Spectrum 上原ひろみ

Violinist Irvine Arditti, pianist Claude Helffer, and the Spectrum ensemble conducted by Guy Protheroe produce consummate performances of the Greek avant-gardist's unwieldy chamber music. If you're familiar with Xenakis's career you'll know he was trained in mathematics and enjoyed a successful career as an architect. Such background might prepare you for the music's preoccupation with line, volume, and form in an unusually abstract way, but it won't prepare you for its visceral, almost primitive power. On Akanthos, the singer Penelope Walmsley-Clark must cope with what is surely one of the most ridiculous soprano parts ever written.

Wie wundervoll, ja berauschend die Musik Paul Hindemiths sein kann, zeigen seine Kammermusikwerke auf dieser CD. Das Ausdruckspotential der Klarinette wird von dem in Hanau geborenen Komponisten in leidenschaftlicher, tief bewegender und humorvoller Art in jedem Stück mit diesem Soloinstrument ausgeschöpft. Hindemith, dessen Musik von den Nationalsozialisten als entartet verfemt wurde, verließ Deutschland 1938 und ging zunächst in die Schweiz, 1940 übersiedelte er in die USA. Trotz der überaus schwierigen Umstände gelang Hindemith auch in dieser Zeit ein in Quantität und Qualität beeindruckender Output.

Sergey Taneyev’s music was acclaimed by some as a ‘model of pure style and sublime art’, but he was a loner whose supreme mastery of European Classical technique placed him outside the more nationalist trends of the day. The Violin Sonata in A minor is neo-Classical in its reserved and often song-like moods and expressions. It contrasts with the grand scale of the Piano Quintet in G minor in which the virtuoso nature of the piano writing reflects Taneyev’s own prowess, and the brilliant integration of the works’ themes cumulate into an overwhelming conclusion.

Sergey Taneyev’s music was acclaimed by some as a ‘model of pure style and sublime art’, but he was a loner whose supreme mastery of European Classical technique placed him outside the more nationalist trends of the day. The Violin Sonata in A minor is neo-Classical in its reserved and often song-like moods and expressions. It contrasts with the grand scale of the Piano Quintet in G minor in which the virtuoso nature of the piano writing reflects Taneyev’s own prowess, and the brilliant integration of the works’ themes cumulate into an overwhelming conclusion.