Three Pieces

It is almost exactly a quarter of a century since Pierre Boulez recorded his complete Webern survey. This new collection, apart from being useful for anyone who doesn't want to buy three whole CDs of Webern, offers an interesting insight into how Boulez's way with a composer probably more central to him than any other has changed. For a start he gives him a little more time: most of the pieces here are slightly but significantly slower than they were in 1970. This allows lines to be more subtly moulded, phrases to acquire a touch more poise. This is not to say that Boulez has softened and now phrases Webern as though he were Chopin, but grace and even wit (the second movement of the Quartet) are now noticeable alongside his customary precision. The Ensemble InterContemporain have been playing these pieces constantly since they were first founded, and it shows in the absolute assurance of their performances.

This is a superb recording of the Two-Part and Sinfonias (Three-Part Inventions) of Johann Sebastian Bach. Kenneth Gilbert is a wonderful interpreter of Bach's keyboard music and in this recording plays an instrument made in 1671 by Jan Couchet that was subsequently enlarged in 1778. The Two-Part Inventions and Sinfonias consist of 15 parts; they were written as technical exercises and as composition demonstration pieces originally for his son Wilhelm Friedemann. The various pieces were probably written separately and were gathered together by Bach in major/minor key sequence and published in 1723. The recording is clear and well balanced. Kenneth Gilbert plays beautifully; the music is lively without being ostentatious.

D’Indy was a contemporary of Debussy and Ravel, and a pupil of César Franck. Fauré described him as ‘The Samson of Music’ for his multifarious and generous-minded work as a composer, conductor, educator and propagandist who greatly strengthened French musical culture. Today the music of d’Indy is sadly neglected, which is why Chandos and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra have decided to embark upon a series devoted to his orchestral works with conductor Rumon Gamba. With a style essentially eclectic and strongly influenced above all by Beethoven and Wagner, d’Indy particularly excelled in orchestral composition. He drew particular inspiration from his native region in southern France, and formed a body of post-romantic works richly orchestrated, often inflected with folk-like melodies and employing Franck’s well-known ‘cyclic method’.

Karl Kohn is represented on this impressive two-album set by all of his solo and chamber music for flute. Kohn writes that "my music since the early 1960’s has been firmly re-connected with the broader heritage of Western art music, either by specific and direct quotation or “parody,” or – prevailingly - by more oblique allusions to characteristics of past style." Though he has spent seven decades working in California, the 95 year old composer writes that "I am struck how it seems to reflect, first, my Viennese musical heritage, and then my training in a neo-classical tradition." The performances feature the American flute virtuoso, Rachel Rudich, the dedicatee of many of Kohn's works.

Sir Andrew Davis is among the most distinguished interpreters of British music today and here turns to the works of Sir Arnold Bax. With the inclusion of the Phantasy for Viola and Orchestra, this album marks the completion of Chandos’s long project to record Bax’s complete orchestral music over time.

Even within the comparatively limited medium of the string quartet, Szymanowski creates characteristically rich and exotic texture in these original and tautly constructed works. They were written ten years apart in 1917 and 1927, demonstrating the way his style was developing ever more personally over that period. Occasionally echoing Debussy and Ravel, they make a pointful contrast with Stravinsky’s characteristically cryptic essays in the genre, sharp and often brittle. The Golden Quartet prove understanding, refined interpreters of both composers, playing with rapt intensity in the hushed slow movements of the Szymanowski works. Excellent sound.