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Earthy Cuban Sounds, Rendered With an Urban Complexity
Hiroyuki Ito for The New York
Times
Eduardo Leandro, left, and Matthew Gold performed Keyla Orozco’s “Para
Tí Nengón” at Merkin Concert Hall on Monday evening.
By ALLAN
KOZINN
Published: January 10, 2007
If you’ve been curious about the
state of new music in Cuba, Sequitur offered an answer of sorts in its program
at Merkin Concert Hall on Monday evening. But it was an answer with an asterisk,
for although the six composers on the program were all born in Cuba, and most
began their musical training there, they live elsewhere now.
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Still, most of the music keeps
its Cuban roots clearly in focus, even when techniques and textures are as
eclectic as can be. In “Conjuration” (2003), Jorge Martín begins with an
alternation of slow, tolling sections and bursts of manic energy, but the score
melts into an essay in transformed folk melody. Lyrical clarinet lines and
rustic violin themes are accompanied by piano and cello figures steeped in Latin
rhythms, yet the more acerbic writing of the opening section is always close at
hand.
Keyla Orozco’s “Para Tí Nengón” (1998), a transfixing percussion
work, elaborates on rhythmic patterns typical in nengón, a form native to
eastern Cuba, from which the later popular styles son and changui evolved. Ms.
Orozco’s four-movement fantasy begins with comparatively simple, light-textured
patterns, played on wood blocks, but its rhythms grow increasingly complex as
the players — Matthew Gold and Eduardo Leandro — move to bongos and tom-toms,
then to bell-like instruments and percussive vocalizations.
Percussion
peeks through a large ensemble to provide much of the Cuban accent in Orlando
Jacinto García’s “Musica Para Segovia” (1994) as well, although the work’s
muscle is more cosmopolitan. At first, Mr. García’s music is a study in sound
and silence, with aphoristic phrases — sometimes only a single chord —
surrounded by rests. But the silences fall away as the phrases grow longer and
blossom into thick string, woodwind, piano and percussion textures that, for all
their heft, are rarely louder than mezzo-forte.
Elizabeth Farnum, the
soprano, brought a welcome suppleness to Sergio Barroso’s “Verdehalago” (2006).
The vocal line is essentially lyrical, but with occasional leaps that give it a
hint of angularity and keep it from becoming predictable. Just as striking,
though, is the instrumental writing, for violin, percussion, bass and electronic
sound that mostly mirrors the instruments and voice.
The program
also included Ileana Perez Velazquez’s “Cípres” (2003), in which a prominent
flute line yields an almost Gallic flavor, and Tania León’s “Toque” (2006), a
rhythmically vital score in Ms. León’s characteristically ebullient style.
Paul Hostetter conducted the works by Ms. León, Mr. García and Mr.
Barroso, and the Sequitur musicians played with consistent precision and
verve.
“ Ratings: 10 (out of 10) for both
Artistic Quality and Sound Quality
Elizabeth Farnum's attractive, agile
soprano voice excellently suits this repertoire,
and she masters the
composer's colossal challenges with relaxed authority...an important release.
”
- Jed Distler, Classicstoday.com
“ Selected by Fanfare for their
2003 "Must Have" List
This CD has artistry aplenty, because all the songs
are nearly impossible.
These two make it seem they've been doing this music
for decades. ”
- Paul Rapoport
“ ...it would be hard to imagine a
more persuasive case made for music too often dismissed as a specialist taste.
The majority of the songs are in French - some are in English - and both artists
declare their labour of love in every spine-tingling bar...Poems that take a
Swinburnian excess to extremes are somehow magically cleansed of self-indulgence
by both artists, such is their style and refinement. Elizabeth Farnum is a
richly versatile singer who offers heartfelt thanks to all who made this very
demanding and elusive project possible and it is no surprise to find that
Margaret Kampmeier won the 1995 Naumberg Chamber Music Award. Both artists sing
and play as one and they have been beautifully balanced and recorded.
”
- Bryce Morrison, Gramophone, June
'03
“ Elizabeth Farnum...handles the
difficult "Vocalise" (1916) with impressive ease. ”
- John Boyer, American Record Guide
“ This music must be
heard...Elizabeth Farnum is terrific...(her) diction is outstanding.
”
- Gary Higginson, Classical Music
on the Web
“ (Elizabeth Farnum)...is equal to
the considerable challenge of these songs which demand and receive
both
delicacy and a tempestuous fulminant...the singing has about it a dazzling
confidence verging on hubris. ”
- Rob Barnett, Classical MusicWeb
“ There were excellent
performances... the soprano Elizabeth Farnum skillfully trod round the broad
hints of Bizet in a (Louis Karchin) setting of Hart Crane's ''Carmen de
Bohème''. ”
-Paul Griffiths, New York Times
“ Elizabeth Farnum navigated
Boulez’s intervallic leaps with great agility and beautiful tone.
”
-The New Music
Connoisseur
“ ...a radiant voice and a
sparkling personality to match. ”
-Ron Emery, Albany Times
“ Singer Elizabeth Farnum pierces
his (Alvin Lucier’s) hum with her clear, ethereal tone...to create a space never
more holy, never more cleansed. ”
-Chris Dohse, The Dance Insider
“ A soprano of admirable purity
”
-Bruce Michael
Gelbert, New York Native
“ Soprano Elizabeth Farnum
displays an astonishing vocal range...consistently clear, silvery, lyrical and
focused tone quality ”
-Louise Causey Lewis, Hilton Head Island Packet
“ ;Elizabeth Farnum is nicely
ethereal...with a lovely soaring soprano. ”
-Sandra McClintock, Georgia Guardian
“ She catapults this three hour
musical to success...(she) fills the theater with a full, colorful singing voice
that is nothing short of perfect. ”
-John Iacoboni, Fitchburg (MA) Sentinel-Enterprise
ARTS / MUSIC | November 18, 2002
MUSIC REVIEW | ELIZABETH FARNUM
Wandering Through a
Recluse's Personal Garden
By PAUL GRIFFITHS (NYT)
Review
“Ms. Farnum responded with
characteristic warmth and confidence to the tone of all the
songs ”
-Paul Griffiths, New York Times
KAIKHOSRU SHAPURJI SORABJI [1892-1988]
THE COMPLETE
SONGS FOR SOPRANO AND PIANO
Trois Poemes [1918-19] Chrysilla [1915];
Roses du soir [1915]; The Poplars [1915]; L'heure Exquise [1916]; Vocalise
[1916]; I was
not Sorrowful [1917]; L'Etang [1917]; Hymne a Aphrodite [1916];
Apparition [1916]; Trois Chants [1941]; Trois Fetes Galantes
[1919];
I'Irremediable [1927]; Arabesque [1920]
Elizabeth Farnum,
soprano with Margaret Kampmeier, piano
Centaur
CRC
2613 56.01
Recorded
August-November 1999 and August 2000
at Patrych Sound Studios, New
York
These are premiere recordings and in some cases very
likely premiere performances. It would be good indeed to think that as a result
of this pioneering and excellently prepared disc by all concerned we would now
be seeing Sorabji's songs in the repertoire, but it will not happen.
What a strange state. The music of a composer who deliberately did not
promote himself in the case of the piano music even forbade its performance. The
music of a man who is unlikely ever to reach anything other than a real minority
audience and the music of a man whose songs are not only a major challenge for
the singer but a mega challenge for the pianist indeed one could almost describe
them as piano pieces with text. They cannot be performed by amateurs and
probably only by distinguished students upwards, and then only if the scores can
be hunted down some here have been especially edited. Yet, this music must be
heard and the producers of this recording are making the statement that they
believe in it and that it is of considerable merit and value.
As can be
seen, the songs mostly date form no earlier than 1915 to 1919 they are all in
Frenvh except for two. There is then a jump to 1927 and then to 1941. Is there a
stylistic development? Yes.
1915 was the year when Sorabji whilst
preparing a book on Ravel and suddenly got the idea of composing himself. He was
23 and so a late developer. There is no doubt that these early songs are
strongly influenced by Debussy, perhaps for example the 'Trois Chansons de
Bilitis' of 1898 to texts by Debussy's symbolist poet-friend Pierre Louys.
Debussy himself wrote two sets of 'Fetes Galantes' the second set [1904] to
poems by Verlaine. Sorabji's 'Fetes Galante' also sets Verlaine including 'La
Faune'- memories of Debussy's famous Prelude perhaps. These early songs also use
sometimes whole tone scales and pentatonic scales. 'La Deniere Fete Galante' is
one of the few pieces to be mostly diatonic in a Debussian sense.
Whereas Debussy looks at his texts as an outsider viewing from the
wings, Sorabji is interested in the texts as a vehicle for decoration and
elaboration often disguising the personal emotion, although it most certainly
does exist and can be found. For instance the first song on the
CD,'Correspondances' with a text by Baudelaire hits a wonderful climax point at
the end of verse three "And others, corrupted, sumptuous and exultant". For the
symbolists, poetry aspired to the condition of music as Mallarme reputedly said,
that is an essentially abstract art creating its own form and self-expression
available for constant re-interpretation and ambiguity. Sorabji said that his
music aspired to be nothing more or less than a highly elaborate Persian carpet.
Decorated all over in a myriad shapes and colours which relate only those in
their immediate vicinity and not directly with any others but whose existence
can only be explained in the context of the over all design.
The texts
are important because Sorabji's word painting is not obvious, like the carpet,
each line relates to its immediate successors and predecessors and exists to
express the text but an individual word will rarely be 'painted' as you will
find in English contemporaries like Warlock or Moeron or Gurney. Sadly, Centaur
only gives us an English translation, no French texts at all. This is a silly
decision and for a full price disc, unacceptable, Most of Sorabji's songs are in
French, and a difficult French to boot, we need them for a full understanding of
the songs. Elizabeth Farnum's diction is outstanding and my French reasonably
good but I still need to have the texts, it is important.
Lets look
briefly at three songs to give you a taste of what to expect.
The 'Hymne
a Aphrodite' [Aphrodite, immortal goddess of joyous laughter] is an amazingly
competent piece for a man who has only been composing for a year. It is also
very impassioned and at nearly five minutes quite long. The vocal line is in a
constantly elevated state, with a massive climax after verse 1 and then an
oscillating Debussian passage whilst the vocal part is restricted to one note.
Then, passionately opening out into a flowery glade where, just occasionally the
voice receives tangible support. Intensity builds to another climax and then an
even greater one capped by a vocal top C and piano tremelandi. Darius Milhaud
criticized this song and others for having too complex a piano part, what about
the poor singer?
Moving to 1927 for Baudelaire setting'L'Irremediable'
we come to longest song at just over six minutes in Sorabji's own mature style.
The myriad cascades of opening notes is not only reminiscent of Schoenberg but
are in fact atonal, the song proceeds in a sometimes pointillist manner and
sometimes in an expressionist post romantic language where the voice is forced
to use the whole range. Again, [verse 3 "A poor wretch under the evil eye] more
words incantated on one notes with steamy piano harmonies. But this song takes
harmony, virtuosity and vocal demands even further than 'Aphrodite'.
Finally ' La Faune' from the Trois Chants of 1941.This song is roughly
contemporaneous with the piano pieces like 'St.Bertrand de Comminges' where the
textures have been thinned a little and the individual ideas given a little more
identity. The piano writing is still extraordinarily complex however but there
is a considerable effort at concentrating a vocal image into a smaller time
span.
Elizabeth Farnum is terrific, she has made a specialty of
contemporary music but this disc must have taken some preparation as can be seen
from the recording dates. Margaret Kampmeier is, if anything, even more
outstanding mastering some of the most difficult accompaniments in the history
of song writing and never overbalancing the texture. The booklet notes although
small are excellent with an essay and also commentary on each song or each set.
GARY HIGGINSON
http://www.musicweb.uk.net/classrev/2003/May03/sorabji_songs.htm
from: Rob.Barnett1@btinternet.com
(Rob.Barnett)
Rob Barnett
Editor Classical Music on
the Web
www.musicweb.uk.net
Editor, British
Music Society Newsletter
Kaikhosru Shapurji SORABJI (1892-1988)
The
Complete Songs for Soprano
Elizabeth Farnum (soprano)
Margaret
Kampmeier (piano)
Recorded Aug-Nov 1999 and Aug 2000: Patrych Sound Studios,
Bronx, NY, DDD
CENTAUR CRC 2613 [56:01]
AVAILABILITY: www.ElizabethFarnum.com
While
geographically speaking Sorabji is an English composer he certainly does not
belong in the lyrico-pastoral schools of Finzi, Head, Gurney, Howells and
Warlock. He is not a composer of direct tunefulness. Rather his strengths lie in
ecstatic harmonic complexity. His approach can be mapped out from Oriental and
ecstatic co-ordinates we associate with Szymanowski (Love Songs of Hafiz Op. 26
and Songs of the Infatuated Muezzin Op. 42), Ravel (Chansons Madécasses and
Chants Hébraïques), Bernard van Dieren (Chinese Symphony still unrecorded),
Schoenberg (The Book of the Hanging Gardens) and Delage (Poèmes Hindous). The
lie and fall of the sung lines can seem obtuse. They often proceed unlinked to
the piano part.
Elizabeth Farnum, a dramatic soprano, is equal to
the considerable challenge of these songs which demand and receive both delicacy
and a tempestuous fulminant.
The tracks she follows are rolling,
wayward and exotic; dense with the profuse undergrowth of wild-eyed ideas and
touching on the realms of Havergal Brian's Wine of Summer with its hectically
luxuriant setting of Lord Alfred Douglas's The Wine of Summer.
Comparing Farnum's singing with that of Jane Manning (with Yonty
Solomon in a BBC Radio 3 broadcast of 14 August 1982) Farnum retains a more
voluptuous tone with less sign of strain across the tortuous
demands.
It is not all stürm und drang. Take for instance
Pantomime which has a coquettish flightiness. In Hymne à Aphrodite the listener
really appreciate the resonance of the studio in which this was recorded. The
singing has about it a dazzling confidence verging on hubris. As for the style
this is the antithesis of Granville Bantock's Straussian style (see recent
Dutton Epoch collection). In Chrysilla we encounter a dramatic scena and at the
end there is a devastatingly effective retreat into hooded tone and a strange
harmonic shift. In the menacing Poplars storming upward slashing tumbles of
notes, excellently handled by Margaret Kampmeier, are just as memorable as the
diaphanous iridescence of L'Heure Exquise. In Vocalise I expected to find some
kinship with Medtner's Sonata-Vocalise of almost thirty years later. Instead
there is some muezzin-like melisma mixed with glint and hardness.
The
only real sadness is that Centaur do not provide the sung texts.
We could not
have more authoritative notes.
These are by the
composer and Sorabji
archive curator, Alistair Hinton.
World premiere Sorabji vocal
CD
| Purchase info for Ms. Farnum's
Centaur CD (CRC 2613) “K. S. Sorabji: The Complete Songs For
Soprano”
The long-awaited world
premiere release of “Kaikhosru
Shapurji Sorabji: The Complete Songs for Soprano.” (on
Centaur Records, CRC 2613) was celebrated with a
well-recieved
concert/lecture
on Nov. 14th, '02 at Merkin Hall in New York
City.
Sorabji
was a composer of Spanish-Sicilian and Parsi descent, most notorious for
his transcendentally difficult and tremendously lengthy piano works. These
previously unrecorded and mostly unperformed vocal works will now show another
side of this unusual composer.
Please, check this site for further information concerning booking
and tour dates for the Sorabji lecture/recitals and also CD purchase
information.
Directory of Sorabji Links: The Sorabji Project |
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