Christian BALDINI (b.1978)
Elapsing Twilight Shades (2008 Rev. 2012) [7:26]
Witold LUTOSŁAWSKI (1913-1994)
Chain 2 (1985) [17:52]
György LIGETI (1923-2006)
Violin Concerto (1989 Rev. 1993) [28:57]
Edgard VARÈSE (1883-1965)
Amériques (1918-21 Rev. 1927) [23:26]
Maximilian Haft (violin) (Lutosławski)
Miranda Cuckson (violin) (Ligeti)
UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, Munich Radio
Orchestra (Baldini) /Christian Baldini
rec. live Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis 2-5 November
2019 (Lutosławski) 5 May 2018 (Ligeti) 2 May 2015 (Varèse); 29 April 2012 Felsenreitschule, Salzburg
(Baldini)
Reviewed as a digital download from a press preview
CENTAUR RECORDS CRC3879
[77:41]
It is a very pleasing thing to see the Ligeti violin concerto maintain a
foothold in the repertoire in both the concert hall and the studio. To a
lesser extent, the same can be said of Lutosławski’s scintillating Chain 2.
Whilst they are very different works, both combine modernistic techniques
with a capacity to communicate powerfully to the non specialist listener.
There is a real danger that a lot of the music written in the second half
of the 20th century, whether it be Boulez or Robert Simpson,
gets left behind. Many contemporary composers complain that the lack of
repeat performances means that audiences do not get a chance to become
properly familiar with often complex scores. All the performers on this
record need to be commended, not just for their excellent performances but for
their commitment to keeping this music alive.
The two concertante works are bookended by orchestral works that have a lot
more in common than might seem the case at first glance. Varèse’s work
Amériques is probably as notorious as it is famous. A startlingly prophetic
work, as much as more celebrated pieces such as the Rite of Spring, it
anticipates a lot of the course of musical modernism over the one hundred
years that followed its premiere. It is still hard to believe the early
date of its composition. My personal issue with it is that I have never
found that it is a work that lives up to its billing. The Rite of Spring or
the Miraculous Mandarin may have been ferociously modern in their day but
they are also wonderful pieces of music. Amériques has never seemed to add
up to more than the sum of its avant garde parts to me, even when given as
persuasive and committed advocacy as on this recording.
I had almost the opposite issue with the Baldini score that kicks things
off. No modernist cliché is left unused, leaving me with the distinct
feeling that I had heard all this before, and done better. Indeed, a lot of
it was done by Varèse rather a long time ago. I haven’t heard any of
Baldini’s other music and I don’t want to be excessively harsh, as it is
never less than professionally done. I will file it away, somewhat
ruefully, under the heading ‘Not for me’.
Baldini as conductor is the glue that holds this album and, in this regard,
I can be unreservedly enthusiastic. He is a very positive presence in both
the concertante works and gets playing of real conviction from both the
orchestras featured here. The Munich Radio Orchestra is one of the two
orchestras of Bavarian Radio, the other, of course, being the Bavarian
Radio Symphony Orchestra. The main band on this disc, the UC Davis Symphony
Orchestra, are new to me. A student orchestra specialising in the work of
living and under-represented composers, they sound anything but a scratch
band. Their playing throughout is characterised by passionate commitment to
getting the music across. Their success at doing so is evidenced by the
great roars of approval that greet the Lutosławski and the Ligeti.
The Lutosławski was written specifically for Anne Sophie Mutter who
recorded it with the composer on the podium for DG. It is claimed that he
had to limit himself to more conventional violin techniques given the then
tender years of his chosen soloist. If true, it was a happy accident, as
the combination of the experimental with the traditional is a happy one,
avoiding the pitfalls of blandness or experimentation by numbers that
afflicts many crossover pieces today.
I confess I find Mutter’s recording somewhat starchy. I always imagine that
what Lutosławski had in mind was that kittenish Mutter of her sensational
debut with Karajan playing Mozart concertos. Haft has much more of a spring
in his step and everyone involved sounds like they are having a fun
time. You would never suspect that this piece has as much humour in it from
the Mutter version. Under normal circumstances, Haft would be the undoubted
star of this particular show but even he is eclipsed by the scintillating
Miranda Cuckson in the Ligeti.
Ligeti’s violin concerto burst into my consciousness thanks to a
Boulez-directed disc of the Ligeti concertos on DG with the work’s
dedicatee, Saschko Gawriloff, as soloist. I always assumed that recording
pretty much closed the book on how to perform this gleefully crazy piece,
but that was until I heard this performance. This is a piece that teems
with ideas, wonderful, weird and wacky (ocarinas anyone?) and Miranda
Cuckson’s enthusiasm is utterly infectious. She makes complete sense of the
many disparate elements in an absolute tour de force reading. The energy
levels of soloist and orchestra match those of the indefatigable Ligeti at
his most unbuttoned. If you have yet to make the acquaintance of this
masterpiece, then this is now the performance to go for.
The work isn’t all capers and extravagance. The Passacaglia is full of
pathos and great solemnity, reminding us that some of the most profound
lines in King Lear come from the mouth of the Fool.
This is the first recording of hers I have listened to, though she has
amassed a considerable discography which I shall now be checking out. It is
a real pleasure to hear a musician of such charisma taking on contemporary
music instead of yet another Sibelius or Tchaikovsky concerto.
After all this excitement, I found Amériques even greyer than usual, so
this generously filled disc is a bit of a mixed bag, but more than redeemed
by top-notch Lutosławski and a very special account of the Ligeti.
Cuckson’s is a name I will be keeping an eye and an ear out for!
David McDade
