Volume 21 Issue 3 - November 2015

Frenzy, especially showcase Acclarion’s tight
ensemble awareness of balance, breath and
colour, and the composer’s thorough knowledge
of both instruments.
Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet for Two is a
gorgeous performance by two exceptional
classical players as the accordion proves itself
to be a perfect instrument to join the clarinet
in this transcription. Likewise the three
short Vaughan-Williams English Folk Song
tracks are welcome, soothing delights both
in arrangement and the colourful lush sonic
qualities.
Rebecca Carovillano is a star clarinet
performer with solid breath control, superb
varied tone and an unmatched musical ear
sensitive to nuance. David Carovillano plays
the accordion with the same qualities, and
solid bellows control and technical mastery.
Together they create detailed and interesting
musical conversations. More varied dynamics
and a bit more spontaneity would drive
the duo toward a welcome future musical
journey that will hopefully continue for many
years to come!
Tiina Kiik
MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY
Leo Ornstein – Piano Quintet; String
Quartet No.2
Marc-André Hamelin; Pacifica Quartet
Hyperion CMA68084
!!
Why has there been
a revival of music by
composer/ pianist
Leo Ornstein (1893-
2002)? From early
groundbreaking piano
pieces onward, his
was an extraordinary
(and extraordinarily
long!) musical life. In 1906 his family
emigrated from Russia to the United States
where he trained as a piano virtuoso, but after
an amazing start he gave up concertizing. His
father was a cantor and Ornstein’s Russian-
Jewish musical heritage came to the fore. In
a modernist context it permeates the Piano
Quintet (1927), which I think ranks in quality
with the Shostakovitch and Bloch quintets
for piano and string quartet. The tempestuous
opening movement typifies Ornstein’s
rhapsodic process of linking varied phrases
and sections that suggest frenzied dances,
song-like laments, marches and much
more. I particularly liked the slow movement,
especially a passage with high violin,
mysterious piano repeated notes and chords,
and uneasy supporting strings. The Quintet
reflects Ornstein’s piano virtuosity; Marc-
André Hamelin, who has recorded a notable
Ornstein solo disc on Hyperion, is ideal, while
the outstanding Pacifica Quartet partners him
with confidence, colour and clarity.
Ornstein’s String Quartet No.2 (c.1929)
is a more orderly affair. Strings are treated
more independently than in the Quintet,and
the lower instruments are given solos. The
Pacifica Quartet emphasizes the work’s lyrical
beauty with well-shaped melodic gestures
and sensitive playing of accompanying parts,
which through Ornstein’s variety of chord
spacings, registers and rhythmic patterns
become just as interesting as his melodies.
Roger Knox
Spin – like a ragged flock
James Harley; Ellen Waterman
Independent ADAPPS
15001(jamesharleymusic.com)
!!
Spin is a highly
original disc created
by composer James
Harley and performer
Ellen Waterman,
combining electroacoustic
composition,
improvisation
and spatialized sound. Harley provides the
electroacoustics, processing, sound diffusion
and theremin playing, while Waterman
performs on an array of flutes and provides
vocal elements. To demonstrate their improvisational
creative process, they have included
two versions of two different pieces. The
first two tracks, Birding I and II, intermingle
a wide range of bird and flute calls,
creating hints of an intimate human-nature
dialogue before cascading into more complex
dissonant textures.
The second two tracks, Fluting I and II,
create a sonic environment that puts the
listener within a field of multiple flute voices,
particularly evident when listening in the 5.1
surround sound format, a major feature of
this recording. Sound diffusion is the art of
moving the sound sources amongst multiple
speakers. In listening to all six pieces, I
observed a different-than-usual approach to
diffusion. Rather than sounds dispersed individually
in different spatial locations, I experienced
a melded aesthetic, much like being in
a reverberant space with the combined sound
coming from all directions. Creating contrast
between different locations in the space was,
however, utilized in unique ways – to split up
the layers of a dissonant chord, or to highlight
glissandi moving between front and
back. Spin creates a unique aural experience,
providing several touchstones highlighting
our relationship with nature. Although
primarily a surround-sound DVD without a
CD layer, the disc includes stereo files that can
be downloaded to a computer or iPod.
Wendalyn Bartley
Ivan Ilić plays Morton Feldman
Ivan Ilić
Paraty 135305 (ivancdg.com)
!!
American avant-garde composer Morton
Feldman, the pioneer of “indeterminate
music,” began (like Varèse) with the orchestra
making weird sound effects as tonal paintings
and later simplified it
to white noise like his
famous Rothko Chapel
where people could
sit for hours in isolation,
meditate and
chill out. For further
simplification he
turned to the piano with long works lasting
over an hour, like this one that sounds like
soft notes moving slowly and undisturbed
around the middle of the keyboard, always
quiet, no crescendo and never reaching forte.
Sometimes shrill and percussive very high
notes interrupt in a different rhythm like a
bird chirping, then a sudden blob of a broken
chord in the lower register like a drop of
water into a still pond ….
Listen to it lying down and soon you’ll drift
and float, no longer awake but not asleep
either, and when it’s suddenly over you feel as
if you have been asleep and perhaps missed
something. Wagner wrote such subliminal
music like the ancient, atavistic shepherd pipe
tune meandering in and out of the consciousness
of the mortally wounded Tristan that
miraculously breaks through his coma and
returns him to life.
Feldman’s music operates on this level,
but it is also a set of 22 very loose variations
with changes so imperceptible, like
things that happen in real life. When you
expect it, it usually won’t happen but if you
don’t, it might. You’ll notice the difference
between each variation when you quickly
sample the tracks. The whole thing is actually
composed and written down, but then it has
to be played to sound totally improvised or
haphazard, completely unstructured. With
his soft and wonderful touch pianiste extraordinaire
Ivan Ilić’s mind is so dedicated and
attuned to Feldman’s that he can do this like
no one else can. It’s spellbinding. (You can get
a taste of it along with commentary by Ilić at
youtube.com/watch?v=V1B9uX4v1H0.)
Janos Gardonyi
JAZZ AND IMPROVISED MUSIC
On the Street of Dreams
Morgan Childs
Independent (morganchildsmusic.com)
!!
Morgan Childs
is, as a composer, a
drummer, an accompanist
and a soloist,
deeply rooted in tradition,
well-informed,
incredibly proficient
and bubbling with
unmistakable personality.
All of this and more is on display in his
newest release, On the Street of Dreams, a
live album which, over the course of around
70 minutes, presents a compelling argument
for going to see Childs play live.
Street of Dreams is a compilation of
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