This
is the second instalment in Enrico Belli’s project to
record all four of George Crumb’s
Makrokosmos – the
first of which is reviewed
here.
As with the combination of Debussy with Crumb, the decision
has been made to mix the music up rather than keep the
two composers’ pieces complete. The programming here
is Crumb’s
Alpha Centauri, Stravinsky’s
Le
Sacre part I, Crumb’s
Beta Cygni and
Gamma
Draconis, Stravinsky’s
Le Sacre part II, and
Crumb’s
Delta Orionis to finish. The logic of
pairing these works is fair, but the only reason for
hustling them up in such a way is given rather lamely
on the back cover: “[the] interweaving of works by Igor
Stravinsky and George Crumb opens entirely new horizons
of perception.” I’m not going to harp on about this for
long, but I do wonder for whom these ‘horizons of perception’ will
be opened. Newcomers to such works are more likely to
be confused, wondering which piece is which. Old aurally
wizened lags like your average MusicWeb-International
reviewer are more likely to respond irritably, preferring
to broaden their own horizons through playing multiple
versions of the same piece through wobbly stacks of old
CD players or trying to sing along to a karaoke production
of ‘Wozzeck’ just for laughs. I will agree, putting different
pieces of music against each other can change perceptions,
but this rarely has durability in a library collection
as its end result. I didn’t feel particularly enriched
by having these pieces chopped about in this way, but
will gladly give way to the experiences of anyone who ‘sees
the light’ as a result.
My
reference for comparison with Crumb’s
Makrokosmos
IV is that of Robert Nasveld on the Attacca label,
9371 and 9372. My main reason for selecting this version
is that it has always come out on top, all other recordings
which I have come across long having gone by the wayside.
Add to this the association Nasveld has had with Crumb
himself, something which gives his recording some status
of authority. Unencumbered by Stravinsky, Nasveld, forming
a duo with Jacob Bogaard, creates a sense of organic
flow between the movements which has its own structure
and logic. Their recording penetrates deep within the
piano, much as a well amplified performance should in
a live concert. This is essential, not for creating DJ
loudness, but in revealing the subtleties of the inner
workings of string harmonics, plucked strings, percussive
effects, preparation of strings and all kinds of neat
tricks, all of which were bigger news in 1979 than they
are now.
With
all due respect for the Belli duo’s talents, there is
no comparison between these recordings. There is a distinct
lack of any real impression of the detail of sonic activity
within the piano, and any resonance there are come across
as a weak echo of the performer’s actions rather than
the musical consequence of the composer’s instructions.
It’s sometimes as if the amplifier had broken down, but
the concert went ahead anyway. There is more substance
in the effects in
Gamma Draconis, but the comparative
effect is of the musicians going at the music like a
bull in a china shop, and the results are jangly and
unattractive. Crumb’s ideas still survive, barely, as
fresh and original in this recording, but the music can
and should sound so much better.
Le
Sacre du printemps on pianos
in various forms has been something of a collector’s
hobby for me. Stravinsky’s own piano duet version is
not the only variant available, but there are several
versions of this on disc, with just two being Philip
Moore and Simon Crawford-Philips on
Deux-Elles and
on Naxos, with Benjamin Frith and Peter Hill. Observant
critics will see that this latter release sports the
label ‘Music for two pianos’, but before I get ‘aghast’ e-mails
claiming gross incompetence on my part I would just
like to point out that the earlier edition says ‘Music
for Four Hands’, the ‘Rite’ indeed being the ‘right’ version
for piano duet as opposed to piano duo. Out of these
I find myself preferring the Naxos recording these
days, with its greater sense of atmosphere in the recording.
Dag Achatz and Roland Pöntinen’s recording on BIS should
also be considered. I was initially happier with Enrico
and Olivia Belli in their Stravinsky over their Crumb,
but alarm bells rather than ‘Mythical Dances’ soon
started ringing.
I
can’t help but think the Belli Duo have come to see this
purely as concert repertoire, rather than music for ballet.
This is an important aspect of this arrangement and of
the music as a whole, but for me the impression should
still be left that the music is strongly associated with
choreography. I want to sense Stravinsky at the piano,
hacking out the score in reduction for the benefit of
Diaghilev’s dancers, the smell of sweat and chalk and
the instructor’s voice cracking out its demands like
the whip of a circus ringmaster. From the beginning,
that lonely melody becomes stretched and mauled about,
so that the sense of rhythm is not only given added mystic
aura, but is lost entirely. The impact of the
Augures
printaniers is better, but to my mind lacks real
urgency, and the same goes for the
Jeu de rapt,
where those syncopated rhythms are over-pedalled and
lose their feisty hammer-blow strength. I could go on,
but you should be getting the idea by now. The music
has a feeling of a cooking recipe, fine and expensive
ingredients all prepared and almost formed into haute
cuisine but brought out of the oven just a few minutes
too early. The centre of the cake is just a little too
raw, the meat too bloody, the soufflé flat and uninviting
rather than quivering with excitement at its peak of
perfection. Heavy, mannered chugging in the second section
at 1:04 of the
Mystic Circles of the Young Girls is
another instance of what I mean – lighter, more separated
figuration is surely required here, and I can’t imagine
anyone wanting to dance to what follows. The Belli Duo’s
Stravinsky is not
bad, but we already have better
recordings, so I can’t deny my preference for the greater élan
of Frith and Hill. Adding faint praise to my colleague’s
damning of Vol. I in this unfurling set doesn’t augur
too well for Wergo’s project with Enrico Belli. I hope
their future horizons open with a little more subtle
finesse.
Dominy Clements
Belli
Piano Duo 
