In concert – CBSO Centre Stage: Poulenc Chamber music

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Poulenc Sonata for Clarinet and Bassoon, FP32 (1922); Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano, FP43 (1924-6); Sextet for Wind Quintet and Piano, FP100 (1931-2, rev. 1939-40)

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Members: Marie-Christine Zupancic (flute),Emmet Byrne (oboe), Oliver Janes (clarinet), Nikolaj Henriques (bassoon), Elspeth Dutch (horn), Robert Markham (piano)

CBSO Centre, Birmingham
Friday 21 January 2022 2pm

Written by Richard Whitehouse

It made sense to devote a programme in the Centre Stage series – put on by musicians of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra – to the chamber music of Poulenc, which is hardly less representative than those vocal and choral pieces that likewise run throughout his output.

Increasing in size and substance, the three works this afternoon were also a viable overview of the composer’s evolution during the interwar period. The Sonata for Clarinet and Bassoon finds Poulenc teasing out the expressive potential of Stravinsky’s often inscrutable chamber music from the previous decade; its Allegro and Final movements pursuing an agile dialogue whose harmonic astringency is offset by the wistful insouciance of its central ‘Romance’, in which the interplay between Oliver Janes and Nikolaj Henriques was at its most persuasive.

Stravinsky evidently had a direct output into the composition of the Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano which, cut from similar stylistic cloth to the earlier piece, reveals greater emotional range. Not least in the opening movement’s pointed contrast between its wistful introduction and headlong Presto, or the Andante’s haunted charm – here emphasized by plaintive oboe playing from Emmet Byrne – whose ‘vulnerability behind the façade’ is duly swept away by a finale in which the breezy humour of the ballet Les biches comes unmistakably to the fore.

The Sextet cost Poulenc fair effort before reaching definitive form at the start of the Second World War but is arguably his most representative work at that stage. Not least in the way its animated opening Allegro makes a virtue of any imbalance between piano and wind quintet – Robert Markham keeping matters securely grounded – or sheer timbral and textural variety of the Divertissement with piquant contributions from flautist Marie-Christine Zupancic and horn player Elspeth Dutch. Nor was there any lack of verve in a Finale whose recollection of the work’s opening, now suffused with greater pathos, must surely be a comment on the times.

Eloquently realized, it brought to an end an admirable showcase for both music and musicians. Next week sees a no less engaging programme of Kodály and Korngold by the CBSO strings.

Further information on future CBSO Stage concerts can be found here

Switched On – Quattro Artists: albums from Quivver, Captain Mustache, Satoshi Fumi & Lopezhouse

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4 Albums – Captain Mustache Indigo Memories; Quivver Revelate; Satoshi Fumi Mysterious Phenomenon; Lopezhouse Apollo

reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

This is a novel idea from John Digweed’s Bedrock label. The Quattro project presents four new albums from Bedrock artists, put together in typically chic packaging. The four producers in question range from the new to the experienced, namely Quivver, Captain Mustache, Lopezhouse and Satoshi Fumi.

The care and attention to detail with the release gives it a prestigious air, but also shows the depth of investment Bedrock are prepared to make in their artist roster.

What’s the music like?

There is a wealth of electronic music goodness here.

First up is Quivver’s Revelate album, released separately in November and given a bright green light on this very site. As Arcana said at the time, the structure of John Graham’s album is impeccably cast and tells its own story, acting like a DJ mix. There is a really rewarding mix of deep, warm house tracks but also those laced with a bit of attitude, all geared squarely towards the dancefloor.

Altered and Funkfly are two great examples of just how strong Quivver’s groove can be, while Crystals offers enticing warmth. What really impresses though is Graham’s mastery of his tools, never using too many or too few notes, and generating impressive momentum through his rhythm tracks.

The music of Satoshi Fumi offers the ideal contrast, generally operating at a slower tempo. There are some lovely, warm soundscapes here, proving well suited for a poolside session but also more immersive home listening. That’s because Fumi’s compositions have rich, melodic layers, such as the cellos in A Ray Of Sunlight, or the warm pads used in Dawn And The Moon. Star Gazer is appropriately awestruck as it heads outside with busy pianos and heady strings, while Bamboo Forest presents an intimate set of loops. Fumi has great control over his music at all times, but that doesn’t stop him from expanding his thoughts on occasion, using music made by instinct as well as process. His works are descriptive too – Out To Sea and Air Castle paint vivid pictures as their loops unfold.

Contrast this with the work of Lopezhouse, the Spanish duo adding darker colours to their work in a very effective set of brooding instrumentals. Apollo is a fine debut after 3 EP releases, sporting some dark and tense numbers in Clouds and Soyuz II, while Burning gets just the right balance between poolside chill and a gritty, urban undercurrent. Love On A Spacecraft goes widescreen with pulsing electronics and big boned drums, while the title track is slightly dreamy. Someday, meanwhile, is prime end credits material.

The tempo increases again for Captain Mustache, whose Indigo Memories album gives the double benefit of sounding like home-produced techno while producing grooves destined for a far bigger room. Bleu Ciel, previously released on Bedrock, gets the album off to a pulsating start, sounds flitting above an electro beat that could be imported from the 1990s. Catch Me has a cinematic air, and Andromeda works up a head of steam, while Paola proves to be a compelling electro / techno loop fest.  Midnight Man is a great futuristic track with a touch of Jean-Michel Jarre about it, while Shapes & Oddity also reaches back into the vaults to create a Tron-style thriller.

Does it all work?

It does. Each of the albums will stand well on their own, but given as part of a package they complement each other extremely well. Although John Digweed might not have contributed a musical note here, his influence runs through each of the releases, as you could expect any of these tracks to crop up in a DJ mix under his guidance.

By that you will gather production standards are high, each track is impeccably structured, and the attention to detail is reflected in the artwork adorning this handsome box. There is an album for each mood, too – Quivver and Captain Mustache tending towards moments of dancefloor-based hedonism, Lopezhouse getting the moody end of day lead up to the big night, and Satoshi Fumi floating between the start and the end of the night.

Is it recommended?

With great enthusiasm. Quattro feels like a bit of an indulgence on the part of the buyer, but in the best possible way as this is a labour of love from Digweed’s label. If you plump for the physical version the rewards are many, since not only do you get the music but you get the clever, minimalistic packaging. For those of a certain age – yours truly, for instance, who bought the package just before Christmas – this middle-aged electronica fan means something, at least!

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You can buy the Quattro CD set from the Bedrock shop here

 

 

Switched On – Bonobo: Fragments (Ninja Tune)

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reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Perhaps surprisingly, this is the first album from Bonobo in five years. Simon Green – whose pseudonym this is – describes his new record as the most emotionally intense record that he has ever had to make. As with previous releases he takes a number of guest vocalists with him on the journey, dovetailing those tracks with instrumentals.

What’s the music like?

Familiar. If you have heard Bonobo’s music before, the manner of its construction on Fragments will tick a number of boxes. Beautifully orchestrated, the instrumentals work well with the broken beats that Green employs, which have more power and depth this time.

The vocal guests complement his sensitive work with some meaningful lyrics. There are strong contributions from Joji, Kadhja Bonet, Jamila Woods and O’Flynn, but pick of the turns is from Jordan Rakei, who lends a powerful tug to the heartstrings on Shadows.

The thicker set grooves may be welcome, but does the familiarity of Bonobo’s sound breed contempt? Certainly the chopped up vocals on Age Of Phase feel familiar, very much a continuation of what Bonobo does best. Rosewood is also a characteristically moody instrumental with vocal snippets, though Otomo is more acidic, dropping a heavy set beat. On the calmer side the shuffling beats of the comforting Closer work well, while the silvery strings to close out Tides are reminiscent of Ravel. Elysian also has alluring strings, especially when teamed with a harp.

Does it all work?

It does, but the feeling persists that this is music we have heard before – and possibly in more meaningful colours. In spite of the emotion invested by Green the music does feel grey at times. That may seem harsh on Bonobo, for the music is beautifully constructed and executed, but it is more than a little downbeat in a way we have experienced before.

Is it recommended?

It is for Bonobo devotees, as there are some good moments here – and especially the Jordan Rakei contribution – but for those new to his sound an album from earlier in his output, such as Black Sands, is arguably the best place to start.

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Switched On – FMS-80: Lifestyle 02 (Rednetic)

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reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

FMS-80 is one of the pseudonyms used by Joseph Auer. It is shorthand for FM Synthesis 1980, and is influenced by the Yamaha DX FM compositions of that time – and especially those made by a number of Japanese producers in their environmental tracks.

Auer offers a nine-track album as the second in the Lifestyle series, released on his co-founded label Rednetic. The artwork and musical language suggest a close kinship with the music of the Far East, so expectations are high for a production as clean and invigorating as suggested by the cover.

What’s the music like?

Richly rewarding. Auer spends much of his time on this album in the treble range, exploring brightly coloured textures and a wide range of timbres. Many of these explorations use consonant harmonies, bathing the listener in a warm glow, but there is always an edge to the ambience that stops it from becoming too comfortable.

Beidaihe Loop, for instance, is scored for a body of metallic, percussive sounds, its effect like a peal of bells. By contrast later tracks on the album have more white noise and scattered beats, with Changgo House behaving like an active radiation counter and Swedish Container adding white noise to the picture.

Esplanade View is a warm-hearted gem, softening the timbres and creating a rich pool of sound, beautifully realised as a track to dive into at high volume. Housing Development has a glitchy texture but pans out quite a way, its effect akin to silvery droplets landing on a windscreen. Engawa Pergola paints a watery picture, while Sentul East Atrium offers a rather beautiful open vista and another bright view for the headphone-based listener.

Does it all work?

It does, and Auer knits together the different shades and moods in a rather seamless patchwork of ideas. The titles and music are borne of the far East but travel well.

Is it recommended?

Enthusiastically. The Rednetic label is hitting its stride as a positive force to be reckoned with in electronic music, and this is another feather in their cap.

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In concert – Fatma Said, CBSO / Kazuki Yamada – Mozart, Mahler & Richard Strauss

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Richard Strauss Don Juan, Op. 20 (1888)
Mozart Vado, ma dove?, K583 (1789)
Mozart La Clemenza di Tito, K621 (1791) – Non più di fiori
Mahler Symphony No. 4 in G major (1899-1900)

Fatma Said (soprano), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Kazuki Yamada

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 19 January 2022

Written by Richard Whitehouse

It may still be over a year before Kazuki Yamada becomes chief conductor and artistic advisor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, but concerts such as tonight’s afford ample indication of just what can be expected from this already engaged and productive partnership.

If there any ongoing theme to this programme, it was one of transcendence – admittedly, one of negation in Richard Strauss’s Don Juan, though Yamada relished those encounters chivalrous and amorous during its course. The ‘carnival’ episode drew some especially incisive playing from woodwind and brass, and while the climactic restatement of the horns’ aspiring theme lacked nothing in grandiloquence, it did not detract from the starkness of a coda whose fatalism was to be encountered within this composer’s tone poems more regularly than might be supposed.

Strauss’s lifelong devotion to Mozart made two of the latter’s arias an appealing complement. Written as a replacement number for a long-forgotten opera by Vicente Martín y Soler, Vado, me dove? enjoys frequent revival as a standalone aria and, when elegantly rendered by Fatma Said, it was not hard to hear why. One of the (relatively few) highpoints from Mozart’s final opera La Clemenza di Tito, Vitellia’s aria makes greater expressive challenges to which Said rose accordingly – the trajectory of its ‘Ecco il punto’ recitative subsiding from anguish into that resignation from where the aria itself proceeds unerringly to the resolve at its close. All of which was eloquently conveyed, and while a further aria – the mellifluous Nehmt meinen Dank? – would have been welcome, there was more to come from this impressive singer.

Namely the finale of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony – hardly the rarity it was when Adrian Boult introduced it to Birmingham audiences 95 years ago, but easy to underestimate in the context of this composer’s overall output. As ‘unhurried’ as its heading indicates, the first movement exuded no little ambiguity – Yamada pointing up those myriad timbral and textural shadings that permeate the development and so make possible the heightened equanimity of the reprise. Sardonic but not unduly malevolent, the scherzo was tangibly evocative (Eugene Tzkindelean switching adeptly from his violin to its retuned doppelganger) – with breath-taking change of tonal perspective at the arcadian vision near its end. Visionary was no less apt to describe the slow movement, its variations alternating between fervour and anguish with seamless accord.

Felicitous playing from CBSO woodwind informed its progress on the way to its climax, with ‘heaven’s door’ briefly yet thunderously ajar prior to the transfigured calm of the closing bars. Stealing in just before, Fatma Said was an appealing guide to the setting of ‘Das himmlische Leben’ with its not always blissful recounting of the joys awaiting those who arrive there. Of particular note was the easefulness that spread across the final pages, when the singing ceases and the orchestra withdraws stealthily while raptly to leave just the harp’s pulsing resonance.

A lucid, often captivating performance of a work whose enticements Yamada realized in full measure. Anyone who can make it along to Symphony Hall for tomorrow afternoon’s repeat should certainly do so, while Kazuki Yamada will be back with the CBSO during this spring.

For more information on this concert visit the CBSO website. Meanwhile click on the links for information on the artists Fatma Said and Kazuki Yamada.