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

enhanced by imaginative and dynamic
performance by Plum. And if you think there
are no beautiful melodies on this album, you
are wrong; distinct melodies and elements
of beauty are present throughout. Layers
upon layers of textures and colours make the
music rich, dreamy, sometimes unpredictable,
sometimes probing. Each composition
features the explorative element of
some kind, be it the notion of serendipity in
music (Herriot’s after time: a resolution),
paraphrasing of the melody from Bach’s
Violin Sonata in B-Minor (Choi’s Flowering
Dandelion), or articulation of the musical
cryptogram spelling Sarah’s name (Lyon’s
Personal Noise with Accelerants). Interactive
electronics in Kimura’s Sarahal, along with
violin trills, pizzicatos, arpeggiatos and
harmonics, create colours to die for and a full
sonorous sound.
Sarah Plum offers complex yet conceptually
clear interpretations of these works.
Her distinct style of playing allows for passion
and lyricism in one bow stroke, a perfect
personal noise.
Ivana Popovic
Calques: Morton Feldman; Karl Naegelen
Quatuor Umlaut; Joris Rüůhl
Umlaut Records UMFR-CD 37
(umlautrecords.com)
! Connecting the
common threads
between French
composer Karl
Naegelen’s Calques
and US composer
Morton Feldman’s
Clarinet and string
quartet, Paris-based
Quatuor Umlaut and clarinetist Joris Rühl
emphasize indeterminacy but add enough
variations to counter shifts towards the soporific.
Together violinists Amaryllis Billet and
Anna Jalving, violist Fanny Paccoud and
cellist Sarah Ledoux project a unison sound.
Yet with shaded glissandi plus expanding
and compressing textures, their harmonies
can crackle like electronics or vibrate like
a single long string. This serves as perfect
counterpoint to the split tones, near inaudible
whistles, hollow puffs and clarion peeps
from Rühl, who is equally involved with
free improvisation. The resulting shaded
drone adds a warmer thrust to Naegelen’s
composition, especially when it’s completed
with a concentrated pipe-organ-like throb
from all five.
Feldman’s piece often cushions woody
clarinet tones within luminous coordinated
string harmonies for a warmer and
gentler exposition. While this gentling motif
reappears frequently, other sequences have
the layered strings shimmering upwards or
the clarinetist moving from mid-range acquiescence
to project tongue slaps and higherpitched
trilling arabesques. Sliding among
the unison string coordination, these timbral
reed variations create a darker interface as
low-pitched cello strokes are contrasted with
pizzicato plucks from the others’ elevated
tones. Return to the initial indeterminate but
repeated introductory passage confirms both
the underlying malleability of what could be a
static form and the urbanity of the musicians’
interpretation and linkage to a more contemporary
composition.
Ken Waxman
William Bolcom – Trio for Horn; Solo Violin
Suite No.2
Steven Gross; Philip Ficsor; Constantine
Finehouse
Naxos 8.579102 (naxos.com/catalogue/
item.asp?item_code=8.579102)
William Bolcom – The Complete Rags
Marc-André Hamelin
Hyperion CDA68391/2 (hyperion-records.
co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68391%2F2)
! William Bolcom
(b.1938) is a
renowned American
composer whose
works are wideranging,
genrebending
and utterly
fascinating. While
Bolcom’s compositions
from around 1960 employed a modified
serial technique, under the influence of Pierre
Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano
Berio whose music he particularly admired,
in the 1960s he gradually began to embrace
an eclectic use of a wider variety of musical
styles. In addition to four large-scale operas
and numerous concertos, Bolcom has also
written nine symphonies, twelve string quartets,
four violin sonatas, numerous piano rags,
four volumes of gospel preludes for organ,
four volumes of cabaret songs, three musical
theatre works and a one-act chamber opera.
Chamber Works features two pieces, the
Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano (2017) and
the Suite No. 2 for Solo Violin (2011). The Trio
showcases each instrument to its fullest in
both soloistic and ensemble capacities and,
while mostly atonal, the work incorporates
brief moments of tonality that reorient
the listener’s ears and provide a grounding
element, especially in the more tumultuous
movements. The Suite, conversely, is exquisitely
tuneful and is clearly structured around
the dance forms of Baroque solo violin
suites, especially those of J.S. Bach. Rhythmic
vitality and instrumental virtuosity reign
supreme here, and the performance given by
violinist Philip Ficsor is both admirable and
noteworthy.
The piano rag, (i.e. ragtime), is a musical
style that reached its peak popularity between
1895 and 1919. A precursor to the development
of jazz, ragtime is characterized by
its syncopated or “ragged” rhythm and was
popularized during the early 20th century
by composer Scott Joplin and his school of
classical ragtime.
Although it fell out
of favour in the
1920s, composers
and performers
alike have revived
the styles and forms
of the genre in
the decades since,
including Bolcom. His collection of rags is
among the finest adaptations of ragtime
within contemporary music, achieving a
blend of stylistic familiarity and artistic creativity
that is unique while avoiding appearing
derivative or gauche.
And who better to handle Bolcom’s ingenious
rags than Marc-André Hamelin, perhaps
Canada’s premier interpreter of contemporary
music? As someone who successfully
handled the seemingly insurmountable
piano works of Kaikhosru Sorabji and
Charles-Valentin Alkan, Hamelin’s name is
synonymous with “unplayable” scores that
transcend the conventional understanding
of virtuosity. Here, however, he lends his deft
touch to material that is considerably less
demanding from a technical perspective yet
has certain stylistic requirements, the challenges
of which he meets with precision and
sensitivity.
For those familiar with the music of
Bolcom, both of these recordings are guaranteed
to be a delight; they also serve as fine
starting points for those who are unfamiliar.
The Complete Rags adapts an old yet familiar
style through a master performer’s touch,
while Chamber Works provides a glimpse
into Bolcom’s more modern approach, a
perfect pairing for anyone interested in this
icon of American modernism.
Matthew Whitfield
Concert Note: Marc-André Hamelin gives a
recital in Koerner Hall on October 16 (3pm).
Derek Bermel – Intonations – Music for
Clarinet and Strings
Derek Bermel; Christopher Otto; Wiek
Hijmans; JACK Quartet
Naxos 8.559912 (naxos.com/
CatalogueDetail/?id=8.559912)
! What amazing
art evolves from
decaying empires!
Consider this new
release by Derek
Bermel. Widely
travelled, juxtaposing
American
styles like twangy
folk and wrenching blues, adding elements
from farther afield (South American, African,
Thracian), Bermel fashions wonderful curiosities
from this mittful of influences.
Intonations, played with surly strut by the
JACK Quartet, is all bending pitches and
grinding gears, although the second movement,
Hymn/Homily is poignant and sweet.
thewholenote.com September 20 - November 8, 2022 | 57