Search - Michael Hersch, String Soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic :: Michael Hersch: Chamber Music

Introspective and Intense

Karl W. Nehring | Ostrander, OH USA | 07/10/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Michael Hersch (b. 1971) is a young American composer who is just beginning to gain notice. I believe this was his first commercially available recording; surely there will be more to come.



There are four compositions featured in this compilation. The first is Recordatio, featuring Hersch on solo piano. The overall sound is reminiscent of Schoenberg, but more tender, less formal. This may not be music you would want to listen to over and over again, but when you are in the mood, it is fascinating and enjoyable. Most of it is quiet and introspective, almost dreamlike, but there are also abrupt bursts of energy.



The second composition is Two Pieces for Piano. Both pieces are rich with expression, with some wonderful chords and some virtuoso passage, but both are also quite dualistic in their combining of introversion and extroversion. No, this music doesn't sound like the piano music of Beethoven, but a similar combination of inward and outward expression can be heard in the great master's late piano sonatas.



The third composition is titled After Hölderlin's Hälfte des Lebens, for the duet of viola and cello. The mood is dark. Not dark in a melodramatic way, but still, dark indeed, as in contemplating potential unemployment as snow begins to fall at sunset in early winter.



The final composition is Octet, performed here by four violins, two violas, and two cellos. It too is mainly introspective in character, with plenty of sighing and moaning and nervous twitching. Again, not music you are likely to want to hear all that often, but not without appeal for certain moods and times.



I am not going to make a general recommendation that everyone run right out and buy this recording. It should be clear from my admittedly impoverished description of this music that it is not likely to have much appeal to the casual musical listener. Only those who have an ear for the intense and the morose will find this music appealing; to you folks, and you know who you are, I recommend it highly."