PENTATONE Releases New PRIMAVERA

Readers may recall that, this past Saturday, Matt Haimovitz gave a solo cello recital entitled Primavera (the Italian word for “spring”) for San Francisco Performances. The title refers to THE PRIMAVERA PROJECT, conceived to commission 81 new solo cello works, each around five to ten minutes in duration. As the compositions become available, Haimovitz is recording them for release of albums in the PENTATONE Oxingale Series, all under the title PRIMAVERA. Haimovitz’ recital performed seven of these compositions, four of which were being given world premieres.

The project itself amounts to a “musical response” to a “visual call,” which, in turn, is a “response” to an earlier “visual call.” That “primary call” is Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera painting. Charline von Heyl then responded to that “call” with a large canvas of the same proportions that amounts to a deconstruction/reconstruction of the Botticelli source. Thus, the new canvas consists of distinct regions, each of which presents its own reflection on Botticelli.

At the beginning of this month, PENTATONE released the second album of Haimovitz recording the new compositions he has received to date. The title of the album is PRIMAVERA II - the rabbits. The subtitle refers to one of von Heyl’s regions, which is reproduced on the album cover:

Note, however, that “album cover” is a bit of an oxymoron. As of this writing, the album is only available for download; and the most reliable source (with the most number of options) is a Web page on the Presto Music Web site. Sadly, that Web page makes it clear that no digital booklet is included with the download; but PENTATONE has created a Web page with both a track listing and a brief set of program notes.

Two of the selections that Haimovitz played for his recital are not included on the rabbits album. These are Vijay Iyer’s “Equal Night” and Philip Glass’ “Philip’s Song.” The second of these was given its world premiere performance. The selections that are on the album are as follows:

1. Nico Muhly: Spring Figures
2. Tomeka Reid: Volplaning
3. David Balakrishnan: Themes and Variants
4. Missy Mazzoli: Beyond the Order of Things
5. Gordon Getty: Spring Song

The first three of these works received world premiere performances here in San Francisco.

The album begins with a selection that was not part of the PRIMAVERA commissioning project. It is Haimovitz’ own arrangement of the “Kyrie” section of the Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae, composed by Josquin des Pres and dedicated to Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. This music was scored for four voices, all of which are accounted for in Haimovitz’ arrangement.

The music itself serves as an “overture” to Mazzoli’s composition, whose full title is “Beyond the Order of Things (After Josquin).” The PENTATONE program notes suggest that Haimovitz used overlay recording to capture Josquin’s polyphony, a technique he subsequently used for the four-voice polyphony of the final track, “Beseeching,” by Texu Kim, which was conceived as a synthesis of “Native-American rain dance drumming and old Korean melodies in voices of desperation and hope.”

This past Saturday, I also observed that Sarah Cahill’s first solo piano album in her The Future is Female series lends itself to “digital listening.” That was my way of suggesting that listening to the entire album from beginning to end would probably not be fair to the individual traits of each of the tracks on the album. This idea that each individual track should be allowed to stand on its own merits can also be applied to the PRIMAVERA selections on Haimovitz’ new album. While there was much to be gained from listening to Haimovitz in recital, even more can be gained by focusing on the fourteen tracks of this new album one at at time.