JG Thirlwell: ‘Dystonia’
Mivos Quartet (Cantaloupe)
If you’re a fan of grownup cartoons, you’ll have already heard the music of the composer JG Thirlwell, who has written antic and entertaining themes for “Archer” and “The Venture Bros.” But he has additionally lengthy plied his commerce on the up to date classical scene, with compositions for the Kronos Quartet and Alarm Will Sound.
At a harmonic stage, his cartoon scores don’t sound very similar to his “severe” music. But there may be one fixed at work: Thirlwell is an entertainer. That high quality makes his newest album — a collection of quartets performed by the Mivos Quartet — a particular highlight.
An illustration of his expertise comes throughout the first minute of “Ozymandias,” the album’s vivacious, tightly plotted centerpiece. After establishing a straightforward facility with some evergreen avant-garde-isms — stabbing staccato, glowering glissandi — Thirlwell writes a passage of singing, vibrato-strewn enjoying. Then it’s again to the savagery. Crucially, although, he’s not afraid of extra susceptible sonic states. That sensibility pays off handsomely all through the album, not least within the penultimate work, “Heliophobia.”
At a floor stage, the sequencing of this album’s 5 works alternates between intense ragers and extra intimate meditations, however each additionally comprises multitudes. And chalk up one other victory for the Mivos gamers; final yr, they introduced new pieces by the improvising guitarist Mary Halvorson into the classical sphere. Now they’ve made a mark this yr as effectively. SETH COLTER WALLS
‘Der Ferne Klang …’: Orchestral Works & Songs by Franz Schreker
Chen Reiss, soprano; Matthias Goerne, baritone; Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Christoph Eschenbach, conductor (Deutsche Grammophon)
Heady, enveloping, ever so barely preposterous — what magnificent music Franz Schreker wrote for the orchestra, and what a disgrace that it has fallen into such disfavor. Every so usually, a recording comes alongside to revive its lavish glories to honor, although, and this one is especially welcome for its vary, its high quality and its devotion to the trigger.
Christoph Eschenbach may not conjure the sense of freedom and surprise that enraptures in probably the most intoxicating accounts of Schreker’s scores — Michael Gielen’s “Vorspiel zu einem Drama,” say, or Marc Albrecht’s “Der Schatzgräber” — however the subtlety and management that he brings to those performances is spectacular however.
Take the extraordinary quantity of element to be heard within the wandering, longing “Nachtstück” from “Der Ferne Klang,” or the care evident within the “Valse Lente,” which the Konzarthausorchester gamers phrase with charming, naïve serenity. The beautiful Chamber Symphony and the dainty Kleine Suite obtain beautiful readings, reminders of a delicacy in Schreker’s writing that’s usually forgotten amid all its opulence. Chen Reiss and Matthias Goerne make delicate arguments in flip for the mournful “Vom ewigen Leben,” which units poetry by Whitman, and the doleful “Fünf Gesänge.” Only the Romantic Suite falls brief, dragging a bit of too usually in tempo; but when it does, effectively, that’s simply an excuse, if you happen to ought to want one, to seek out another Schreker recording to fall in love with. DAVID ALLEN
‘Fantasie: Seven Composers, Seven Keyboards’
Alexander Melnikov (Harmonia Mundi)
One draw back of the period-instrument motion is that its insistence on historic accuracy has put one thing of a damper on recordings that cross centuries and types. Enter Alexander Melnikov, a pianist whose newest album traces the event of the fantasy, Western music’s most imaginative and least rule-bound type, from the 18th to twentieth centuries.
Each composer is heard on a special keyboard, kicking off with Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, carried out to crisp, punchy impact on a duplicate of a two-manual harpsichord from the seventeenth century, and coming full circle with Schnittke’s grinding Improvisation and Fugue, performed on a Steinway lower than a decade outdated.
Melnikov calls this system a “handshake recreation” during which the imprint of 1 composer may be heard in those who observe (although typically at subterranean depths). Something comparable goes for the devices as effectively. The tangent piano — a now-obscure instrument from the 18th century, on which Melnikov performs a harmonically daring fantasia by C.P.E. Bach — has some unique timbres that change into each smoother and extra unified on the fortepiano used for 2 works by Mozart.
Greater resonance materializes in works by Chopin and particularly Mendelssohn, whose Fantasia in F-sharp minor bristles with edgy depth and Romantic brio. But this simply scratches the floor of the connections made and the surprises encountered on this recording, which is, pardon the expression, simply unbelievable. DAVID WEININGER
‘Contra-Tenor’
Michael Spyres, tenor; Il Pomo d’Oro; Francesco Corti, conductor (Erato)
On his new set of arias from the Baroque and early Classical eras, Michael Spyres stretches himself to the restrict. By my math, he sings throughout three octaves, bringing panache and a juicy, pliable sound to music written for tenors who might rival castratos in virtuosity and great thing about tone.
In 2021, this sui generis vocalist launched “Baritenor,” an album with an audacious — if at times unconvincing — mixture of well-known baritone and tenor arias. In “Contra-Tenor,” against this, Spyres sounds free, recent and dashing, equalizing the registers of a chestnut-colored voice from dusky lows to lightsome highs. He visits the uncommon air above excessive C in boffo flashes and relishes backside notes for their very own model of virtuosity, recalling Marilyn Horne’s revelrous method with downward ornaments in “Una voce poco fa.”
The album hits one stupefying climax after one other, and for a recital with arias by Mozart, Handel and Gluck, it’s a testomony to Spyres’s showmanship that the very best moments come within the rarities. His weightless tone beguiles in Sarro’s “Fra l’ombre un lampo solo,” and his poise amid the massive leaps and tiny twists of arias by Mazzoni and Latilla beggars perception.
The conductor Francesco Corti’s effervescent fashion with Il Pomo d’Oro propels Spyres’s good-looking, explosive vocalism. These musicians go away little doubt of the star energy of the Baroque-era tenors who sang this materials — and of the singer who’s reviving it. OUSSAMA ZAHR
Elfman: Violin Concerto, Hailstork: Piano Concerto
Sandy Cameron, violin; Stewart Goodyear, piano; Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; JoAnn Falletta, conductor (Naxos)
The conductor JoAnn Falletta has wide-ranging style. She was an early interpreter of the music of John Luther Adams; in recent times, she has investigated rarities by Franz Schreker and Victor Herbert, whereas additionally enjoying preparations of Ellington together with her gamers on the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the place she has been the music director since 1999.
That curiosity is given room to roam as soon as once more on this album. Danny Elfman’s madcap and noirish items — acquainted to followers of Tim Burton movies and “The Simpsons” — are on intermittent show all through his Violin Concerto No. 1. But with a operating time of over 40 minutes, this work additionally usually belabors its factors; typically, it neglects to present the orchestra sufficient to do.
Happily, Adolphus Hailstork’s Piano Concerto No. 1 rewards the orchestra extra richly. His music is, finally, beginning to be programmed extra often; on June 13, the New York Choral Society will present his current “A Knee on the Neck” at David Geffen Hall. In the primary motion right here, he places folkloric Americana riffs via shocking variations whereas additionally partaking with the raucous legacy of Ballets Russes-era Stravinsky. In the second motion, Hailstork, he crafts themes filled with craving ardor. And within the finale, these various fascinations are fused with ingenuity. The complete piece is a corker. SETH COLTER WALLS
Content Source: www.nytimes.com