There are a lot of composers in America who seldom get a hearing
on this side of the Atlantic, so we must be grateful for issues
like this, which allow us the chance to hear what is going on
over there.
It says a lot for these American composers that the best work
here, that is the best written and musically thought out, is by
the Welshman Alun Hoddinott. What Hoddinott achieves in a mere
thirteen minutes is a suite of rare excitement, virtuoso writing,
dark, brooding nocturnes and brilliant flashes of light. It’s
a perfect example of how to write for a trio of this kind with
the music laid out fairly between all three players, and their
working together as a single unit. It also has that rare ability
to feel as if one has been on a very long journey, so well does
the music suspend time. Best of all, it leaves you wanting more.
Christopher Weait is a bassoonist, teacher, composer, author and
conductor. He was principal bassoon in the Toronto Symphony, and
has played in the Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia and the United
States Military Academy Band at West Point. He was born in England
but his parents emigrated to the USA in 1947. He is now an American
citizen. His
Ten by Three – A Collection of Folksongs from
Quebec, is simply ten movements played by three musicians.
The notes tell us that this piece is “Based upon delightful songs
and singing games, each movement is unique in character”. Well,
that’s one way of looking at the piece. I fail to see, or hear,
the “unique character” of each piece. I also fail to discern the
“delightful songs” upon which the pieces are based. It seems to
me that what we have here is a lovely set of teaching pieces which
give some passing pleasure but have no substance and, despite
the relative brevity of the pieces (they range in duration from
49 seconds to 2 minutes), they outstay their welcome, for there
is insufficient variety within the suite.
Charles Lipp is Professor of bassoon at the University of Nevada,
who studied composition with Maurizio Kagel.
Twelve by Three
is a composition of twelve pieces (played without a break) played
by three musicians. The separate pieces are easily discernable
but the whole piece is so dour as to make listening to the whole
piece difficult. The composer fails to draw me into his world
and because of this I find the composition to have a failure to
communicate.
Zae Munn has, since 1990, been on the teaching staff at Saint
Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana. She has an impressive list
of works to her credit in all genres, and both the works on this
disk were written for the members of Arbitrio. I am unsure as
to the purpose of
Libero Arbitrio, and the note in the
booklet doesn’t really help matters – “…my thoughts about free
will and its counterpart predetermination had an important impact
on the writing of
Libero Arbitrio, what is more audible
is the use of evolving ostinatos, references to the syncopation
and metric aspects of jazz, and the at times operatic treatment
of the instruments in the solo and duet sections.” First of all,
does the concept of freewill mean that there are passages of improvisation
within the work? It doesn’t sound as if there are, and if not
then the note needs further explanation. I feel none of the syncopation
of jazz – but perhaps this is because we are so used to syncopation
in our contemporary music. Listen to the music without any pre-conceived
ideas and it seems to make sense in an abstract way – although
it must be said that it is far too long for its material . Her
other piece –
Seven Short Rhapsodies for oboe and bassoon
– is too short to allow one to really get into the separate pieces.
It’s pleasant enough but lacks any real personality.
Glinka’s
Overture to his opera
Ruslan and Ludmila
is one of those miscalculations which must have seemed like a
good idea before it was undertaken. I recently attended a string
quartet recital where, as an encore, after a superb performance
of the Debussy
Quartet, we were given a very poor arrangement
of the
Flight of the Bumble Bee, which was specially made
for the performers. They obviously loved it, and hammed it up
in performance, but what they failed to understand was that it
was worthless as a composition. The same must be said of this
weak-limbed version of the Glinka.
Arbitrio – an unfortunate name as it conjures up visions of things
being arbitrary – is a fine group, they play well and work well
together. However, I cannot work up any enthusiasm for this disk
for so much of the music is lack-lustre and rather dull, with
little to hold the attention. For anyone wanting the Hoddinott
piece it’s essential, but I cannot think that this disk will stir
many because most of the music simply isn’t interesting. The recording
is good but the notes are somewhat perfunctory.
Bob Briggs
Arbitrio (Alicia Cordoba Tait (oboe and cor anglais), Doug Spaniol
(bassoon), Bradley Haag (piano)) rec. June 2000, St Catarina Lutheran
Church, St Petersburg, Russia (Munn Libero and Hoddinott) and June
2000 and June 2004, Foellinger Great Hall, Krannert Center for the
Performing Arts, Urbana, Illinois USA. DDD 
