Posted by George Heathco »
Add Comment »Selkie: A sea tale is a chamber opera collaboration between soprano Misha Penton and composer Elliot Cole, and was released on CD and digital download this April. From the liner notes: “Selkie…is a dreamscape of human fragility, longing and loss, written from a sailor’s wife to her selkie love and culminates in her willingness to release him back to the sea.” The CD features performances by Penton, cellist Patrick Moore, and pianist Kyle Evans. The work premiered in Houston, Tx in 2010.
Elliot Cole
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There were two wonderful opportunities over the past month for chamber music fans in Texas to experience fantastic performances of master works by leading contemporary American composers. The pair of concerts were on May 8 and 9 in San Antonio, and were presented by veteran new music group SOLI Chamber Ensemble. SOLI is a contemporary music quartet based in San Antonio, Texas, and is comprised of clarinetist Stephanie Key, violinist Ertan Torgul, cellist David Mollenauer, and pianist Carolyn True. They presented a youthful, energetic, and bold program of five works on May 8 at Trinity University’s Ruth Taylor Recital Hall. The program was repeated the following night at the McNay Art Museum, in the Leeper Auditorium. Of the five works performed over the two evenings, two pieces were premiere performances of specific arrangements, and one was a world premiere of a brand new collaborative work by composer Steven Mackey and video artist Mark DeChiazza.
SOLI Chamber Ensemble
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Following a fair amount of controversy regarding scandalous album art, Steve Reich released a new album this past September featuring three works: WTC 9/11, performed by the Kronos Quartet; Mallet Quartet, performed by So Percussion; and Dance Patterns, performed by members of Reich’s longtime ensemble Steve Reich and Musicians.
WTC 9/11 is Steve Reich’s third string quartet and, like its predecessors, was composed for the Kronos Quartet. Composed in 2010 the piece bears a striking resemblance to Reich’s first quartet Different Trains in that it features the quartet interacting with prerecorded voices, as well as an element that Reich made use of in his second string quartet Triple Quartet, which is writing for one live quartet and two prerecorded. There are three movements: I. 9/11, II. 2010, III. WTC. It commemorates the 10-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks on New York City, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
Steve Reich (Source: redbullmusicacademy.com)
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Hippos Epos is the latest release by Italian percussionist Sebastiano de Gennaro, on Trovarobato’s Parade label. Of the six pieces contained on the disc, three are original compositions for percussion and electronics (Donald Fauntleroy Duck, Electric Poneis, Musica per Aristofane), two are highly imaginative reinterpretations of major works from the cannon (Kindersinfonie, and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no. 2), and one is a faithful interpretation of a minimalist landmark (Steve Reich’s Music for Pieces of Wood). It seems highly appropriate at this point to issue a bit of a spoiler alert for any interested reader, as the six titles represented on Hippos Epos are heavily steeped in irony, sarcasm, and humor.
Sebastiano de Gennaro
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Phantasm is a collection of eleven recent compositions for saxophone and computer, sourced from a call for scores that spanned the globe and yielded more than two-dozen works. Saxophonist and composer Eric Honour took a chosen ten pieces, plus one of his own, out on the road on an 18-date world tour, and subsequently recorded and released in July of 2011 by Ravello Records. The compositions compiled on Phantasm form a diverse collection of electro-acoustic music that covers a rather large spectrum of styles, textures, and timbres. Honour’s own compositional contribution is the title track. In keeping with the eclectic nature of the entire album, Honour’s “Phantasm” explores a broad pallet, moving between pulse-driven tribal rhythms one moment, to something more amorphic and textural in the next.
Honour’s saxophone performances masterfully navigate a wide variety of pieces, ranging from the precise and rhythmically charged athleticism of Christopher Biggs’ “Exterminate Al the Brutes” and Zachary Crockett’s “Fight to Flow Between,” to the nebulous and free form “Whitewater” by Scott McLaughlin. His playing shows great control and sensitivity on Lou Bunk’s quiet and hushed “Luna, ” while also being able to deliver the right amount of coarseness and brashness for D. Edward Davis’ bluesy and folk-inspired “sugar baby.”
The audio quality is exceptionally high on this album, considering that it is currently offered only as a digital release. Along with the digital download, Ravello Records has an interactive website that accompanies the recording, offering a digital booklet, scores for each of the pieces, ringtones, and a desktop wallpaper. These online extras have many pros, with only a couple of cons. The obvious plus to the Ravello site is that digital recordings often make their way to an mp3 player or to a playlist, where listeners are less likely to engage themselves with the music. The site gives the listener the “old-fashioned” experience of thumbing through a CD booklet while following along with the recording. Also, having the scores readily available are a tremendous help for recordings of electro-acoustic music, where it is often difficult or even impossible to separate the soloist from the electronic element. Such is the case for Karlheinz Essl’s “Sequitur VII” or Luigi Ceccarelli’s “Neuromante,” where Honour sounds as though he is accompanied by several other players.
The only downsides to this particular release, oddly enough, are both the digital booklet and the scores. Not owning a physical copy makes finding out the composer’s names and publication information for each piece a chore, as the only way to find out composer names is to flip through the online booklet. The scores offered on the site have a fairly low resolution, which make following along with the score more of an exercise for testing one’s eyesight than a means for connecting to the musical works.
Overall, this recording and the accompanying website are a great package with exceptional compositions, stellar performances, and a fresh and forward-thinking marketing approach that boad well for digital distribution in the 21st Century.
Eric Honour, Phantasm (Ravello Records, RR7815) – Buy on Amazon.com (digital only)
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George Heathco is a composer, electric guitarist, collaborator, and teacher that lives in Houston, Tx with his wife and daughter. You can follow him on twitter:@GeorgeHeathco
