Energetic Music

E.T.A. Hoffmann was a ‘man for all seasons’. In addition to composing music, he was an illustrator, writer, and attorney who attained a position on the Court of Appeals in Berlin. His primary legacy is in the area of German literature. He wrote many novels and stories concerned with supernatural elements and their impact on humans. Hoffmann’s most famous writings are the stories on which the French composer Jacques Offenbach based his opera "Tales of Hoffmann".
When I read a Hoffmann story, I think of the supernatural operas of Carl Maria von Weber, not Hoffmann’s most well known opera "Undine". The fact is that Hoffmann’s reputation as a composer is slight, and recordings of his works are infrequent. Even during his own lifetime, he had great trouble getting his music published.

The dominance of rhythm in African and African-derived music is the pillar of this journey across piano pieces by Ernesto Lecuona and Louis Moreau Gottschalk, deriving from the combination of long melodic lines, often related to popular songs, with Caribbean and, in particular, Afro-Cuban rhythms. These are shown not only in the bass line, resembling drums and percussions, but in each rhythmic layer and in the melody itself. Each piece tells a story that evokes the spirit and energy of the composers’ native lands, Cuba and Louisiana, reflecting their historical and cultural landscape characterised by multifaceted influences. A vivid portrait of the Caribbean culture, in which dance has been used as form of expression since ancestral times, is rendered through this music, with those typical rhythmic patterns, such as tresillo, cinquillo and habanera, captivating and appealing to an European audience and loved by the American and Caribbean ones, unaccustomed to seeing their soul depicted in a music score.

Recent BIS issues of Kalevi Aho’s concertos for flute and clarinet – entrancingly beautiful and elementally energetic works, respectively – have confirmed him as one of the foremost composers of concertos in our day. The two concertos on this new disc for the bassi profundi of the orchestra strike me as less instantly rewarding, but that may be just that their rewards are more of the slow-release kind.

Performed by the Shanghai Film Orchestra, conducted by Wang Yongji. Truly celestial and a different feeling than American / European performances of this famous piece. This CD also contains David Mingyue Lang's gorgeous Music of a Thousand Springs and his Zen (Ch'an) of Water. Highly recommended.

Having all of these works collected together is a real treasure. It is one of the most beautiful collections I've heard. 5 cd's of all of Bach's chamber music, exquisitely performed by the outstanding soloists of Musica Antiqua Koln. Reinhard Goebel's performance of the violin works is simply perfect. As I've said before, Bach's sonatas for violin and harpsichord have been in the shadows for too long, they deserve to be heard and this performance proves it. They are a delightful partnership between violin and harpsichord. The tempos are fairly brisk but the performance is so clearly articulated that the result is energetic and very rewarding.

To say this barrier-breaking string quartet plays modern music is an understatement. All of the five composers showcased on this audacious recording were born in the 20th century. Minimalist Philip Glass is among the best known of the five, whose works cannot possibly be mistaken with anything from the baroque or classical periods. This particular foursome illustrates the grace, beauty, and even power of a string quartet, but goes well beyond. In the words of first violinist and leader David Harrington, "I've always wanted the string quartet to be vital, and energetic, and alive, and cool, and not afraid to kick ass and be absolutely beautiful and ugly if it has to be." The album-ending cover of the Jimi Hendrix classic "Purple Haze" must be heard to be believed.