In concert – Quatuor Danel: Shostakovich & Weinberg #5 @ Wigmore Hall

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Quatuor Danel [Marc Danel & Gilles Millet (violins), Vlad Bogdanas (viola), Yovan Markovitch (cello)]

Shostakovich String Quartet no.7 in F# minor Op.108 (1959-60)
Weinberg String Quartet no.7 in C major Op.59 (1957)
Weinberg String Quartet no.8 in C minor Op.66 (1959)
Shostakovich String Quartet no.8 in C minor Op.110 (1960)

Wigmore Hall, London
Monday 3 June 2024

by Richard Whitehouse Photo (c) Marco Borggreve

Quatuor Danel’s interleaving of string quartets by Shostakovich and Weinberg arrived at its effective half-way point this evening with a programme featuring the seventh and eighth of their respective cycles: quartets that are as different from each other as are these composers.

His briefest and likely most ambivalent, Shostakovich’s Seventh Quartet is dedicated to the memory of his first wife from the vantage of the short-lived marriage to his second. Its three movements play without pause, their oblique formal and expressive circularity being potently realized here – whether those fugitive speculations of the opening Allegretto, wistful regret of the central Lento, or seething anger of a final Allegro whose fugal aggression pointedly heads back to the opening theme for a close of simmering unease. Music, then, which implies much more than could really be stated, as the Danel underlined throughout this perceptive reading.

Coming 11 years after its monumental predecessor, Weinberg’s Seventh Quartet might seem representative of a (necessary) lowered ambition in the late- and post-Stalin years. Subdued and even enervated, its opening Adagio never strays from a musing uncertainty the ensuing Allegretto (originally preceded by a vivid scherzo, subsequently withdrawn) offsets through its poise and charm. Neither predicts a finale as takes the precedent of that in Shostakovich’s Second Quartet to its logical extreme – these 23 variations on a sombre theme unfolding as a palindrome from sustained grandeur to seething energy, then back to the start for a glowering apotheosis. Undoubtedly one of the great such movements in the history of the string quartet.

Such music would usually mark the end of a programme but, following the trajectory of this double-cycle, it concluded the first half of a recital which continued with Weinberg’s Eighth Quartet. Once relatively familiar through its championing from the Borodin Quartet and, in the UK, the Lindsays, its single movement (reciprocally taken to a new level with the 13th Quartet of Shostakovich) builds from initial reticence to a dance-like section of pronounced Klezmer inflections. Affording a culmination of audible anguish, this duly subsides towards the mood of the opening for a conclusion of becalmed intimacy realized to perfection here.

It is worth recalling how much more frequently played, compared to the rest of his cycle, was Shostakovich’s Eighth Quartet even a quarter-century after its composer’s death. All credit to the Danel for investing it with a continual sense of (re-?) discovery – the pensive allusiveness of its initial movement yielding an anticipation brutalized by the violence of its scherzo then deflected by the quizzical repartee of its intermezzo. The fourth movement assuredly took no hostages to fortune in its graphic alternation between the confrontational and consoling, and it remained for the finale to restore emotional equilibrium with its resumption of the opening music – albeit now devoid of quotations as Shostakovich stands ‘naked’ before his listeners.

A gripping performance and one, moreover, that brought this first phase of the Danel’s cycle to a natural close. It resumes on October 16th with the Ninth and 10th Quartets by Weinberg alongside the Ninth Quartet by Shostakovich – a programme equally eventful and intriguing.

You can hear the music from the concert below, in recordings made by Quatuor Danel -including their most recent cycle of the Shostakovich quartets on Accentus:

For more information on the next concert in the series, visit the Wigmore Hall website. You can click on the names for more on composer Mieczysław Weinberg and Quatuor Danel themselves.

Published post no.2,200 – Wednesday 5 June 2024

New music – Floating Points: Del Oro (Ninja Tune)

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by Ben Hogwood

Floating Points, aka Sam Shepherd, has today shared a new single, Del Oro, which is out now via Ninja Tune.

With a busy summer of live appearances ahead, Shepherd is following up the energetic Birth4000 from last year with a single that has some of the Floating Points hallmarks. Beat driven and busy, Del Oro progresses between minimal beats and shimmering motifs, while never taking its eyes off the dancefloor.

As with Birth4000, ‘Del Oro”s artwork comes from Tokyo based artist Akiko Nakayama. In the words of Shepherd’s press release, “Nakayama brings her painting to life using vibrant, brilliant liquids that combine and wash away, meant to represent the natural growth, change and life cycle of all things on earth. Nakayama worked alongside long-time Floating Points collaborators Hamill Industries to create the “Alive Painting” to accompany the track”…which you can watch here:

Shepherd will be playing a number of dates throughout the summer including We Out Here Festival in Wimborne (16 August), London’s All Points East (23 August), Lost Village Festival in Lincoln (24 August) and Forwards Festival at Bristol (31 August)

Published post no.2,199 – Tuesday 4 June 2024

On Record – BEAK>>: >>>> (Invada Records)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

There is a refreshing lack of information to go with the new BEAK>> album. It is, quite simply, the need of a group of people to make music, with no back story in particular – just the love of what they do and can achieve together.

This is probably why >>>> does not have more of a distinctive title, as the music is left alone to have the best possible impact. It was recorded at Invada studios in Bristol, the sessions dotted around to accommodate the band’s touring schedule.

There is, however, a story behind the opening track Strawberry Line, which is a tribute to Geoff Barrow’s much-loved dog Alfie, who appears on the album’s cover.

What’s the music like?

Compelling. As the band say, it works best listened to in one breath from start to finish, where the listener can appreciate how the grooves take hold through the album.

The Alfie tribute, Strawberry Line, starts with a solemn, chorale-like figure, which eventually acquires a groove and grows to impressive heights. The Seal has a clipped rhythm and greater urgency, while Windmill Hill starts the more beat-driven section of the album with an appealing, wonky groove.

From here on the bass heads are in for a treat, thanks to the grooves of Hungry Are We and Ah Yeh, which has been around for a little while, and makes a very strong impact in this LP version. As the album progresses the spirits rise further, with a brilliant bass line on Bloody Miles and some clanging, metallic percussion that propels Secrets towards the 1980s in the company of a buzzing synth code.

The closing Cellophane is an unsettling affair, however, going through a woozy vocal and distracted band passage before suddenly gaining momentum like a dance of death, careering into the buffers at the end.

Does it all work?

It does – and the bigger the system the better for this affair, so that the bass driven tracks make their mark and the woozy, psychedelic dressing gets its full perspective.

Is it recommended?

Very much so. BEAK>> are continuing on their compelling path of sonic innovation with this powerful and multifaceted piece of work.

For fans of… Portishead, Magazine, Cabaret Voltaire, Can

Listen and Buy

Published post no.2,198 – Monday 3 June 2024

On Record – Howe Gelb: Weathering Some Piano (AKP Recordings)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Howe Gelb is a seasoned musician of many projects, so it is entirely within character to see him popping up with a solo piano album for AKP Recordings.

Made in his Arizona dwelling, it is a private affair, with Gelb on the piano in an adobe room insulated with denim, ensuring the acoustic is intimate and without reverberation.

Discussing the album, Gelb says, “Nature is in itself an improvisation. It can never be an accurately nor consistently planned thing. It should also be noted an extreme climate resonates with emotional wherewithal. Thus, these captured pieces of pianistic atmospheres are simple paintings of the horizon, a semi still life, the net result of allowance, and never intended to be drawn again. Resonance achieved via residence.”

What’s the music like?

Listening to this album gives the impression of eavesdropping on a pianist from the room next door. Gelb’s conversational way of playing is at once appealing, the soft tones of the piano providing an ambience like no other.

The musical language is simple but in a rewarding sense, like an Erik Satie Gymopèdie might be. Weathered itself wears a distracted look, as though the pianist is preoccupied with looking out the window, but Barometer is more structured and completely charming. There is light humour in Coffee vs Rain and Puddle Jumpin’, and a touch of humidity in The Promise Of Thunder.

Gelb’s melodies have light inflections and ornaments, suggesting a jazz influence that sits in the middle ground. Although the reverberation is deadened by the recording conditions, Gelb keeps the sustain pedal down for much of Rhapsody In Cloud Formation, the pitches colliding softly with consonant overtones until an unexpected ending in the lower pitches.

Perhaps the most meaningful piece is the extended central opus, The Sky That Can’t Make Up Its Mind. Here the thoughts and moods are varied, at times going off centre but then coming back, exploring each end of the piano with a youthful mind. There are sudden sharp bursts of clarity and a surprisingly discordant centre, before the piece comes home to rest having traversed all the moods.

Does it all work?

It does. With an intentionally lazy, improvised approach, Gelb has made an instinctive album that allows the mind to wander.

Is it recommended?

It is. Weathered Piano is a pleasing anecdote to the more clinical piano sound served up alongside many a morning coffee. It is a charming piece of work, a more than pleasant distraction for home listening.

For fans of… Erik Satie, Chilly Gonzales, Joep Beving

Listen and Buy

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Published post no.2,189 – Saturday 25 May 2024

Switched On – Machinedrum: 3FOR82 (Ninja Tune)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Travis Stewart releases his 11th album under the Machinedrum alias, a work that began on his 41st birthday when he took a trip to the Joshua Tree National Park in California. There the thought process towards this 12-track opus began; 12 tracks that include a whole host of collaborators.

It traverses a wide range of speeds and styles in the company of Jesse Boykins III, a close friend and the album’s producer, while the vocal roster includes Tinashe, KUČKA, Duckwrth, AKTHESAVIOR, Mick Jenkins, Ezri, Tanerélle, Deniro Farrar, Topaz Jones, deem spencer, aja monet, ROZET, Will Johnson and Ian Maciak.

What’s the music like?

This is a pretty hectic album, in a good way. There is a great deal going on in a short space of time, Machinedrum packing most tracks into three minutes or less. He does this by getting straight to the point with his beat work and lyrics.

It proves to be a thrilling ride, especially on tracks such as ILIKEU, with its appealing bumpy garage, the bassy RESPEK, and the helium-inflected vocals of KUČKA, who brings euphoria to the quickfire beats of U_WANT.

The lyrical observations are pertinent, too – especially WEARY’s observation from Mick Jenkins that “I don’t see too much backbone these days”.

There are vibrant rhythms throughout, as Machinedrum moves between drum & bass, hip hop, R&B and quickfire house, and this stylistic melting pot comes to a head on tracks like Zoom, where the heady production is complemented by brilliant vocals by Tinashe.

Does it all work?

It does – and if anything it’s all over a bit too soon, as the 12 tracks whizz by in a euphoric blur.

Is it recommended?

Yes. 3FOR82 is a thrilling ride through the mind of Machinedrum, who manages to keep all his collaborators true to his own musical identity. This particular melting pot serves up a rewarding musical dish.

Listen & Buy

Published post no.2,196 – Saturday 1 June 2024