Category Archives: On record

On Record: Laurence Crane: Natural World (Another Timbre)

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Juliet Fraser (voice and Casio keyboard), Mark Knoop (piano and electronics)

Another Timbre AT210 [55’15”]

Producer Mark Knoop Engineer Newton Armstrong

Recorded 17 December 2022 at City, University of London

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Another Timbre issues a follow-up to its two-volume overview of Laurence Crane Chamber Works 1992-2009 (AT74x2) with Natural World, his longest work to date, performed by the artists who commissioned it and making an essential addition to the composer’s discography.

What’s the music like?

Older readers may recall the children’s TV programme Mr Ben, where the shopkeeper appears from nowhere. Such is the impression made by Crane’s music, which exists as if awaiting the listener’s recognition. From his early pieces – often brief and frequently for piano – his output has gradually expanded to embrace larger concepts and ensembles, resulting in such works as Octet (2008) and the Second Chamber Symphony (2016). Natural World (2021) might seem a throwback in its intimacy and understatement, but its impact conveys a wholly different story.

This might appear a song-cycle for voice and piano, but their deployment is hardly beholden to precedent. Crane has spoken of his aversion to ‘setting’ poems such that their meaning is distorted, and Natural World uses texts whose neutrality ensures an objectivity of response.

Unfolding as an unbroken span, the work falls into three distinct and designated sections. The first of these, Field Guide, draws on various authors (not least Crane himself) along with marine biologist Rachel Carson in terms of her classifications and observations – proceeding from a lengthy introduction for piano to an increasingly intricate and nuanced interplay with the voice Field recordings of individual birds gradually interpose so that the closing phase is dominated by that of the Dawn Chorus, its complexity the more affecting for not being the outcome of any (self-)conscious creativity.

The second section, Chorus, is the shortest and effectively an interlude that continues with the above as context for a sequence of piano chords and a vocalise whose curving, glissando-like phrases engender an expressive response without this ever becoming explicit or emotive. Such a response is intensified in the third section, Seascape, that includes a further field recording of the ocean – the voice emerging with a text on the innate fragility of ecosystems. Underpinning this is a sustained electronic tone comparable to those on electronic keyboard to which Crane has often had recourse. Here, it serves to envelop the aural picture and so intensify the musical content without this becoming a ‘message’ in any cultural or political sense: listeners being left free to determine their responses to this music.

Does it all work?

Absolutely. Crane has long been a master of musical continuity, such that the extent of this piece is imbued with a tension sustained and unfaltering. It helps that the performers are so attuned to his creative wavelength – Juliet Fraser articulating the vocal part with unforced clarity and poise, complemented by Mark Knoop’s adroit handling of piano and electronics. As on that earlier release from Another Timbre, the close but never constricted sound is ideal in terms of the immediacy brought to Crane’s music which seems never less than absorbing.

Is it recommended?

Indeed. As is usual from this source, there are no booklet notes but a revealing interview with the composer can be accessed at AT’s website. Those who are new to Crane should also check out previous collections of his music issued on the Hubro, LAWO, Metier and Nimbus labels.

Listen & Buy

For buying options, and for more information on the album, visit the Another Timbre website. For more information click on the names Laurence Crane, Juliet Fraser and Mark Knoop

On Record: Don Banks: Vocal and Chamber Music (Toccata Classics)

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Don Banks
Horn Trio (1962) a
Five North Country Folk Songs (1953) b
Prologue, Night Piece and Blues (1968) c
Three Studies (1954) d
Piano Sonatina in C sharp minor (1948) e
Violin Sonata (1953) f
Tirade (1968) g

(bg) Jenny Duck-Chong (mezzo-soprano), (c) Francesco Celata (clarinet), (a) Robert Johnson (horn), (af) Ole Böhn (violin), (d) Geoffrey Gartner (cello), (g): Rowan Phemister (harp), David Kim-Boyle (siren), Alison Pratt, Daryl Pratt, Joshua Hill (percussion), Daniel Herscovitch (piano)

Toccata Classics TOCC0591 [81’34″]

Producer David Kim-Boyle Engineer David Kinney

Recorded (cdf) 21 September (ag) 24 September and (be) 5 November 2020 at Recital Hall West, Conservatorium of Music, Sydney

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Toccata Classics provides a strong case for the greater recognition of Don Banks (1923-80) with this release of a representative cross-section of vocal and chamber works, performed by Australian and Australia-based musicians who are never less than empathetic with his music.

What’s the music like?

Wholly neglected following his untimely death, Banks was a senior figure in the generation of Australian composers – featuring such as Malcolm Williamson, David Lumsdaine and Nigel Butterley – who posited a decisive if hardly uniform course for the country’s music during the post-war era. Based in London for two decades, he made a living through teaching (notably at Goldsmith’s College) or writing music for horror films (notably Hammer productions), while evolving an increasingly personal language which can be heard in those works included here.

Earliest is the Piano Sonatina whose three movements – an agile Allegro, pensive Largo that nimbly amalgamates elements of fugue and chorale, then an impulsive Risoluto – constitute no mean statement of intent. It was the Violin Sonata which Banks considered his Op. 1, its pithy if contrasted ideas drawn into intensive development that effortlessly sustains a single movement whose 15 minutes seem never less than eventful. More unexpected is his identity with traditional sources in Five North Country Folk Songs (written for Sophie Wyss no less), whose piano accompaniments enhance the sentiment of each text with deadpan humour and audible affection. Reflecting his time spent with Dallapiccola (and, by extension, Webern), Three Studies for cello and piano applies its serial thinking both deftly and resourcefully.

By the 1960s, Banks had fashioned an idiom that was demonstrably but never slavishly of its time. One of the finest instances is the Horn Trio that, for all its inherent abstraction, pursues a tangible emotional trajectory from its forceful opening Allegro, via an Adagio of no mean eloquence, to a final Moderato in which the work’s arresting slow introduction is transformed through hunt-like gestures. Conversely, Prologue, Night Piece and Blues for Two underlines his love for jazz and its deployment within a ‘third stream’ context; here, the music’s restraint affords a sultriness alluring and ominous. Tirade could hardly be more different – its setting of Peter Porter’s impassioned poem on the increasing commercialization of Australian culture notable for a virtuoso vocal part and its imaginative writing for a sizable array of percussion.

Does it all work?

Almost always. Banks took a compositional path that assuredly takes no prisoners, yet which is rarely less than engrossing and, on occasion, affecting. Almost all these pieces would stand up well in recital today, not least for the opportunities they provide to enterprising performers. Other than the concertos for horn and violin (Lyrita), few of his major works are available in modern accounts, and if Toccata could undertake or even licence recordings of his orchestral Divisions or such cross-genre conceptions as Nexus and Meeting Place, so much the better.

Is it recommended?

Very much so. These performances, rarely less than authoritative, are heard to advantage in a spacious but never diffuse ambience. Daniel Herscovitch contributes detailed and informative annotations, and this release hopefully marks a first stage in the rediscovery of a major figure.

Listen & Buy

For buying options, and to listen to clips from the album, visit the Toccata Classics website. For more information on Don Banks, click here

On Record: Sherban Lupu – The Unknown Enescu Vol. 2 (Toccata Classics)

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Enescu
Romanian Rhapsody no.1 in A major Op.11/1 (1901, arr. 1957)
Impressions roumaines (1925, arr, 2008)
Sonata Torso in A minor (1911)
Impromptu concertant in G flat major (1903)
Regrets in G flat major (1898, compl. 2018)
Adagio in B flat major Op.3/3 (1897, arr. 1929)
Valse lente ‘L’Enjôleuse’ (1902)
Caprice Roumain (1925-49, compl. 1994-6)

Sherban Lupu (violin) with Viorela Ciucur (piano); Sinfonia da Camera / Ian Hobson (Caprice Roumain), Ian Hobson (piano, Romanian Rhapsody)

Toccata Classics TOCC0647 [72’52″]

Producers / Engineers Florentina Herghelegiu, Christopher Ericson (Romanian Rhapsody), Jon Schoenoff (Caprice Roumain)

Recorded 7-8 April 2022 at George Enescu Auditorium, University of Music, Bucharest, 2 February 2001 at Krannert Center for Performing Arts, Urbana, Illinois (Caprice Roumain), 15 March 2004 at Krannert Art Museum, Champagne Illinois (Romanian Rhapsody)

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

The expansion and enrichment of George Enescu’s catalogue has been in progress for several decades. Toccata Classics now issues a follow-up of works realized by others, posthumously published or performed in unfamiliar arrangements, all featuring the violinist Sherban Lupu.

What’s the music like?

Enescu’s early output charts a steady incline from precociousness to mastery, evidenced by the melodic poise of the Adagio from his First Piano Suite arranged by violinist Sandu Albu, or a fragmentary transcription of the bittersweet piano waltz Regrets as completed by Lupu. L’Enjouleuse might well have been a hit had its composer chosen not to publish it under the pseudonym ‘Camille Grozza’, its smouldering pathos in contrast to the objectified elegance of Impromptu concertant which was intended as a test-piece for the Paris Conservatoire.

Much the most significant among these earlier items, Sonata Torso belongs to a sequence of unfinished or unpublished pieces from between the First and Second Symphonies (1905-12) that find Enescu reassessing and extending his musical idiom. For all its prolixity, as would have made further movements unfeasible, this yields a wealth of tonal and harmonic incident within its rarefied ambit. Realized by Lupu from extensive sketches, Impressions roumaines makes for an invigorating entrée into the Third Violin Sonata for which this was preparation.

Lupu was also the catalyst behind Caprice Roumain on which Enescu intermittently worked for almost a quarter-century and the nearest he came to a violin concerto in his maturity. As completed by Cornel Țăranu, its compact design takes in a sombre and often ominous initial Moderato, a lightly sardonic scherzo modelled on the hora, a Lento of understated eloquence then a final Allegro whose synthesis of folk and art elements resembles Bartók in procedure if not aesthetic. Happily, this realization is increasingly being taken up by younger violinists.

Opening the collection with the First Romanian Rhapsody might seem unnecessary given its popularity over more than 120 years, yet this arrangement by composer and violinist Marcel Stern remains little known despite being published 65 years ago. The initial stages faithfully recreate the instrument interplay of Enescu’s original, and though the heady continuation can only hint at its scintillating orchestration, what results is a bravura concert-piece in its own right. Duo partnerships everywhere could do worse than try out this version in their recitals.

Does it all work?

Pretty much. This is a collection which, drawn from various sources and recorded at several locations, is given focus by the commanding presence and unstinting advocacy of Lupu. His playing may not be technically immaculate, though it does convey the essence of Enescu’s increasingly personal language; not least in Caprice Roumain, which he previously recorded with Cristian Mandeal (Electrecord) and to which this is a more than worthy successor. Ian Hobson’s credentials in Enescu hardly need restating, and neither do those of Viorela Ciucur.

Is it recommended?

Yes. Those who are primarily interested in the Caprice should investigate David Grimal’s superb account with Les Dissonances (La Dolce Vita) but this release, enhanced by detailed notes from Valentina Sandu-Dediu, makes a valuable addition to the Enescu discography.

Listen & Buy

For buying options, and to listen to clips from the album, visit the Toccata Classics website. For information on the artists, click on the names of Sherban Lupu and Ian Hobson

On Record: Emily Howard: Torus (NMC Recordings)

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Emily Howard

Antisphere (BBC Philharmonic Orchestra / Vimbayi Kaziboni)
Producer Matthew Bennett, Engineer Stephen Rinker
Recorded 29 November 2022, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

sphere (BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Mark Wigglesworth)
Producer Dean Craven, Engineer Stephen Rinker
Recorded at the Aldeburgh Festival, 23 June 2018, The Maltings, Snape

Compass (Julian Warburton (percussion), Birmingham Contemporary Music Group / Gabrielle Taychenné)
Producer & Engineer David Lefeber
Recorded 4 December 2022, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester

Torus (BBC Symphony Orchestra / Martyn Brabbins)
Producer Ann McKay, Engineer Christopher Rouse
Recorded 11 November 2019, Barbican Hall, London

NMC Recordings D274 [68’58″]

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

NMC releases a second collection of music by Emily Howard – now in her early forties and established among the most distinctive while forward-looking composers of her generation, heard in scrupulous performances by a notable line-up of British orchestras and ensembles.

What’s the music like?

Few world premieres from recent years have left an impression comparable to that of Taurus at the Proms in 2016. Its appearance, moreover, marked a further stage in an evolution which had commenced just over a decade earlier and has continued apace, with major commissions from British and European organizations. This has been paralleled by Howard’s commitment into researching the intrinsic properties of sound, most recently via the Centre for Practice & Research in Science and Music (PRiSM) at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music.

As it now stands, Torus is the first part in an informal trilogy of pieces collectively entitled Orchestral Geometries. It evolves along the perceived trajectory of a doughnut-shaped ball whose central void is crucial to music evoking absence as much as presence. Not that a work subtitled Concerto for Orchestra could be found lacking in either immediacy of content or virtuosity of gesture, which qualities come demonstrably to the fore as it unfolds and make for a composition involving in its expressive profile and fascinating in its formal process.

By contrast, Sphere is a succinct yet eventful journey through and around the global shape in question and which, in this context, might reasonably be thought an extra-terrestrial interlude – its ideas pithy while exuding enough potential for their development in subsequent pieces.

This is what happens in Antisphere which forms its conceptual opposite though also its aural continuation, the piece gradually encompassing the ‘sound-space’ through an engrossing and imaginative demonstration of orchestral prowess. Evident too is an increased focus upon the visceral nature of the musical content, likely reflecting a form which can precisely be defined in mathematical terms but remains all but intangible as regards human perception. Fortunate, then, that Howard has been able to render this concept as an emotional and affective whole.

Hardly less absorbing is Compass, the most recent of these pieces. This takes the spatial and nautical connotations of its title as the basis for music which unfolds as a cohesive dialogue between string septet and percussion that complements it and offers contrasts at every turn.

Does it all work?

It does, not least for providing an arresting take on that interplay of ‘heart and brain’ that has been a mainstay of Western music. The cerebral basis of all these pieces may be undeniable, though equally so is the precision of their forms and, above all, the allure of their expression judged intrinsically as sound. Much the same could be said of the music of Iannis Xenakis, the centenary of whose birth was commemorated last year, and whose thinking is continued by Howard from a vantage that is inherently personal while being decisively of the present.

Is it recommended?

It is, not least for its excellent performances by three of the BBC orchestras and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, with booklet notes by Paul Griffiths and mathematician Marcus du Sautoy. This impressive release reinforces Howard’s significance in no uncertain terms.

Listen & Buy

Torus is released on Friday 28 April. You can explore buying options at the NMC Recordings website, and listen to clips from the album at the Presto Music site. You can read Arcana’s interview with Emily Howard by clicking on the link, and click on the names for more on the composer Emily Howard, plus performers Vimbayi Kaziboni, Mark Wigglesworth, Julian Warburton, Gabrielle Teychenné and Martyn Brabbins

On Record – A Certain Ratio: 1982 (Mute)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

At first glance, an album with the title 1982 might be seen to be wearing rose-tinted spectacles. In the case of A Certain Ratio, however, it is nothing more than a mischievous curveball, for they renounce any links with nostalgia on the surface at least – apart from in the song of the same name.

Instead they go about their business with a continually refreshing disregard for genre boundaries, creating where the music takes them in the course of ten songs.

The line-up remains constant, with Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson working alongside Tony Quigley, Matthew Steele and Ellen Beth Abdi, with a guest slot for Chunky the rapper.

What’s the music like?

Varied and vibrant! This is an album that pulses with activity and good vibes, right from the off.

When the easy beat and upward looking chorus of Samo sets out the band’s stall, the signs are good – and as 1982 progresses they only build on that good feeling. The title track is a blend of German pop music homage and loping Manchester groove, while Constant Curve features exalted levels of funk thanks to a guest turn from Emperor Machine.

Waiting On A Train mines a sweet melancholy thanks to a slower groove and Ellen Beth Abdi’s wonderful voice, complemented by the more nasal tones of Chunky and a dreamy piano prologue. Abdi takes over on Afro Dizzy, too, a dreamy mix of Afrobeat and sultry vocals.

Meanwhile Tombo in M3 is an ultra-cool instrumental, powered by liquid keyboard lines and a springy rhythm, while Holy Smoke bubbles up when Tony Quigley’s saxophone gets involved. Tier 3 finds Abdi on flute duties, behind the album’s catchiest riff.

Finally Ballad of ACR is an experimental sign-off, part song and part modern jazz workout, closing the album in a haze.

Does it all work?

It does. An open musical book is the best way for A Certain Ratio to work, and yields thoroughly invigorating results here.

Is it recommended?

Enthusiastically. If you’re a fan, you know exactly what to do – but if you’re new to ACR, this is a great place to start too.

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