Volume 28 Issue 1 | September 20 - November 8, 2022

DISCOVERIES | RECORDINGS REVIEWED
DAVID OLDS
Russian composer Nicolai Korndorf (1947-
2001) was a co-founder of the “new” ACM
(association for contemporary music) in
Moscow in 1990, but upon the dissolution
of the Soviet Union he emigrated to
Canada the following year. Russia’s loss
was Canada’s gain and for a decade, until
his sudden death in 2001, Korndorf was
an associate composer of the Canadian
Music Centre and an integral part of Vancouver’s contemporary music
scene. The Smile of Maud Lewis (Redshift Records TK516 redshiftrecords.org),
released to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the
composer’s birth, features three works “that mark a creative highpoint
and artistic rite of passage from his native Russia to Canada.”
As the liner notes point out, all three are based on thematic material
from earlier works. The booklet includes notational examples of these
themes from Con Sordino for 16 strings and the included Lullaby,
both dating from 1984, which became a sort of signature for Korndorf
in his later works.
The disc begins with the title work, a tribute to the Nova Scotia
folk artist who lived from 1903 until 1970. Korndorf said in an interview
in 1998: “Discovering the art of Maud Lewis was the most
important cultural experience for me since moving to Canada.” The
Smile of Maud Lewis captures the sunny disposition and sense of
wonder inherent in Lewis’ paintings, with a joyous ostinato of mallet
percussion, celesta, flute/piccolo/recorder and full strings underpinning
long, melodious horn lines. Somewhat reminiscent of early
John Adams, with swelling cadences à la Philip Glass, the work
builds dynamically Bolero-like throughout its quarter-hour length,
only relaxing in its final minute to a glorious, gentle close. Conductor
Leslie Dala captures both the exuberance and the nuance of this
sparkling work.
Triptych for cello and piano opens abruptly with raucous chords in
the cello which gradually resolve into an extended solo Lament in
which Ariel Barnes is eventually joined by pianist Anna Levy. Levy
begins the second movement Response with an ostinato once again
drawing on Korndorf’s signature themes, this time supporting an
extended melody line in the cello. Quiet pizzicato opens the final
Glorification before arco cello and piano counterpoint gradually grow
into celebratory ecstasy. Jane Hayes joins Levy for the final two tracks,
Korndorf’s above-mentioned ebullient, though quiet, Lullaby for two
pianos, and the gentle half-light, somnolent rains for piano duo by his
former student Jocelyn Morlock, written in tribute to her mentor on
the fifth anniversary of his death. These marvellous performances are
a strong testament to the importance Nicolai Korndorf and his legacy.
The title of this next disc, ppp (i.e. pianississimo),
led me to expect a quiet and contemplative
experience; it turns out, however,
to be an acronym for the last names of
the Latvian composers involved: Pēteris
Plakidis, Kristaps Pētersons and Georgs
Pelēcis. ppp features Gidon Kremer and his
Kremerata Baltica (LMIC/SKANI 139 skani.
lv) in works for various chamber combinations and for full ensemble.
It begins with Little Concerto for two violins (1991) by Plakidis (1947-
2019), a three-movement work performed by Kremer and Madara
Pētersone, which reminds me of Bartók and Berio violin duos with its
folk-like idioms and exuberance. Pētersons (b.1982) performs his own
craggy Ground for double bass solo and is joined by Iurii Gavrilyuk
and Andrei Pushkarev for π = 3,14 for two double basses, percussion
and recording, a work somewhat suggestive of a sci-fi soundtrack.
Pētersons’ Music for Large Ensemble is performed by Kremerata
Lettonica, a nine-piece string ensemble supplemented with electric
guitar played by the composer. This too seems to have electronic
aspects, presumably executed by the guitarist since no recording is
mentioned. It is in three movements, the last and lengthiest of which
is nominally minimalist and features violin solos themselves reminiscent
of electric guitar lines.
Three pieces from Fiori Musicali (2017-2022) by Pelēcis (b.1947)
prove to be the most traditional on the album, the use of vibraphone
as soloist with string orchestra notwithstanding. Pelēcis named his
“blooming garden” after a collection of liturgical organ works by
Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643). The middle movement Dance of
the Peonies has definite shades of Respighi about it. Cosmea
Melancholy features Kremer as soloist, and once again we hear the
vibraphone in an unusual context in this gloomy finale to a somewhat
surprising disc.
Speaking of string ensembles, the
All-American Cello Band performs the
title track of the CD The Strange Highway
featuring music by Iranian-American
composer Gity Razaz (b.1986) (BIS-2634
bis.se). (I feel compelled to point out that
this so-called all-American band includes
the Halifax-born Denise Djokic of the
famed Nova Scotia musical dynasty, and
also Icelander Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir, although admittedly they both
currently reside in America.) The Strange Highway takes its title from
a poem by Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño: “You wish the angst would
disappear / While rain falls on the strange highway / Where you find
yourself.” Razaz says she was “moved by the potent sense of desolation
and vulnerability expressed through the poem’s imagery.” The cello
octet she has created, beginning with a driving, almost violent, moto
perpetuo that gradually shifts into lyrical melancholia before coming
full circle and effectively “capture[s] and recreate[s] these emotions.”
The next three works are for smaller forces – Duo for violin and
piano, Legend of the Sigh for cello and electronics and Spellbound for
solo viola – composed in 2007, 2015 and 2020 respectively. Francesca
daPasquale and Scott Cuellar shine in the two movements of the Duo
that explores contrasting aspects of a single melody. Inbal Segev is
the dedicatee of Legend and he performs the challenging yet lyrical
live and pre-recorded cello parts against an eerie and effective electronic
backdrop. Katharina Kang Litton is the soloist in the haunting
Spellbound, based on an original melody that “evokes the improvisatory
lyricism of traditional Persian music.”
The final work, Metamorphosis of Narcissus for chamber orchestra
thewholenote.com September 20 - November 8, 2022 | 47