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CONTENTSCONGRATULATIONS
TO . . ., 3 LIVE EVENTS I
Hear Museum Art (B.L.C./Greenfest) <> Mad Dreams and Brits
(Hickey), 6 DOTTED NOTES
INTERVIEW SPEAKING OUT!
THE PRINTED WORD RECORDINGSÀ outrance
à la Anderson (de Clef Piñeiro) <> RECENT RELEASES, 31 THE
PUZZLE CORNER: COMPOSER INDEX, 34 BULLETIN BOARD, 35 WEB SUPPLEMENTLive EventsEquinox
Chamber Players In Concert for Impact CD ReviewsHarrison
Birtwistle: Refrains and Choruses ObituariesArthur
Berger (1912-2003) |
He Never Sat Back[continued from pg. 29 of NMC, Fall-Winter 2003 printed issue] So the big question remains. How does one get a handle on Meyer Kupferman's long, productive career? Of course, when we say “productive” we are not stating an opinion. He was productive in the sense of producing an unlimited number of notes. No argument there. But what did it all mean? Parallelling Macbeth's final cynical observation on his life, we must wonder whether the music of Meyer Kupferman added up to a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing? His music is not for the casual listener and must be listened to and understood on his terms. And if one has not had the opportunity to hear all of his music, with the sudden shifts in mood, raison d'etre and style, in no way is it possible to answer these questions we raise. Frankly, we have heard some of his music both live and through recordings, and that gave us very little opportunity to make a careful judgment on his oeuvre. So
we will simply take the easy course and leave it for others to decide
the weight of his music. Here are some other points of view on his late
works. BLC [Kupferman's obituary appears here.] Meyer Kupferman
The prodigiously productive Meyer Kupferman wrote a four minute solo guitar piece in memory of Rosanna Limón, the murdered sister of the guitarist Roberto Limón. That was in 1997. His Elegy for the Vanished is a full-blown development of that piece. The composer speaks of the piece as a 'gestalt form' - a fantasy concerto with classical, romantic, Iberian and avant-garde gestures in the mix. This piece is of symphonic proportions and the performance here has the added authority of the composer conducting and the dedicatee and brother of Rosanna playing the guitar. Kupferman's generously stocked imagination sings in full flood in this work and contrasts with the unyielding ultra-modernities of the Quantum Symphony and Foxfire piano concerto. Here the slightly melancholy caste of the music links with that British arch-romantic Arnold Bax and with Robert Starer's Viola Concerto but with a fine sheen of dissonance. This is a gloriously impressionistic and emotional work in which invention is convincingly sustained across the 36 minute duration. This can be grouped with the better guitar works of Rodrigo (Aranjuez and Andaluz), Ponce, Arnold, Walton and Sylvie Bodorová (the latter superbly recorded on a recent Arco Diva CD). The cover art by Kupferman is an abstract sharing the same title as this piece which ends in serenity. This may well be one of the undiscovered masterworks of the last century; certainly a work in which Kupferman speaks directly and with an authentic creative urge. The Icon Symphony is in four brief movements. The composer compares it to a Credo in four parts with each tracked separately. The first rises from avant-garde ballistics to stratospheric heights almost suggestive of Scriabin in his Mysterium (see Ashkenazy's 'complete' recording on Decca). The 9 minute long quasi-cadenza has more lyrical material than the other movements connecting with the end of the first. The final allegro barbaro is savage, perhaps reflecting images of ignorant armies clashing by night not even redeemed by self-sacrificial motives or anything approaching heroism. You may feel awe but this does not reach towards any human emotions except perhaps fear. The Concerto for two clarinets and orchestra was written in 1991 and revised in 2000. The revised version is what was recorded here. It was commissioned for Stanley and Naomi Drucker, the husband and wife team. Stanley Drucker's name is very well known as the lead clarinet with the NYPO. The premiere was with the Nassau Symphony conducted by Andrew Schenck. The two movement avant-garde piece comprises a whimsical, sarcastic, perky and humorous Molto allegro e scherzando fantastico and a much more serious Misterioso which connects with the clarinet's singing soul - strangely this reminded me of Nyman and Heath (both the Linn and Black Box collections). The two movements seem unequal bedfellows though each piece satisfies in its own right. The 1970 Brass Quintet is a strictly serial piece based on Kupferman's so-called 'infinities' row. It is in two movements. The short adagio bristles with intriguingly rasping outbursts and hoarse skirling noises. It is given a tour de force of an outing. The two trumpeters include Gerard Schwarz better known now as a conductor. Schwarz was also a trumpeter in the wind symphony orchestras' recording of Alan Hovhaness's Ani Symphony (Crystal). This recording is taken from a Serenus Editions LP from 1973-74 (SRS12041) and a very slight surface rustle can be heard. Both this recording and the Chamber Concerto are ex-Serenus tapes with the recordings taken from and with the permission of the Music Library of the Lincoln Center. The Chamber Concerto (for the greater part a double concerto for flute and piano) belongs to a group that includes the Fourth Symphony, the Lyric Symphony and Libretto for Orchestra ; works from the mid-1950s in large free-shaped one-movement forms. It is from Serenus LP 12304. Kupferman regards this as one of his favourite early pieces and one from which he drew many ideas for later works. The recording has stunning immediacy. Free use is made of dissonance but the lines are identifiably melodic, connected and pregnant with warm colour and yielding expression. There is about much of this music something of Ned Rorem's susceptibility to elysian French summers, lost domains ... the poignant nostalgia of Alain Fournier's 'Grand Meaulnes'; something of Poulenc and Berkeley also. The flute is played by Samuel Baron (1925-1997). Mention of Baron's name reminds me that his multi-tracked version of Hovhaness's The Spirit of Ink was reviewed here not so very long ago (Crystal CD809). Irritatingly the norm with Soundspell seems to be to omit details of the date and location of recording sessions. Fortunately this is not the case with volumes XIV and XV of the Kupferman series. The series is distinguished by Mr. Kupferman's paintings reproduced on the booklet covers. Kupferman's wide range fully displayed from the griping and expostulation of the Icon Symphony and Quintet to the early lyricism of the Chamber Concerto and the late and deeply affecting lyricism of the Elegy. Rob Barnett Meyer Kupferman This disc and several of the early instalments in Soundspell's Kupferman Edition are taken from recordings first issued on LP on the Serenus label. I came to this disc with two pieces of baggage. Firstly I recalled praise for the music in early issues of Fanfare. Secondly I had just heard the impressively diaphanous and vehement Kupferman Cello Concerto (the one with tape and orchestra) on VoxBox's American Concertos double CD. Kupferman was born in Manhattan in 1926. His natural lingua franca is atonal but with an unblinkered aptitude for importing tonal elements when there is an expressive need. His Lyric Symphony is not perhaps typical. It is inspired by memories of a lost composer friend whose natural medium was tonality. The work is in a single 22 minute movement incorporating three episodes played without interruption. Each episode is predominantly slow or moderato. It is played here by the orchestra and conductor who appeared in several CRI recordings of the 1950s and 1960s. The recording shows the stress and strain of the years that have passed since it was made for Serenus in, I would guess (the notes are silent), 1960-65. The strings sound a tad strident and the original recording engineer pulled back on the levels when the music rose to any great eminence. This is an impressive work suggestive of some apocalyptic amour with the hyper-romantic musing love-song on the high strings (Barber out of Harris out of Pettersson) heard at the outset and returning with satisfying emphasis at the end. The Variations for Orchestra are systematically atonal but avoid the morose meandering often associated with such work by variation of speed and incident. Certainly the writing is not emotionally desiccated and the orchestration is full of colour. The theme is a Moderato intenso followed by four variation sections marked agitato, andante, allegro, moderato andante. Once again the sound is stressed. The Ostinato Burlesco is an ebullient orchestral concert-opener - Bernstein on turbo. This is easy to listen to, complete with burbling horns and seething with percussion-driven rhythmic 'irritation'. The tumult pauses for thought in an exotic mist redolent of Griffes' Pleasure Dome before the thrashingly adrenaline pumping slalom resumes. An early piece then, with only the lightest atonal glaze and with more of Broadway about it than Schoenberg. Wonderful. Try it on your unsuspecting friends. Kupferman's Cello Concerto shows, rather like the works of the Swedes Lindberg and Johanson, a fruitful nexus between classical and jazz dissonances. It is scored for amplified cello, bass, three saxes, piccolo, flute, clarinet and bass clarinet. The three movements are Zodiac, Blues Stream and Wild Wild Roses. The cello is in urgent song most of the time in Zodiac with dissonance-inflected gestures from 1940s Big Band music. The Blues Stream is quietly alive with Gershwin blues but becomes more sourly reflective as the movement progresses. Wild and blasting interplay between the three saxes contrasts with the warming reflections of the cello's atonal rhapsodising. The work was originally written for Laszlo Varga who is the cellist for the completely different Kupferman Cello Concerto on VoxBox. An attractive single disc introduction though the vintage sound of the three orchestral works begins to show its age. The disc should also appeal to out and out jazz enthusiasts. Rob Barnett |