Contrary to most other
releases in MGB’s Musiques Suisses
series, this one is centred on the performers,
i.e. the Ensemble Contrechamps, although
it nevertheless includes two works by
Swiss composers (Lehmann and Dayer)
and one piece by a Chinese-born composer,
now resident in Geneva (Wen). It also
provides for a fair appreciation of
the repertoire brilliantly championed
by the Ensemble Contrechamps that is
now rightly regarded as one of the foremost
exponents of modern music.
Elliott Carter is really
the Grand Old Man here and is represented
by one of his recent works, Asko
Concerto, completed in 2000
and written on a commission from the
renowned Dutch ensemble Asko. It is
a typical product of Carter’s musical
Indian Summer. It is as tightly written
as anything else in Carter’s output,
but the composer’s mastery is now such
that one completely forgets about the
complexity of the work and is simply
taken by the sheer invention and hard-won
accessibility of the music. The work
is a single movement structure consisting
of several sections played without a
break : Tutti, trio (oboe, viola and
horn), duo (clarinet and double bass),
tutti, trio (bass clarinet, trombone
and cello), duo (trumpet and violin),
quintet (piccolo, celesta, xylophone,
harp and violin), epilogue (tutti).
Carter’s instrumental mastery shines
throughout the whole piece, with many
inventive episodes exploiting the instruments’
resources to the full. If you know Carter’s
Clarinet Concerto or Oboe
Quartet, you will have no problem
whatsoever with this extrovert, virtuoso
piece.
At the other end of
the ladder, Brian Ferneyhough’s music
is technically complex and very demanding,
pitilessly taxing the players. I once
read an interview of Ferneyhough in
which he actually described his scores
as blue prints of what the performers
should try to achieve without ever necessarily
completely achieving it. Needless to
say that, in the meantime, players have
been able to master the music’s complexities
and are now able to perform it in a
near-ideal manner. The remarkable thing,
however, about Ferneyhough’s music is
that it is quite possible to respond
to it unreservedly because of its sheer
inventive power and its extraordinary
rhythmic vitality. You may not necessarily
know what is going around in, say, Transit
for chorus and orchestra, but you cannot
but be hooked by the impact of the music.
His cycle (for lack of a more appropriate
term) Carceri d’Invenzione,
composed between 1981 and 1986, is a
series of seven separate pieces for
various instrumental forces : Supercriptio
(solo piccolo), Carceri I (chamber
orchestra), Intermedio alla ciaccona
(solo violin), Carceri II (a
short flute concerto), Etudes transcendantales
(soprano and 4 players), Carceri
III (chamber ensemble) and Mnemosyme
(bass flute and pre-recorded tape).
Lehmann had already
set some of Cummings’ verse (in Canticum
I and II [1981]
and in Ut signaculum [1991/2])
before completing his Book of
Songs for bass, flute, cello
and percussion heard here. For the present
setting, he chose varied and contrasted
poems from Cummings’ output that he
tried "to translate" into
his own sound world. Some of these poems,
e.g. If the lovestar grows most big
(No.2) and the concluding Finis,
are fairly traditional, i.e. by Cummings’
standards; and their settings are –
appropriately enough – fairly straightforward,
i.e. by Lehmann’s standards. The other
are somewhat more experimental, and
their settings accordingly more radical
or exploratory. Book of Songs,
however, is a very fine work in its
own right in which the composer displays
a considerable aural imagination.
Chinese-born but now
resident in Geneva, Wen does try to
reconcile Western and Eastern musical
tradition into a work that partly draws
on some Chinese tradition connected
to ceremonies during which the music
is played by a wind band with percussion
(Piping and Drumming as
the title of the piece heard here has
it). In this short, brilliant and often
impressive piece, players sometimes
have to vocalise on short rhythmic formulas,
thus stressing the emphasis overtly
laid on rhythm. The music is quite colourful
and contrasted ("the sweetness
of the Yin and the strength of the Yang,
to quote the composer’s words).
Dayer’s J’étais
l’heure qui doit me rendre pur...
is a short concerto for bassoon and
small wind ensemble, roughly cast as
a somewhat mysterious Nocturne in which
some fugitive visions briefly disrupt
the soloist’s reverie. Another fine
work.
These performances
recorded in various settings and at
various times are excellent, well prepared
and committed, whereas the recorded
sound is generally very fine throughout.
All in all, a fine release brilliantly
demonstrating the ensemble’s excellent
playing and perfectly illustrating its
wide-ranging contemporary repertoire.
Hubert Culot
Ensemble Contrechamps 