CONTENTSCONGRATULATIONS
TO . . ., 3 LIVE EVENTS Veddy British Music
(Kraft) <> Going Into 'Understated Drive' (Kroll), 6 DOTTED NOTES from … Kraft, Kroll, Greenfest, Hickey, BLC, 16 SPEAKING OUT! Thoughts on the Pulitzer Prize, 17 AN INTERVIEW WITH … David Holzman, 19 THE PRINTED WORD Berger's Reflections (Kraft), 20 THE SCOREBOARD Sperry's Encores (Drogin), 21 RECORDINGSMini but Not Mousy
(Cleary) <> Bell's Echoes of Bela (Cleary) <> Just a Few Will Do (Cleary),
22 RECENT RELEASES, 24 THE PUZZLE CORNER, 25 COMPOSER INDEX, 27 BULLETIN BOARD, 27
WEB SUPPLEMENTA John Adams biography and an interview LIVE EVENTS Boston
Modern Orchestra Project CD REVIEWS Angel
Shadows: Laurel Ann Maurer |
Review of CD JAMES SELLARS: PIANO WORKS, SIX SONATAS + ONE SONATINA Fermin Bernetxea, Anthony de Mare, Scott Dunn, Jean Pierre Dupuy, Julian Jacobson, Lisa Moore, and Aki Takahashi, pianos CRI CD 869 The piano sonatas of Hartford-based tonemeister James Sellars descend not from the multi-movement items most listeners associate with this genre, but rather the single-entity works of Liszt and Scarlatti. In particular, they demonstrate the type of flexible and personal structure found in the former’s B Minor Sonata. Covering a nearly thirty-year time span, they also trace this excellent composer's stylistic evolution from East Coast devotee to worldly eclectic. Sonatas No. 1 (1973), No. 2 (1981), and No. 3 (1983-97) all employ a non-triadic harmonic language and exhibit a high seriousness of purpose. The earliest of these demonstrates an especially keen awareness of pointillism and other de rigeur matters of the era, but even here, Sellars refuses to toe any rigid line of mid-century severity. Decidedly more lyric passages peek out from the texture here with frequency—and permeate the following two sonatas in earnest. Sonata No. 2 in fact opens with soft, lovely passages one might characterize as atonal Impressionism, culminating in dramatic, visceral material somewhat akin to Roger Sessions’ essays in the genre; it is this critic's favorite of these earlier works. The last of this triumvirate, completed after a lengthy hiatus—and long after Sellars had abandoned this style—foreshadows the neoclassic earnestness of his later piano music, though its rather severe demeanor just misses imparting a certain stiffness to its manner of speech. Humor and panache are decidedly not lacking in the more tonally oriented fourth (1987), fifth (1985), and sixth (1986) sonatas or the Sonatina (1988). The somewhat Stravinskian neoclassicism of the last two selections exude not a whiff of desiccation; for example, Sonata No. 6 ("Patterns on a Field"), while stubbornly adhering to its march-like underpinnings, does so with a knowing wink, not a paucity of imagination. As one might guess from its subtitle ("Sonata Brasiliera"), subtle South-of-the-Border influences perfume the fourth sonata, though they are liberally leavened with minimalist and 19th-century bravura figuration. Most impish of all is Sonata No. 5 ("Sonata Dada"), which wildly vacillates from consonance to dissonance, often delighting in pushing pre-20th century gestures between the two harmonic extremes. Its intentionally abrupt unfolding and quicksilver texture shifts hang together surprisingly well in a long-range sense. Best of all, these works possess a stylish, vibrant sense of personality and a certain rare, indefinable ease of expression that is not simply fluid, but downright poetic. All are enormously appealing listens. Each entry here is given by a different pianist; Fermin Bernetxea, Anthony de Mare, Scott Dunn, Jean Pierre Dupuy, Julian Jacobson, Lisa Moore, and Aki Takahashi all perform wonderfully well. Sound quality and production are excellent. This terrific CD is an absolute must-hear. --David Cleary |