This is a very
nicely programmed CD. Some of the pieces have already appeared
on Tall Poppies, so if the titles Still Life and Wild
Rice look strangely familiar then this is why. Elena Kats-Chernin
has an attractive mix of energy and fun on offer, with enough
darker moments to stimulate the little grey cells. Born in
Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, she studied for a while
in Moscow, her family emigrating to Australia in 1975. She
lived and worked in Germany for 13 years, and returned to
Australia in 1993.
So, what do four
double-basses sound like? In Charleston Noir they might
sound like four cellos to the uninitiated – Kats-Chernin using
the higher registers to project pulsing harmonies for those
dance rhythms. It’s only when you get that deep ‘whoom’ in
the bass, or an improbably low and resonant pizzicato that
you really gain that full bull-fiddle impact. In the low registers
it is almost impossible to make a bass sound melodious, and
ensemble The Four Basses do well to make the whole thing sound
mostly in-tune in the high. There are some great fun moments
in this piece, and the improbable instrumentation actually
suits the idiom of a Charleston style piece very well.
Chamber of
Horrors, the title track, is an impressive study in harp
textures and resonances – written fairly conventionally, but
treated electronically in order to heighten some of the cinematic
spooky effects. If you’ve never heard vibrato in a harp note,
then you will here, and there are some sharp shifts in perspective
and strange echoes which extend the closely recorded strings
– almost giving you the impression that you’re playing the
piece yourself!
Still Life
is written in six short movements. The first brings out
the viola in a melancholy melody underscored by nicely written
chordal figures in the piano – largely in the high register,
but bowing down for an impressive climax. The second movement
is a virtuosic, almost folk-like movement based of the interval
of a fifth, with some grand romantic gestures toward the end.
The third introduces more jazzy rhythms and a bluesy feel,
the fourth a pizzicato reflection over a chaconne-like chorale
in the piano. With movement no.5 forceful and tango-like in
turns, we’re given the contrast between life and death with
the funereal sixth movement, which brings us full circle,
introducing material from the 1st movement at its
conclusion. This is a piece with ‘legs’ which would fit superbly
in any viola/piano duo recital.
Gypsy Ramble
was written for the ensemble which plays it here, Perihelion.
Strikingly rhythmic, but with those searching harmonic gestures
which Kats-Chernin does so well, the opening leads us into
an impressive set of variations from which the Russian flavour
of the initial theme is never quite absent – even when in
full tango mode.
Wild Rice was
written for David Pereira. Already impressed with his recent
solo outing on Tall Poppies, Electric Cello (TP180),
I was glad to hear his deeply resonant and expressive cello
sound being explored to the full. The composer combines ‘the
evocative high register of the cello with its percussive low
counterpart’, and the effect is sustained and intense, the
resonant studio acoustic almost artificially reinforcing some
of the double stops, which sometimes approach the effect of
an entire string orchestra.
Grand effect and
gesture are also an aspect of the opening of Velvet Revolution,
another sis movement piece in which permutations of the horn
trio’s forces are rotated. Living in Berlin at the time of
the fall of the wall, the composers own experiences resolved
the problem of writing for a combination already stamped by
the personalities of Brahms and Ligeti. ‘I was concerned with
the portrayal of constant change, but not… in a programmatic
sense but rather as an emotional portrait of the people and
the circumstances.’ This charged and impressive work lives
up to all expectations, and must be as satisfying to study
and perform as it should be to experience as an audience.
It almost goes without
saying that all the works here are beautifully performed and recorded,
having a unity which dispels any doubts created by the ‘compilation’
nature of this CD. I have been most pleasantly surprised, impressed,
moved and challenged by the work of Elena Kats-Chernin. Her musical
language keys directly into the human scale of emotions, being
stirring and uplifting without being sentimental: tough and uncompromising
without resorting to aversion-therapy atonality or over-use of
special effects. If her pieces were books, they would be the nice
leather-bound ones with the really good stories – ones which you
know you want to keep available for reference or recreation, and
which you know will last forever.
Dominy Clements
AVAILABILITY
Buywell
Just Classical
The Four Basses (Charleston
Noir) 
