Aaron Jay KERNIS (b.1960)
Goblin Market (1994-5) [46:29]
Invisible Mosaic II (1987-8) [20:11]
Mary King (narration) [Goblin Market]
The New Professionals/Rebecca Miller
rec. St. Jude's, Hampstead, London, December 2008. DDD
SIGNUM CLASSICS SIGCD186 [66:42] 
Aaron Jay Kernis's music has been reviewed a few times in recent years on
Musicweb International, as more of it finds its way onto CD - here,
here
and most recently here,
for example. It has never failed to impress the reviewer.
This latest release consists of two of Kernis's older works. Invisible
Mosaic II is the lesser piece, though through no fault of its own. It
is scored for 17 players, but several more instruments - the two percussionists
are called on to play an array of instruments. Kernis was inspired by late-Roman
mosaics in Italian churches to analogously construct a vivid sonic picture
using musical fragments. The result is a bustling, noisy maelstrom of a work
- not lovely in the way a Roman mosaic is, by any stretch, but a memorable
exploration of colour and texture nevertheless. Kernis has, not surprisingly,
also written an Invisible Mosaic I, for four instruments, and an Invisible
Mosaic III, for full orchestra; this latter reviewed here.
The more recent Goblin Market is a setting of Christina Rossetti’s
notorious poem, written in 1859, telling the story of two sisters and their
encounters with goblin men and their "forbidden fruit". At a deeper
level the poem may or may not be about proto-feminism, the nascent advertising
industry, or feminine sexuality. Whatever one's interpretation, there is no
question that some of the imagery still has the power to shock today; Rossetti's
poetry is evocative, provocative and erotic, and it is no wonder that the
Victorian public were aghast at such barely-concealed titillation.
Commissioned by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Goblin Market
is scored for a preferably female narrator, five woodwind, four strings, horn,
trumpet, piano and two multi-instrument percussionists.
With these forces, through his masterly manipulation of orchestral colouring,
rhythm, leitmotif etc, Kernis magnificently realises a perfect union of music
and poetry, from Part II, Scene 2, "Laughed every goblin when they spied
her peeping", a truly awesome, epicurean crescendo of sensual poetry
and orgiastic sounds - surely one of the most spellbinding passages in all
music - right down to the deliberately cheesy exuberance of the final scene,
"She cried 'Laura', up the garden" and the Epilogue.
The CD booklet is first-class, with detailed notes, biographies and the full
text of Rossetti's poem. Some background hiss and hum is evident in the quieter
passages of music, as is the occasional rumble of distant traffic, but overall
the recording is generally excellent - all instrumentalists can be individually
picked out. The New Professionals and their conductor Rebecca Miller sound
very comfortable in this often forbidding music. Mary King's voice in Goblin
Market sometimes seems too close and a shade too loud, and initially her
characterisation of the goblins seems absurdly non-malevolent, almost comical.
But King was chosen for the London world première in 1995, and she becomes
more and more convincing as the story unfolds.
And what a story! Intoxicating, outrageous, unforgettable: it is no exaggeration
to say that Goblin Market is one of the great musical works of art
for theatre of the 20th century.
Byzantion
Intoxicating, outrageous, unforgettable: one of the great musical works of
art for theatre of the 20th century.