The Centre International
de Percussion located in Geneva was
formed to promote and develop all activities
connected with the world of percussion,
principally in the field of contemporary
music. This disc acts as a window on
the scope of their activities, featuring
six of their associates in seven separate
works for various combinations of percussion
instruments.
As with many discs
of this type, seventy-odd minutes of
percussion gets a little wearing unless
you are a keen fan of the genre. So
it is here, but there is sufficient
variety, with the six composers producing
each fairly short pieces for us to hear.
Franco Donatoni , born
in Verona, learned violin and then progressed
to composition, studying at the Milan
Conservatory and then in Bologna. He
is represented here by two works, the
first being Mari II, for four marimbas.
The sleeve-notes talk knowingly about
the work’s predecessor, Mari I, but
as this is not included here, I am unable
to comment on the thematic development
claimed between the two works. Mari
II weaves its way from the initial themes
to a rather monotonous conclusion, mainly
due to the sound of the instrument not
the work. I would have thought some
respite from the sound of the marimba
may have been a benefit. In the final
work, Madrigale, Donatoni comes much
further up in my estimation. Here he
includes four children’s choirs, to
relieve the sound of the percussion
instruments. The use of four choirs
and four percussionists is so that the
work can be performed with one group
of each at each of the four corners
of the performing space. The sleeve-notes
pretentiously try to persuade us that
this layout was put in place by the
composer, to ape the similar layout
used by Berlioz in his Requiem. Pretentious,
because as any lover of the earlier
work, it was only the four brass choirs
arranged at the extremities, with the
very large body of performers clearly
placed in the centre!
Lou Pelosi was born
in New Haven, Connecticut, and was trained
there and also at the Manhattan School
of Music. He started work as a piano
tuner in New York, whilst composing
in his spare time. The Ten Inventions
performed here were commissioned by
the CIP in 1986, and the listener will,
no doubt, find that the variety in these
individually short pieces is very attractive.
Marc-Andre Rappas studied
violin, viola and composition at the
Music Conservatory in Geneva, and during
his studies also learnt languages, poetry,
physics, mathematics and information
science. His work, Stances, is inspired
by literary sources, the first being
from a poem by Ronsard, the second from
the scene of the death of Marie in Berg’s
Wozzeck. The violin relieves the boredom
but does not significantly enhance the
proceedings.
I am sure that these
are meaningful to the composer, but
their influence, is I am afraid, lost
on me. Still, the work is quite pleasant
to hear, and readers should not be put
off by the claptrap in the notes.
Jean-Claude Schlaepfer
is Swiss-born, and trained at the Conservatoire
Superior in Geneva. My response to this
piece was also coloured by the incessant
nature of the sound of the instrument.
Fritz Hauser, born
in Basle, is a well travelled professional
performer with percussion, and on the
face of it his work "Zytraffer,"
although scored for six snare drums,
and therefore might be thought to be
rather monotonous, is one of the pieces
on this well-filled disc that has shape
and some direction in it – obviously
performing has a lot to do with it.
Finally, Kung-fu by
De-Qing Wen includes shouting by the
player in the "Chinese oral tradition";
more pretension, I am afraid. Kung-fu
has the "Ying" and "Yang"
which is interpreted by the composer
as soft and hard. In listening to this
track I cannot distinguish between Ying
and Yang. One has to take these notes
with a large pinch of salt. It smacks
of vapid modernistic opera production
values.
Recording quality is
all that you would expect with clarity
and good definition.
John Phillips
A re-issue of a 1994 disc from Stradivarius CT
STR 33437 