The overall title of
this disc is taken from one of the featured works and should serve
as an indication to potential purchasers that they are not looking
at a collection of ensemble pieces but, for the most part, pieces
for one solo instrument. Milton Babbitt is one of those senior
American composers whose work is often described as "challenging"
- Elliott Carter, despite his classic status, is another - and
this disc certainly provides challenges enough.
Around the Horn
runs for about nine minutes in two movements of equal length.
For horn solo, its punning title gives a clue to its character,
the player required to explore all reaches of the horn compass,
not only in terms of pitch but also in dynamics too. That said,
there are mercifully few extraneous noises, the composer being
content to write music which is exceptionally well fashioned
for the instrument without seeking to create new sounds by innovative
playing techniques. Given the exceptionally wide range of pitches
used, however, this listener was surprised to find little variety
in the piece, and drama seems not to be an important element
either. There is no doubt, however, that the performance, by
William Purvis, for whom the work was written, is definitive.
This is playing of astonishing virtuosity aligned with a wonderful
sound, brilliant where required, smooth as silk elsewhere, but
never letting us forget that the horn is a brass instrument.
Constant activity likewise characterises Whirled Series
for alto saxophone and piano. Much is made in the accompanying
notes of the variety of the writing, and whilst this is
theoretically true - the extremes are both instruments are
comprehensively explored, and the two instruments are rarely
simultaneously involved in the same kind of musical activity - the effect seems
to me quite the opposite, a constantly moving but featureless
landscape. That said, I did sense the music moving towards its
close, though the "45 seconds of exuberant running in place"
mentioned in the booklet passed me by, I'm afraid. This is again
stunning playing, though, from the saxophonist Martin Taylor
and his colleague Charles Abramovic, and it would be fascinating
to have their views on the work required to get this music into
shape and the satisfaction resulting from it. The six minutes
of None But The Lonely Flute follow a similar path, to
the extent that it is difficult to describe this music without
repeating oneself. "There are no major changes, no marked
sections -" the notes report, "- just a long, long
tune." Well, up to a point. A tune, almost by definition,
has form of some kind. It leads the listener somewhere. Here,
if this long monologue has any kind of form, if the phrases
of the tune are weighted one against the other, if some reply
to others, or engender others, well, none of this has revealed
itself to me yet. Flautist Rachel Rudich deserves an award for
skill and dedication. Alternating loud and soft strokes and
the use of different qualities of beaters in each hand are techniques
used both in the short piece for snare drum, Homily,
and that for marimba, Beaten Paths. The result in the
former is a strange, stammering effect, and in the latter, pretty
much as in other pieces in the collection, a kind of ordered
randomness, constantly moving but almost totally without drama
or tension and with little real contrast. Peter Jarvis and Thomas
Kolar play with the complete conviction we now expect from the
musicians on this disc. A brief burst of pizzicato heralds the
final bars of Play It Again, Sam, which is once again
superbly played, in this case by violist Lois Martin. There
seems, however, little reason why the notes which make up this
piece are better suited to this instrument than any other. There
is nothing of a string instrument's singing quality, to cite
just one example, and though it may be argued that other aspects
of the instrument's character are brought out, I can hear little
difference between the nature of the music of this piece and
that of the others on the disc. Whatever one thinks of the quality
of the invention, this must surely be seen as a weakness. The
notes describing this piece - referring to "bumptious registral
discontinuity" and "almost incessant change in the
rate of change" - finally cross the line into that kind
of writing which, by its very particular use of language and
imagery to try to evoke a piece of music, becomes unintelligible.
After almost an
hour of this kind of music one longs for something approaching
a singing line, but unfortunately it is not to be found in the
flute and guitar duo Soli e Duettini either. On the
contrary, the composer is at pains once again to exploit the
extreme reaches of each instrument, often quickly juxtaposed as
well as making sure once again that the two instruments never
seem to be playing the same kind of music at any one time. As
the title suggests, each instrument plays solo for some of the
time - the flute alone opening and closing the piece, for
example - and sometimes
together. The playing, by Susan Palma-Nidel and guitarist David
Starobin is astonishingly accomplished. Composed in 1982, the
final work on the disc, Melismata for solo violin, is
the earliest and, at almost nineteen minutes, the longest in
duration. I have listened to this piece three times, and although
there is a greater variety of incident and texture than is displayed
in the other works on the disc I am still unable to perceive
any real sense of direction or aural signposts, with the result
that I never know what is coming next. Sadly, when what comes
next is more of the same - howls of protest from Babbitt enthusiasts
- these nineteen minutes seem very long indeed. The work is
brilliantly dispatched by Curtis Macomber.
Another twentieth-century
composer who has written extensively for solo instruments is
of course Luciano Berio. The writing in many of his Sequenzas
is far more experimental than here, but his masterly control
of pace, variety of texture, humour and drama set his series
of works in quite a different plane from these by Babbitt. (Babbitt's
aims were no doubt totally different.) I wish I could respond
more positively to this music, and am quite sure that many collectors
will do so. They need have no fear about the quality of this
disc, first issued in 1996 on the Koch label and reissued now
in the Naxos American Classics series, as everything is stunningly
delivered in superbly natural sound. I have made several references
to the accompanying essay by Joseph Dubiel. He is a passionate
advocate for the composer but I fear his words will be of little
help to those trying to find a way into some very difficult
music.
William Hedley
The Group for Contemporary Music
