Always Fascinating Chamber Music of Leon Kirchner
J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 04/20/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"All the works on this disc are reissues of Musical Heritage Society releases from the 1980s; all but 'Triptych' are analog recordings that have been remastered; 'Triptych' was recorded digitally. In their day these recordings were much-honored and we are fortunate to have them back on CD at super-budget price as part of the ongoing 'Continuum Portrait' series featuring the new music ensemble Continuum, a New York-based group of musicians founded by pianists Cheryl Seltzer and Joel Sachs. Some of this music has been recorded by other musicians. For instance, Leon Fleisher has recorded all of Kirchner's piano sonatas, including the First Sonata which is played to a fare-thee-well here by Cheryl Seltzer. Yo-Yo Ma and Lynn Chang have recorded 'Triptych' on Ma's much-heralded and big-selling 'Made in America' CD. (Ma and Chang were Kirchner's students at Harvard and Ma has recorded other Kirchner works, including his 'Music for Cello and Orchestra.')
The works include Kirchner's first published work, 'Duo for Violin and Piano' (1947) and works as recent as 'Triptych' from the late 1980s. One can trace Kirchner's evolution as a composer by listening to the works in chronological order. They all sound like Kirchner (once one has his style in one's ears) but one can hear how his rhapsodic style evolves from a rather segmented organization to one where the transitions between soundscapes are much smoother, much more subtle. His style is hyperchromatic but not serially organized. Indeed, his style is pretty much of his own devising. Some find it difficult, and I admit I did when I was first exposed to it, but over time one comes to recognize his fingerprints and, more important, to respond to his lyrical and dramatic outpourings.
The CD features Joel Sachs, Continuum's other founder and also a pianist, playing in the First Piano Trio from 1954, along with violinist Geoffrey Michaels and cellist Beverly Lauridsen. This work is played without pause (as indeed almost all of Kirchner's works are) but falls into two easily discerned movements, the first moving from lyrical to turbulent, the second re-establishing the calmness of the beginning but again building to a powerful finish. The performance is quite good and one marvels at the insight and, dare I say it, the ease with which the musicians encompass this technically difficult music; they play it as if it were a romantic masterpiece.
Also included are 'Flutings,' a solo flute excerpt from Kirchner's opera, 'Lily' (based on Bellow's 'Henderson the Rain King'), played nicely by Jayn Rosenfeld, and 'Duo for Violin and Piano,' again with Sachs, along with violinist Elisabeth Perry.
The final, and longest work, is 'Triptych,' possibly the most difficult of the music presented here. It exists in several versions; originally for solo violin, then recast for solo cello, it is here in the violin/cello duo form. It begins with an extended and rather stark cello solo that has a restrained yearning quality until the violin enters impulsively. There is much dissonant angst until the headlong and almost joyfully brash ending.
These are musicianly performances. One might give the nod to Ma and Chang in 'Triptych,' but Seltzer's performance of the First Piano Sonata is the equal of Fleisher's, no small accomplishment. This recording is not for everyone. The listener must have an appetite for dissonance, although the dramatic thrust of these works carries one along so effortlessly that one soon forgets the absence of consonance.
TT=64:56
Scott Morrison"
Track Listings (5) - Disc #1