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PÁLL PAMPICHLER PÁLSSON :Lend Me Wings - Six Songs for mezzo-soprano and orchestra (1992/3)Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (1982)Concerto Di Giubileo for Orchestra  Rannveig Frída Bragadóttir (mezzo-soprano), Sigurdur Snorrason (Clarinet), Iceland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Petri Sakari  Lotus Classics 9620CD

 

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I have to confess that the name of Páll Pampichler Pálsson was unfamiliar to me before I was sent this Lotus Classics album for review. The style is modern and often dark and abrasive. It needs some commitment from the listener who will be rewarded with more and more revelations on  repeated hearings.

Pálsson is certainly a powerful and individual voice. He has an impressive command of orchestral colour and the players are no doubt grateful for the virtuoso parts he writes for all sections of the orchestra.

Lend Me Wings is a collection of six songs: two with settings by authors from Iceland, the remaining four being of German origin. In the opening title song, the singer watches the flight of grey geese wishing she could fly to exotic lands with them. The mood is of desperation turning to despair as the birds
disappear from view. The music almost becomes hysterical in the singer's yearning's and longings for escape. The raising and spreading of wings, then the beginnings of birds' flight, is cunningly evoked at the beginning using, I guess, triangles and gently brushed cymbals. There is some impressive writing for brass choirs and Bragadóttir, who has a pure yet strong voice that projects over Pálsson's large orchestra, thoroughly convinces in communicating the sense of Hulda's verses. Spring Sun is lighter in mood welcoming the sun and warmth of Spring with some fine writing for the woodwinds to evoke the sounds of nature; yet, again, the mood darkens as though the poet senses the transience of Spring's beauty. Indeed it ends with a deep, mournful bell toll leading straight into and setting the mood for A Young Widow Sings to Herself, the third song, which drones through its course as grief wastes away the life of the widow. There is no relief to her anguish and Pálsson creates a most unusual sound like a never-ending plague of thousands of insects relentlessly hovering and buzzing. Bragadóttir sings of this bottomless pit of despair most movingly. Folk Song, about a loved one lying dead on some distant battle field, is a mournful elegy with effective writing for just brass, harp and percussion. In The East is another nightmare poem of death and destruction, rape and pillage with the orchestra in more assertive mood with angry timpani and brass fanfares before the music develops and moves into a bleak landscape with eerie ghostly string figures. Once more this mood sets the scene for the longest song based on Hermann Hesse's Glass Bead Game, The Last Glass Bead Game Player. An old man sits playing the game surrounded by the desolation of a war-ravaged landscape. This atmosphere is skilfully drawn including a masterly glass-bead sound using harp, vibraphone and marimbaphone.

The Clarinet Concerto begins in a serious reflective mood with strings and timpani playing a slow heavy theme which is soon interrupted by a restless almost eerie staccato from the clarinet. At length the mood lightens and the music becomes a contest between the plaintive and tragic-comic and the heavily antagonistic forces which constantly threaten to crush any humanity in their path. The second movement is calmer, more peaceful but with a certain nervous edginess and the third movement, the most interesting, begins with a virtuoso orchestral passage which opposes a Gregorian chorale rising from the background. This chorale becomes a major theme and there is much use of bells.

The Concerto Di Giubileo still lurks in dark places - rather too much one might think for a work with such a title. Again there is virtuoso writing for every member of the orchestra but it treads too heavily for this reviewer.

If you experience difficulty in obtaining this disc try the Lotus web site or e-mail htautscher@lotusrecord.co.at


Reviewer

Ian Lace

This disc was private purchase and not offe../graphics/red for review


Reviewer

Ian Lace

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