Chamber
CD and Other Review

Review: Towner • Muthspiel • Grandage: Migration, Flexible Sky, Black Dogs (Slava Grigoryan, ASQ)

On Migration, Slava Grigoryan and the Australian String Quartet have teamed up to record three recent works written for the unusual combination of guitar and string quartet. The album is named for the first of these, a single-movement work composed in 2003 by American guitarist Ralph Towner, a name that will be more familiar to fans of the German jazz and new music record label ECM than to classical music audiences. Migration languished unrecorded until now, and Towner credits Grigoryan’s enthusiasm and prodigious skill (indeed, in his hands its complex technical demands seem effortless) as central to the success of the work’s complex scalic runs and their integration with elegantly angular string parts. It sits easily alongside Flexible Sky by Austrian guitarist and composer Wolfgang Muthspiel, a dynamic but contemplative work comprising four contrasting movements. Dark and exciting, it features beautiful glissandi, and the notable interplay between violins and guitar reflects Muthspiel’s earlier training on that instrument. Nevertheless, for Flexible Sky, Muthspiel’s approach to instrumentation is democratic, noting that for him the work is “an interactive web of equal voices”. Towner, Muthspiel and Grigoryan regularly perform together as a guitar trio, indicating a degree of intimacy and mutual… Continue reading…

August 18, 2017
Orchestral
CD and Other Review

Review: Iain Grandage: When Time Stops (Camerata of St John’s)

When Time Stops is choreographer Natalie Weir’s exploration of the final moments of a woman’s life. Iain Grandage revisits his score in this explosive recording from the Camerata of St John’s. The composer tells us the piece is “not only about death. It is also intrinsically about life and the moments within it where one’s normal sense of the moment is stretched”. Immediately obvious is the strength of the music without visual support from the accompanying dance narrative. Rowing 1 begins with blood-curdling strings before Katherine Philp halts us with a cello melody. The second track, Street 1, is a violent commotion of textured strings. The relationship between tracks means the album should be approached in one sitting. Higher tones and heightened emotional intensity inform Rowing 2, and First Kiss brings a euphoric wave of strings. Also of note is Orb, with Chloe Ann Williamson’s double bass pulsing under impassioned and fiery melodies from violist Elizabeth Lawrence. The resolution leaves us hanging on for more. Violinist Brendan Joyce stands out in the grating and trance-like repetition of Scan, while Into the Wall is thick and rhythmic. Impeccable intonation is heard in all movements, though particularly noticeable in… Continue reading Get…

January 30, 2017