Search - Gerry Hemingway :: Down to the Wire

Scelsi's guttural spirituality...

Dan Mohr | 07/19/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This recording of a number of primarily solo pieces by reclusive Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi exhibits a level of such unbridled and curious passion that is rare in this twilight of academic and ordered music. Though these pieces are by no means 'easy' or 'accessible,' the inextricable relationship of instrumentalist to her instrument that he has achieved repeatedly is nowhere more manifest than here. The first track, the solo bass version of the piece Maknongan (which is reorchestrated for both bass voice solo and bass tuba solo later in the recording), in which bassist Joelle Leandre utters guttural screams periodically, captures an enormously visceral anquish through implied counterpoints in the juxtaposition of wildly different timbral material. The CD's namesake track, Okanagon, for harp, double bass, & tam tam, exhibits none of the placid sonic aspects one might expect from such an ensemble. It juxtaposes an intermittent and jarring tolling on all instruments with a much more intimate knocking on the body of the double bass, creating a profound meditative ambivalence. The performances on this recording are not to be topped. A number of the performers were close collaborators with Scelsi himself before he died in 1988, and one can detect quite clearly the very physical, gestural nature of Scelsi's music in their realizations. The cd is altogether an amazing journey through Scelsi's unique and strange spiritual world."