Gloria COATES (b.1938)
String Quartets 1-9
*String Quartet no.5 (1988) [31:07]
*String Quartet no.1 (1966) [5:43]
*String Quartet no.6 (1999) [22:13]
+String Quartet no.7 'Angels', with organ (2000) [15:11]
+String Quartet no.2 (1972) [6:27]
+String Quartet no.8 (2001-02) [14:43]
+String Quartet no.4 (1976) [13:32]
+String Quartet no.3 (1975) [14:45]
#String Quartet no.9 (2007) [25:45]
#Sonata for solo violin (2000) [13:08]
#Lyric Suite, "Split the Lark and You’ll Find the Music", for
piano trio (1996) [19:58]
Kreutzer Quartet (Peter Sheppard Skærved (violin I); *+Gordon McKay (violin
II); #Mihailo Trandafilovski (violin II); *+Bridget Carey (viola); #Morgan
Goff (viola); Neil Heyde (cello))
Philip Adams (organ), Michael Finnissy (conductor) (Quartet 7)
Roderick Chadwick (piano) (Lyric Suite)
rec. St John's Church, Loughton, Essex, England, 14-18 September
2000 (Quartets 1, 2, 4-6); Church of St Mary de Haura, New Shoreham, Sussex,
England, 30 June 2003 (Quartets 7-8); Saint Peter Art Centre, Cologne, June
2008 (Quartet 9, Sonata); Royal Academy of Music, London, March 2009 (Lyric
Suite). DDD
Available separately as 8.559091;
8.559152;
8.559666
NAXOS AMERICAN CLASSICS 8.503240 [3 CDs: 64:37 + 59:02 + 58:51]
At the time of writing, this boxed set is available only in the Americas -
according to the main Naxos website, that is. At Naxosdirect it can be purchased
post-free in the UK for a very attractive £12.99, and the other usual non-American
websites seem to be stocking it too. Whatever the situation though, all Naxos
have done for this set is literally to take three previous releases (2002-2010)
of Gloria Coates's first nine String Quartets and stick them in a shiny
black-and-yellow card package for a discounted price.
The idea is sound if Coates writes no further Quartets, or several; but what
if she were to write only one more? In fact, Kreutzer violinist Mihailo Trandafilovski's
website reported in autumn 2012 that the ensemble had just recorded a new
quartet by Coates entitled 'Among the Asteroids', to appear
on John Zorn's 'Tzadik' label. It is actually difficult
to find up-to-date information on Coates on the internet or anywhere else.
Her entry in New Grove is, rather shamefully, more than a decade out of date.
Nevertheless, if she has half the career Elliott Carter had, there may be
more quartets to come.
At any rate, if anyone's music deserves to be flagged afresh until
the unique talent of its composer is widely recognised, it is Coates's.
There has almost certainly been no greater female symphonist than she - a
fact acknowledged by American opinion-guru Kyle Gann in his notes. There are
few males that could rival her in symphonic writing for total originality
or, indeed, masculine muscle.
Her string quartets represent a parallel body of works, the unique character
and expressive power of which has seldom been matched. As Skærved says in
his note on Coates's music in 8.559666: "Once the floodgates are
open, its extraordinary beauty is irresistible." It is not a beauty that
all listeners will acknowledge, certainly not on the strength of a single
audition. To appreciate fully the complexity, intensity and profundity of
these works, concentrated and repeated listening is a prerequisite. For newcomers,
it is ironically the Sonata for Solo Violin and the Lyric Suite for piano
trio that provide the easiest point of entry. In the former can be felt the
presence of Johann Sebastian Bach, whom Coates has previously cited as her
greatest influence. Despite a few unusual sound effects, this is attractive,
lyrical writing. There are more odd sounds in the seven-movement Lyric Suite
- the pianist must play both the outside and inside the piano - and dissonance,
yet predecessors like Charles Ives, and certainly Henry Cowell, would feel
at home in this world.
Spanning more than forty years, the nine String Quartets heard here are considerably
more challenging, although not in a Sixties-Penderecki way. The First and
Second are only a few minutes in length, and, despite their origin in the
heyday of modernism are relatively accessible. The Third and Fourth are only
a little longer and thus fairly easy to negotiate, although by this time Coates's
unique style is prominent. Dense, multi-minute, often palindromic glissandos
and scordaturas - with performers often retuning whilst playing - are trademarks
not only of Coates's quartets, but of the symphonies too. Other unusual
effects do recall Penderecki, but with Coates they are more subtly employed,
in a musical language that has been called 'post-minimalist'.
In every case the result is a soundscape of startling, unsettling intensity
of colour and texture. Their eerie, fifth-dimension nature has even led to
movements from two of Coates's works being used by Naxos on their pair
of 'Music for the Zombie Apocalypse' digital albums (9.00117,
9.00148).
Half the Kreutzer Quartet's personnel changed between the second and
third volumes, with Gordon McKay and Bridget Carey making way for Mihailo
Trandafilovski and Morgan Goff respectively. Yet whoever the instrumentalists,
their concentration, commitment and technique are extraordinary in what on
the page appears extremely daunting music. Sound quality is very good, although
recorded volume is amazingly low - it might easily have been tripled by the
engineers without ill effect.
Kyle Gann has written insightful and detailed booklets notes for all three
volumes. He clearly appreciates the significance of Gloria Coates's
music. The individual discs all carry as a bonus a print-in-miniature on the
front page of her expressionist paintings, providing a glimpse of another
aspect of her artistic nature. Coates is indeed one of the most important
and prolific female composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, and Naxos deserve
plaudits once again for having the nerve to bring her works to the attention
of a wider public. Or rather, attempt to bring: few in a world all
but lost to pop are ever likely to hear this music, let alone understand it.
Their loss.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk
One of the most important and prolific female composers of the 20th and 21st
centuries.
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