courtesy of Naxos of America
A little over a week ago, Avie Records released an album of music from a concert performance presented by the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (LCCE) at the beginning of February of 2020. Content was based on recordings made during the second half of the program, entitled French Sublime, performed at both the Hillside Club in Berkeley and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). “For the record,” this site has an account of the SFCM performance.
That portion of the program was devoted almost entirely to Olivier Messiaen’s “Quatuor pour la fin du temps” (quartet for the end of time). The LCCE performers were Artistic Director and violinist Anna Presler, cellist Tanya Tomkins, clarinetist Jerome Simas, and pianist Eric Zivian. This was followed by the world premiere of what could be taken as a reflection on Messiaen by LCCE violist Kurt Rohde, scored for violin and piano and entitled “one wing.”
As another “for the record,” this was not my first encounter with these four musicians playing Messiaen’s quartet. Ironically, that first encounter took place almost exactly (within a day) five years earlier, also at SFCM. On that occasion I was highly impressed by Simas’ clarinet work, particularly in his solo movement, “Abîme des oiseaux” (abyss of birds), in which the profound depth of that abyss is depicted through an extremely wide dynamic range, dropping all the way down to the threshold of audibility. As might be guessed, neither recording nor playback technology is adequately equipped to deal with such extremes, particularly at the soft end; so the best I can say is that the recording efforts of Zach Miley gave this track its best shot.
Taken as a whole, however, the 2020 performance never quite matched the qualities of the 1995 one (or, just as likely, my listening experiences over those five years led to the development of a more discerning ear). Those that have been following this site for some time probably know that I have frequently accused Zivian of showboating his keyboard work. The piano part for Messiaen’s quartet is as intensely expressive as the clarinet part. Obviously, the piano has broader resources at its disposal; but Zivian seemed more interested in lighting fireworks that in weaving the piano into the overall quartet structure. This seems to have had a negative impact on both Presler and Tomkins, whose problems with intonation can probably be attributed to having their references points obscured by Zivian’s showboating.
Rohde’s composition has its own “Messiaen connection,” which has nothing to do with the quartet. In 2002 San Francisco Opera presented the American premiere of Messiaen’s opera Saint François d’Assise (Saint Francis of Assisi). One of the characters is known only as “The Angel;” and the costume designer endowed the vocalist with an outfit involving only a single wing. This became the inspiration behind Rohde’s choice of title.
Nevertheless, as a listener, Rohde seems to have been better acquainted with Messiaen’s quartet than with his opera. Indeed, the last of the eight movements of that quartet is scored only for violin and piano; and there is an almost spooky segue on this recording as Messiaen’s duo appears to flow almost seamlessly into Rohde’s. Fortunately, these are the two tracks on the album where Zivian shows the most restraint, much to the advantage of both the violinist and the listener. However, it is also likely that Rohde was as interested in that breadth of dynamic range demanded of the clarinetist for “Abîme des oiseaux;” and his pursuit of the “outer limits” for the violinist makes for highly absorbing listening.
The fact is that Rohde’s duo deserves more than a “world premiere shot;” and, if there are shortcomings in the Messiaen performance, they are outweighed by giving a wider variety of listeners an opportunity to experience the skills behind “one wing.”
No comments:
Post a Comment