Volume 24 Issue 6 - March 2019

The American composer Paul Lombardi
describes the five duets for strings on the
CD Pieces of Mind & Matter – String Duets
as chronicling a 13-year-long refinement of
his compositional voice (Ravello RR8804;
ravellorecords.com). Presented in chronological
order, they are: Holocene (2004)
for violin and viola; Acquiesce (2006) for
violin and cello; Persiguiéndose (2007) for
two cellos; Phosphorescent (2008) for cello and double bass; and
Fracture (2017) for two violins.
The performers – who vary from track to track – are Megan Holland,
Roberta Arruda and David Felberg (violins); Kimberley Fredenburgh
(viola); Joel Becktell, Lisa Collins and David Schepps (cellos); and
Mark Tatum (bass).
The works are difficult to describe, although not difficult to listen to;
Lombardi says that he likes to explore self-similar and recursive
patterns. They’re modernistic with some strong melodic lines, taut
rhythms, dissonance, motivic structure and some interesting textures
and harmonies. Overall they’re strongly individual pieces, wellwritten
and extremely well-played.
It’s been five years since we saw a CD from
the Canadian guitarist Warren Nicholson
(his Latin American Guitar Favourites
issued in September 2013) but he’s back
with Spanish Miniatures, a selection mostly
of works by Fernando Sor, Francisco Tárrega
and Isaac Albéniz (Independent WAN
Records WANCD60918;
warrennicholsonguitarist.com).
Federico Moreno Torroba’s Madroňos opens the disc, followed by
four Studies and two Lessons selected from Fernando Sor’s Opp.6, 35,
44 and 60 works. Tárrega is represented by six works: his Preludes
Nos.1 and 2; Lagrima; Maria; Adelita; and the famous Recuerdos de la
Alhambra with its constant right hand tremolo.
Mallorca, Asturias and the Tango from Espaňa are the Albéniz
selections, and the CD ends with two items from more recent but
lesser-known composers: Waltz No.1 by Bartolomé Calatayud (1882-
1973); and Cancion y Danza No.1 by Antonio Ruiz-Pipó (1934-1997).
The playing is again technically accomplished, clean and thoughtful.
The only reservation I have – and one I had about his previous release
as well – is that there is a tendency for the playing to come across as a
bit too measured and carefully considered at times, with the result (in
the Recuerdos in particular) that it can sound a bit pedestrian and fail
to fully engage the listener.
Still, there’s fine playing overall and much to admire here in a wellproduced
and nicely-presented CD.
thewholenote.com/listening
Cavatine
Cameron Crozman & Philip Chiu
Cavatine, the debut album of cellist
Cameron Crozman and pianist
Philip Chiu, explores the refined
world of French music.
Haydn: Cello Concertos, Nos. 1 and 2
Robert deMaine
LA Philharmonic principal cellist
Robert deMaine performs Haydn's
Cellos Concertos in a brand new
recording. Hear deMaine's candenzas
for the first time on his 1841 Jean
Baptiste Vuillaume instrument.
Keyed In
ALEX BARAN
Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki’s recording
career continues with his latest issue of
Mendelssohn (Deutsche Grammophon DG
4836471; deutschegrammophon.com/en/),
the sixth time his name appears on this
prestigious label. Lisiecki plays the Concerto
No.1 in G Minor Op.25 and No.2 in D Minor
Op.40 along with the Variations sérieuses,
Op.54 and a couple of shorter pieces. His
earlier recordings set expectations very high and he has no difficulty
in exceeding them. At age 23, his towering technical ability and the
blazing speed and accuracy of his playing promise to propel him for
a good many years toward some still distant pinnacle. It would all be
something of a meteoric flash were it not for his maturity.
The willingness and ability to forgo the energized brilliance of a
youthful performance is the early mark of a musician with something
to say, something worth hearing. Lisiecki’s fast playing is so impressive
it’s a wonder the piano is mechanically capable of keeping up. But
the middle movements of both concertos along with the more pensive
sections of the Variations are the places where the artist becomes
subsumed in the art. In the moments of pause and suspense, where
so little seems to happen, so much is conveyed. Lisiecki shows how
completely he is able to surrender to this music, to lift away from it
and let it speak. It’s a beautiful recording that promises as much and
more for what Lisiecki will still do.
Concert Note: Jan Lisiecki plays Mendelssohn’s Concerto No.1 in G
Minor Op.25 with the TSO in Roy Thomson Hall, June 5, 6, and 8.
Bruce Levingston’s new CD Citizen (Sono
Luminus DSL 92228; sonoluminus.com)
finds its inspiration in his invitation to
perform at the opening of the Mississippi
Civil Rights Museum. Being his home state,
it occasioned considerable reflection for
him on the deep questions at the core of his
community’s history and conscience. Two
of the works are world premiere recordings
from composers commissioned to write music for the same opening.
They, along with the four others represented on the disc, speak with a
remarkably similar voice. Levingston has programmed his recording
to be this way – a reflection of the higher ideals the Civil Rights
Museum enshrines.
The opening track is Nolan Gasser’s An American Citizen. It’s inspired
by one of Marie Atkinson Hull’s portraits of Mississippi tenant farmers
and sharecroppers. Gasser uses many recognizably American idioms
to build a highly complex work that nevertheless offers immediate
and sustained emotional access. A more contemplative work is David
T. Little’s Accumulation of Purpose inspired by the Freedom Riders,
the civil rights activists who rode buses across the South in 1961. The
final tracks go to Price Walden whose Sacred Spaces is a profoundly
moving remembrance of the countless churches where African-
Americans gathered and contributed to their sense of community. His
arrangement of Amazing Grace closes the recording. It’s a straightforward
structure that uses some extraordinary harmonic transitions
to make this iconic hymn even more meaningful in the context
of the disc.
This recording by Bruce Levingston is far more than a simple CD.
It’s a meditation on one of the central issues of our time and can only
benefit from being heard and experienced in that way.
thewholenote.com March 2019 | 77