Classical Music

Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate was born in 1968 in Norman, Oklahoma, and is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. Mr. Tate is dedicated to the development of American Indian classical composition, and a recent review by The Washington Post states that “Tate’s connection to nature and the human experience was quite apparent in this piece…rarer still is his ability to infuse classical music with American Indian nationalism.” This review was a response to a performance of Iholba’ (The Vision), for Solo Flute, Orchestra and Chorus, which was commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra and premiered at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

In 2006, Mr. Tate was the recipient of the Joyce Award which supported the commission of Nitoshi’ Imali, Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, which premiered in 2007 with soloist Jason Vieaux and the Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis, conducted by Cary John Franklin. His new work for orchestra and children’s chorus, commissioned by the American Composers Forum Continental Harmony Project, celebrates the opening of the new Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur, Oklahoma. Mr. Tate received his BM in Piano Performance from Northwestern University where he studied with Dr. Donald J. Isaak. He then completed his MM in Piano Performance and Composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music where he studied with Elizabeth Pastor and Dr. Donald Erb. Shortly after beginning his piano studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Jerod’s first composition, Winter Moons ballet score, was commissioned by Dr. Patricia Tate and premiered at the University of Wyoming in 1992. Colorado Ballet subsequently performed it in 1994 and 1996.

Since then, Tate has received numerous commissions and his works have been performed by the National Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Colorado Ballet, The New Mexico Symphony, the Contemporary Music Forum, Dale Warland Singers, the New Jersey Chamber Music Society and the Oklahoma City University Wind Philharmonic, to name a few. Mr. Tate is Artistic Director for the Chickasaw Chamber Music Festival. He is Composer-in-Residence for the Chickasaw Summer Arts Academy and was Composerin- Residence for the Grand Canyon Music Festival’s Corn CribNative American Composer Apprentice Project in 2004 and 2005. In 2007, he was Composer-in-Residence for The Joyce Foundation/American Composers Forum, teaching composition to American Indian high school students in Minneapolis. Mr. Tate received the 2006 Alumni Achievement Award from the Cleveland Institute of Music and has also received awards from Meet the Composer and the Percussive Arts Society. He is happily married to Ursula Running Bear, an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Lakota). Mr. Tate’s middle name, Impichchaachaaha’, means “high corncrib” and is his inherited traditional Chickasaw house name. A corncrib is a small hut used for the storage of corn and other vegetables. In traditional Chickasaw culture, the corncrib was built high off of the ground on stilts to keep its contents safe from foraging animals.

SMETANA Piano Trio in g. SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Trio No. 1. BERNSTEIN Piano Trio • Morgenstern Trio • AZICA 71266 (59:53)


As recently as Fanfare 34:5, I reviewed a Naxos CD of chamber works by Leonard Bernstein that included his early piano trio, written while he was still a student of Walter Piston at Harvard, remarking that the piece hasn’t had many advocates on disc. And wouldn’t you know it? Here comes another one. Neither the Bernstein nor the earlier and less often heard of Shostakovich’s two piano trios, however, is the main business of this release. Top billing goes to the G-Minor Trio by Bed?ich Smetana, a work that’s had plenty of exposure on record but, for some reason, is not programmed that often in concert.


Smetana was 31 when he wrote the trio in 1855, the circumstance of its composition the death of his daughter lost to scarlet fever. The piece wasn’t published until 1879, but critical reception to private, pre-publication performances was cool, prompting Smetana to make revisions in 1857. The work is not only “homotonal”—i.e., all three movements are in G Minor, though the finale does end in the major—but all three movements also bear moderately fast to very fast tempo markings. There is no slow movement, per se, but plenty of slow sections within movements.


The first movement’s second theme does pulsate with a certain throbbing pathos, but overall the movement is more dominated by anger and a sense of lashing out than by sorrow. A scherzo-like movement follows, but it’s a strange scene that Smetana paints, one of Mendelssohn’s elves and sprites turned cross and choleric. This soon gives way to a contrasting episode that sounds almost like a parody of salon music. The elves return, their ill temper now transformed into a trenchant funeral march for the king of the gnomes. The Presto finale unleashes a swarm of winged things, like bats egressing a cave. But once again, a contrasting episode seems so disconnected in content and style that it sounds as if it wandered in from another work.


On a first acquaintance with this score, it’s understandable that the impression it makes would not be entirely positive. Moods, not just contradictory but musically incongruous, are constantly juxtaposed, such that a certain sense of discontinuity and incoherence is manifested. Yet it’s that very expression of grief and incomprehension at the senselessness of the death of a child that makes Smetana’s trio the powerful work that it is. As I listened to this quartet, it struck me that Smetana races through all five stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—accelerated and compressed into just under 30 minutes.


Shostakovich, like other great composers, looms so large in the pantheon of musical icons it’s hard to dismiss anything he wrote as being of less than cosmic consequence. Yet the C-Minor Piano Trio he composed as a student in 1923 at the age of 17, despite containing a number of distinguishing elements that would later come to characterize his mature voice, is not one of his most important works. The young composer’s infatuation at the time with one Tatyana Glivenko colors much of the score purple with romantic ardor. It’s an appealing piece of music, but quite surpassed by the far more popular Trio No. 2 in E Minor, one of Shostakovich’s consummate masterpieces.


As noted, Bernstein’s Piano Trio is also a student work, and as I observed in my prior review, “The three-movement work gets off to a good start with an Adagio introduction that offers some tasty melodic morsels that promise a satisfying meal to come. But the piece soon lapses into a bitonal bitumen of acrid note-spinning.”


This is the Morgenstern Trio’s debut disc. The album cover highlights the fact that the ensemble won the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award for 2009. The Morgenstern’s players—Stefan Hempel, violin; Emanuel Wehse, cello; and Catherine Klipfel, piano—joined forces in 2005 at the Folkwang Academy in Essen and have since made a name for themselves throughout Germany. On the evidence of this recording, I’d have to say they’re off to a stellar start.


Smetana’s Piano Trio has of course enjoyed a number of outings on disc by seasoned ensembles including the Beaux Arts and Borodin trios, and an excellent version by the Mendelssohn Piano Trio on Centaur reviewed in 32:5. The Shostakovich No. 1 has also received a number of fine performances on disc, including one by the very Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson team that awarded the Morgensterns their prize. Nonetheless, the Morgenstern Trio has put together an unusual program for its first recorded venture, and both playing and recording are exemplary. The release is deserving of your attention.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Salzedo Harp Duo. Soloists: Nancy Lendrim, Jody Guinn.

The world-renowned Brentano String Quartet presents the Franz Schubert String Quintet with guest Michael Kannen. Recorded in concerts at Amherst College the energy of the live performance is evident in this stunning recording of Schubert's masterpiece.

Soo-Jin Hong, violin, Soo-Kyung Hong, cello, Jens Elvekjaer, piano.

Classical Music

A CD release of three works of chamber music celebrating American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio's more than thirty years together began with their debut at President Jimmy Carter's inauguration. They remain one of America's finest, internationally renowned ensembles. A quartet for more than twenty years, the Miami String Quartet's programatic diversity, performance poise and musical clarity have kept them at the forefront of today's quartet ensembles.

REVIEWS:

Realizing that the technical proficiency of double bass players is nowadays considerably enhanced from what it was in Schubert’s time, Zwilich makes use of the player as an equal partner in the proceedings. That fact alone gives the work a sonorous characteristic that exceeds that of not only Schubert’s chamber work, but of other contemporary chamber pieces that lack the double bass. The opening movement is very vigorous and rhythmic, with the instruments given energetic licks that are tossed around among them. The second movement is much more subdued, and has a good bit of a bluesy atmosphere to it. At around the 2:35 mark, the movement momentarily sounds as if it is about to break into a Piazzolla tango of some sort. That feeling persists longer in the energetic third movement, which has tango-like harmonies and gestures throughout a good portion of its duration. These are displayed over a walking line in the pizzicato bass. In short, this quintet is the jazziest work that I can recall hearing from the pen of this composer.

At the antipodes of the chronology of the works on this CD is the 1987 Piano Trio. The vigorous opening of the work sounds very much like the ending of the previous work minus any of the jazz sonorities. Four-note scalar ostinatos are also very prominent in this movement. Some of these are quite dissonant, but Zwilich has always had the gift of making dissonance acceptable to listeners who might otherwise be bothered by it. The second movement opens with a whisper in the violin, playing without vibrato. Soon, the cello joins in for a short duet between the two instruments which is underpinned by repeated and static chords in the piano. The free rhapsodic nature of the movement continues throughout its duration, with many contrasts in mood and register of the instruments employed. The trio ends with a short presto movement that opens with a cascade of notes in the piano, and gives all three of the instruments a good workout, even though the pace of the piece occasionally lets up.

As at the beginning of the trio, the septet almost sounds like a continuation of the previous piece, since it begins with a very similar sonority to that of the ending of the trio. It quickly becomes apparent that this 2008 composition is scored for a larger ensemble, as there are more simultaneous lines and effects going on. The scoring combines the traditional piano trio with the string quartet. The powerful opening movement is very extroverted in its demeanor, quite a contrast to its second movement, “Quasi una Passacaglia,” that opens with a single mysterious line, quite reminiscent of certain passages in Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, or his sonata for two pianos and percussion. This is especially true in the way it “fills in” the chromatic notes that span a particular interval in a non-scalar way, one of the trademarks of the Hungarian master’s style. Pizzicato strings both close the second movement and open the third movement, “Games.” The latter is a spiky exercise, full of good humor, and jazz sonorities and syncopations. The work (and CD) concludes with “Au revoir,” a movement that is by turns nostalgic and full of energy, but the former mood being the prevailing one. The key of A Minor is prominent throughout, and the piece ends with a pianissimo sustained unison on that note.

All three of these works are presented in splendid fashion by the combined forces of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and the Miami Quartet, with violist Michael Tree and bassist Harold Robinson assisting in the quintet...[the performers] capture every mood and nuance in these masterful works by one of America’s leading compositional lights. Recommended, then, on every level as an essential acquisition for your collection of contemporary chamber music.

-- FANFARE (David DeBoor Canfield)

Classical Music

Classical Music

The Burning River Brass presents a new recording of fresh and dynamic arrangements from Bach and Gibbons to Debussy, Shostakovich, and DiLorenzo. Since 1996, Burning River Brass has been dazzling audiences from Alaska to Taiwan with "power and virtuosity," "harmonious blend," and "consistently stirring performances." Composed of twelve of the finest brass and percussion players in the country, Burning River Brass is an ensemble on fire! The original inspiration behind Burning River Brass was to give great players who were also good friends a chance to play together on a consistent basis. Soon after the first rehearsal in May 1996, BRB began to grow rapidly. The ensemble made its debut in September of 1996 in Tremont, Ohio under the auspices of Arts Renaissance Tremont and by 1998 was touring nationally. Burning River Brass is consistently applauded for the infectious joy with which it performs. In concert, the ensemble presents a variety of music designed to satisfy the tastes of every audience. BRB’s repertoire includes fresh arrangements of classic literature as well as original works written specifically for the group. The camaraderie continues into BRB’s educational and outreach programs, where the players provide students with a rich, positive experience to encourage their enthusiasm for music in the future.

Masters of Bandoneon is centered around the string quartet Quartetango...all of whom are excellent tango and classical players... The Latin Grammy-nominated "Stringazo" by Carlos Franzetti is indeed a standout... The album’s five guest bandoneonists are some of the greatest living performers of the instrument... Hats off to Leonardo Suarez Paz for bringing everyone together. [This] is the closest most of us will ever come to being in the same room with this many legends of Tango!

– Mike Telin, Cleveland Plain Dealer [11/13/12]

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Argentina’s Astor Piazzolla reinvented tango, combining classical techniques such as fugue with elements of jazz, unusual instrumentation, and occasional spiky dissonance. His style, soon dubbed Nuevo tango, spawned new generations of tango musicians. This recording by Cuartetango – the ensembles second CD – is dedicated to the memory and legacy of Piazzolla. It features compositions by Piazzolla and his contemporaries, as well as several pieces by post-Piazzolla artists. The arrangements for string quartet, sometimes with bandoneon and sometimes with voice, show how tango continues to evolve.

Lynn Harrell, accompanied by the Angeli Ensemble, performs some of the most known and unknown cello concerti. The recording begins with C.P.E. Bach's Concerto in A major which was written for either harpsichord, flute or cello. This piece is followed by a cello concerto by Haydn that was left undiscovered until 1960, Cello Concerto in C major. It quickly became a standard part of the cello student repertoire. Next is Grützmacher's arrangement of Boccherini's Sonata for Cello and Continuo in B-flat, making it the Concerto in B-flat major. Grützmacher used a different middle movement all together for the concerto and also inserted new sections and created new harmonizations. Finally, Couperin's 12 minute Pièces en Concert, which was transformed into a mini concerto by French pedagogue Paul Bazelaire, concludes the album.

Praised by the New York Times for his "polished orchestration" that "glitters, from big-shoulders brass to eerily floating strings," Michael Ippolito's music has been performed by leading musicians in venues around the world. Drawing on a rich musical background of classical and folk music, and taking inspiration for visual art, literature and other art forms, Ippolito has forged a distinctive musical voice in a body of work spanning orchestral, chamber and vocal music. This recording highlights works for string quartet by Michael Ippolito, a composer who has risen to the challenge and has honed his distinct musical voice through a broad array of experiences. These experiences range from studying Croatian folk music, influences of which can be heard in the circle (scored for string trio); to absorbing and being inspired by diverse literary sources, as exemplified in his String Quartet No. 3 "Songlines" and Smoke Rings. An iconic Ansel Adams photograph serves as the inspiration for big sky, low horizon, while trace builds off of a series of crescendos to a wild conclusion.

The word “fusion” as a musical genre identifier, is a loaded term. At worst, it conjures images of endlessly self-indulgent electric guitar solos, overactive drummers buried deep behind epic drum kits, and seven string electric basses strapped up way too high. At best, it has given us timeless albums that were more sui generis than the mere mashup of distinct styles that it implies. With their album Infusion, Jason Vieaux and Julien Labro suggest a subtle alternative path to stylistic integration; the effectively present several diverse performance approaches all under a concert music umbrella. Taking a staple of modern guitar chamber repertoire like Radames Gnattali’s Suite Retratos and infusing it with aspects of different improvising traditions leaves Gnattali’s structural context in place. In their arrangement of the Tears for Fears classic, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” Vieaux diligently reproduces various components of the multi-track original while infusing it with a soloing approach drawn from jazz. In Labro’s arrangement of Piazzolla’s “Escualo,” the two infuse the song with contemporary references that blend with the original material. Also featured is Leo Brouwer’s Tres Danzas Concertantes, which has been adapted by Julien Labro for this recording. Brouwer has drawn from Afro Cuban sources throughout his career, infusing his concert music with the vibrant rhythms and characteristic harmonic flavors of his native culture.