This CD was recently reviewed here,
and thus some of the purely descriptive details have been omitted
below.
Visiting what used to be American composer Richard Danielpour's
website, the visitor is now surreptitiously transported straight
to the official Sony Masterworks site, where there is no longer
any sign of the company's former star composer, who, as a sign
of the times, has been supplanted by what is mainly a lot of
crossover finery.
Like 'The Enchanted Garden' itself, the individual titling
of some of the Preludes leans towards the obscure, particularly
in Book II: what is the listener to expect of or understand
by a work with a title like 'Surrounded by Idiots' or 'There's
a Ghost in My Room!'? In fact, there is almost an over-abundance
of titles: 'The Enchanted Garden' contains two Books, of five
and seven Preludes respectively, each Prelude being not only
numbered, but titled in what at first glance seems a wilfully
zany or quaint way.
Nonetheless, Danielpour justifies his choice of labels reasonably
well in his booklet notes, and in any case, the music is the
important thing, and the twelve Preludes, whilst far from ground-breaking
- the "American Classics" appellation is once again
overstated - are varied, interesting and likely to please all
but the most demanding, critical or highfalutin of listeners.
Truthfully, a charge of being derivative would not be entirely
unfounded - some of the Preludes do sound like a fair bit like
various 20th century luminaries. But the more straightforward,
pithy and audience-friendly music is, the harder it becomes
for musicians to avoid such similarities. In some cases they
can even work in the composer's favour.
Danielpour wrote Book II for Xiayin Wang, who gave the premiere
in New York in 2009. Wang amply repays Danielpour's dedication
with a fine, thoughtful performance that brings out the best
in the music. Her recent recording on Chandos of some of Earl
Wild's piano music was very enthusiastically received twice
over - see reviews.
Sound quality is pretty good, though some background traffic
noise can be faintly heard at times - nowhere in New York is
safe from that particular pollution. There are also a few noises
off, especially at the end of some tracks, which, though barely
audible, still should not be there. Inexplicably, the final
milliseconds of both Books, which end similarly with a sustained
chord, are faded down abruptly, when the engineer seemingly
thought no one was still listening.
The disc is unequivocally short. Danielpour has written for
piano another set of three preludes, a work entitled 'Mardi
Gras' and a sonata - any of these could surely have been recorded
alongside The Enchanted Garden, thereby giving Danielpour's
piano music further exposure and the buyer better value for
money.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at reviews.gramma.co.uk
See also review by Hubert
Culot
Xiayin Wang (piano)
