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It’s a wonderful CD
Adventures in non-holiday music
BY DAVID WEININGER

Humbug! No more Christmas music! It’s a thought that runs through the mind of many a music critic this time of year. My mind in particular, and not without reason: these days I seem to do little more than recommend, not recommend, review, and generally comment on holiday music. Many of us writers long, Grinch-like, to see December depart and get back to writing about music — just plain old music.

But try as we might, we can’t stop the holly-jolly train from rolling through town. So, even though I have no music germane to the holiday to comment on here, I can’t resist pointing out how some recent releases might relate to the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

Most likely to be scratched from the naughty list. That would be the 10-year-old devil who’s the title character of Lukas Foss’s opera Griffelkin, which recently received its world premiere recording (Chandos). Written almost 50 years ago, it’s a pointed fairy tale about a young resident of the Underworld who visits this world to show off his bewitching powers. Instead, he learns to use his powers for good instead of evil and happily becomes an ordinary earthly child. Although Foss’s music is accessibly written — "for children 8 to 80" — it’s also full of vivid colors and sharp rhythms. Above all, he invests the dramatis personae with real character. Gil Rose leads the Boston Modern Orchestra Project through an assured performance, and the principals — especially soprano Kendra Colton in the title role — are enthralling, as are the voices of the Back Bay Chorale and Boston Children’s Opera.

Least likely to remind you of the Holy Family. Whereas Foss wrote his first opera in his 20s, Elliott Carter had to wait almost for his 90th birthday to write his. What Next? is a one-act affair with an intriguing — not to say incomprehensible — libretto by the omnivorous former New York Times music critic Paul Griffiths. Six characters have been involved in "an accident," but they can’t agree on how it happened, or how they’re related to one another, or much of anything. In fact, disagreeing is about all they do during the opera’s 40 minutes, which feature continuous dialogue and virtually no action. It doesn’t make for great drama, but Carter’s music is some of his most engaging, a shifting kaleidoscope of sounds that rain down on his characters like the questions they keep posing to one another. Peter Eötvös leads the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and a cast of singers in a live performance (on ECM) in which the participants sound amazingly comfortable with music of considerable complexity.

Least likely to be mistaken for Santa Claus. With his fright-wig hair and steely blue eyes, conductor Leopold Stokowski was a dead ringer for Kris Kringle’s black-sheep brother-in-law. And the sound that he crafted in the early decades of the 20th century with the Philadelphia Orchestra — seductively rich, with an amazing sheen in the strings — seemed the product of an unholy spell or a deal with the Devil. A five-CD box of all of the conductor’s Wagner recordings from Philadelphia on the Andante label allows you to hear just how well that sound was matched to music’s most innovative orchestrator. Nothing in this set was recorded after 1940, yet the results sound fantastically clear thanks to Ward Marston’s remasterings. Of particular interest are Stokowski’s "symphonic syntheses" of various operas — suites made up of all the best music without the singing. Well suited to those who prefer their Wagner in bleeding chunks. A terrific aural experience, available directly from www.andante.com.

Least likely to offer comfort or joy. György Kurtág’s music is knotty and austere but also weirdly mesmerizing. At a time when heartfelt openness is prized, Kurtág’s quizzical music is a series of withdrawals, as if he were repeatedly trying to reach a hard core of truth by using as little material as possible. That’s probably what led him to the poems of Samuel Beckett, settings of which dominate much of Signs, Games and Messages (ECM). They’re barely even songs; rather, they’re mini-collages where shards of sound and text make momentary impressions and disappear. Even more daring are poems by Friedrich Hölderlin set mostly for unaccompanied voice. Death and loneliness stalk the entire affair, which makes it compelling but not exactly present-opening music.

Most likely to put you in mind of miracles. Der Kunst der Fuge ("The Art of the Fugue"), Bach’s unfinished contrapuntal masterpiece, has attracted every kind of instrumentation you can imagine, from organ to orchestra to saxophone quartet. But they all make it sound good, and that is miraculous. The latest comers are the Emerson String Quartet (on Deutsche Grammophon), who bring not only x-ray clarity but also passion and warmth, putting the appropriate spring in Bach’s dance rhythms. They also tack on the final chorale he wrote, "Here Before Thy Throne I Stand." Which makes it not so inappropriate for the season after all. Bah.


Issue Date: December 12 - 18, 2003
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