just how much genuine
inspiration as opposed to sheer industry
has gone into these works.
To me this contributes
absolutely nothing to the understanding
of the composer and her works. The notes
are in this vein throughout and are
absolutely useless in helping establish
an understanding of the composer. Even
when we get to the explanation of each
of the works, their inspiration and
a synopsis, I am afraid that I am still
none the wiser.
Much better then, to
listen carefully. Whilst I enjoyed the
contents of this disc more than the
others in the series, most of it was
still pretty incomprehensible. The big
disappointment for me was the absolute
absence of any discernible tunes. However,
I realise to some, a tune only has to
be able to be played by the instrument(s)
for which it was written to qualify
as a tune, and so I suppose I must defer
to that opinion.
On this disc we have
solo, chamber, concerto and full orchestral
works, and make no mistake, Bettina
Skrzypczak has compositional ability
in all of these classes, but I wont
be listening to these again for a while.
John Phillips
MUSIKSZENE SCHWEIZ MGB CTS-M78 [73.07] 