Bqroque Counterpoint

Paweł Szymański - Dissociative Counterpoint Disorder - Małgorzata Sarbak (2016) {Bôłt‎ DUX 1332}
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© 2016 Bôłt: New Music In Eastern Europe / Dux‎ Recording | DUX 1332
Classical / Contemporary Classical

Andrzej Chlopecki, the late critic and animator of the music scene, wrote extensively about Szymanski's music as well as supporting the composer by means of his longtime role with the Warsaw Autumn festival. Chlopecki puts things thus: "the formal structure is beautiful while stylistic expression is calculated: for Szymanski's music is a continual game." He then offers precedents in Johannes Ockeghem and Anton Webern, deducing that Szymanski's "guiding principles would be speculation and constructivism." Rendering the loaded quality in the composer's works, Chlopecki adds that the aim of Szymanski's music is the creation of symbolic entities within abstract art forms."

All Music Guide
This is a record that serves two purposes: first, to offer a retrospective of Steve Reich's work over the course of three decades and, second, to showcase the strength and virtuosity of New York's contemporary ensemble Bang on a Can. Both are extraordinary. The disc opens with Reich's "New York Counterpoint" (1985), scored for clarinet and recording tape. The score indicates that the performer is to lay down 11 tracks and perform live over them in performance. The disc closes with "Four Organs" (1970), a 16-minute piece comprised of one chord. Interesting on its own merits for its playfulness with the way listeners hear, the piece begins with four organists playing a single chord, repeated twice per phrase with simple pulsing maracas to keep the tempo. As this pattern repeats, single notes extend beyond the chords either preceding it or following it until the latter half of the piece, when the seemingly amorphous gel of sound is continuous and static. The second performance of this piece in 1973 resulted in a near riot, with audience members shouting at one another and one lady banging on the stage with a shoe in an attempt to stop the music.

—Mark W. B. Allender