[This will be cross-posted in "New" Music Log]
The last of the trio of three buck discs of contemporary music. This disc fits squarely in both The Asian Invasion and "New" Music Log threads because of the participation of three Asian artists, and all of the works are contemporary and by five composers I'd never even seen the names of prior to buying this disc. It could also fit into a women's thread since all three performing artists, and one of the composers, are women. Pianist Sang Hie Lee, born and partly educated in South Korea, formed Ars Nostra to explore and cultivate new music for two pianos which she plays along with Martha Thomas. Both Lee and Thomas are academics with multiple advanced degrees from various universities, and Ms Lee also does research into health and biomechanics pertaining to musicians. Kyoung Cho joins the duo in the first work, and she is likewise a Korean born academic-musician, currently teaching at the University of South Florida.
The first work is
Chera in Nain (2009) by Eun-Hye Park, for two pianos, soprano, and gong. It is based on the story in Luke of Jesus raising a widow's son from the dead. The vocal parts, performed by Kyoung Cho, are in Greek and Korean and alternate between narration and a sort of singspiel. The music is modern, with angular phrasing, some tone clusters, and a generally clangorous sound. It's not terrible, but it's not a great work.
Next is
...Aber Jetzt Die Nacht... (2013) by Lewis Nielson. The work is based on a journal entry by a concentration camp victim, and at a bit over nineteen minutes, it the longest piece on the disc. It is jagged, dark, at times quite intense, and a reasonable short-hand description would be to think of Schoenberg and Messiaen blended together, with perhaps hints of Prokofiev thrown in. If that blend sounds appealing, then this piece might appeal; if not, probably not. Additional devices are used to extract novel sounds from the piano (eg, soft head hammer, horsehair brush, and E-bow), and for the most part the effects add to, rather than detract from, the proceedings. The use of two pianos does allow for a more powerful sonority and greater weight than a single instrument could achieve, and had the set been recorded to SOTA standards, the impact would likely be greater.
Celestial Phenomena (2008) by Gerald Chenoweth follows. An "intuitive" tone poem for two pianos, it strives to depict things like the Big Bang, a black hole, starshine, and the like in its ten or so minutes. The massive lower register tone clusters than open the Big Bang do a fine job of opening the work, and the often thick harmonies take maximum advantage of the two pianos in use. (One can envision what a duo like Michel Dalberto and Michael Korstick might be able to deliver in the opening.) The description "tone poem" ends up be pretty accurate, because the piece flows from one brief section to the next logically and smoothly. This is a very modernist piece, with some big dollops of minimalism, some more hints of Messiaen, and it's definitely not a first choice work for people who want traditional melodies in their music.
Paul Reller's Sonata for Two Pianos (2008) is more formally structured than the preceding works, and is divided into three movements played attacca. Influenced by American musical forms - jazz, blues, and rock, as well as American composers of days gone by like McDowell and Ives - the piece is weighty, dense, and though new to my ears, the more formal approach of the piece made it sort of predictable in overall arc. That's neither a good nor bad thing, it just is. It's more accessible than a fair chunk of post-war piano music, sounding more like it could have been written in the 20s or 30s.
The concluding work is
Windhover (2009) by Daniel Perlongo. The piece is an extended work inspired by a poem inspired by the Eurasian Kestrel. Unsurprisingly, given the inspiration, Messiaen once again comes to mind, but only rarely, and Perlongo is no mere copycat. The hints at birdsong are not as dynamically wide ranging as the Frenchman's music, nor is the writing quite as unpredictable. Perlongo's harmonic invention often falls much easier on the ear, too, with more than a few lovely sounds to be heard, and he does a creditable job creating a sort of static sound, creating a musical image of the depicted bird hovering. The work sort of overstays its welcome, though.
Overall, this disc is good, the pianists and the vocal artist (who doesn't really sing here) all do good work, but really, for me, only
Celestial Phenomena held my interest sufficiently to warrant more than a handful of listens. Others could very well be much more enthusiastic about the disc as a whole.
The disc is taken from a single live performance at the University of South Florida in Tampa in March 2016. Sound quality is more of the efficient reporting than aural luxury type.