Bartok - Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta - 4/5 Stars

Bartok - Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta - 4/5 Stars

Movement I: Ok, a fugue with altering meters! How could I not love that? Also, the amazing timbral textures give the piece its own aesthetic flavor. All the parallel movement creates some wonderful envisioned shapes.

Movement II: I’m a sucker for pizzicato, and this mvt. is packed with it. The aggressive, syncopated and unexpected accents give the piece an exciting vibe that keeps listeners on the edge of their seats. There are a few awkward transitions that seemed rushed and not fully developed. Overall though, this is my favorite movement despite some angular/unprepared transitions.

Movement III: Made famous from the movie The Shining, this slower, more eerie movement is at points drawn out and a little slow for my tastes. There are several unique and fun little concepts here, however: rhythms based off the Fibonacci sequence, timpani glisses, and haunting chromatic melodies. The juxtaposition of the strings, xylophone, and timpani, (opposing like rivals) creates a very tense environment.

Movement IV: A nice, rhythmic, lively dance to close the piece. Again, the aggressive and explosive accenting coupled with meter shifts makes the whole piece an unpredictable adventure!

Penderecki - Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima 4/5 Stars

Penderecki - Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima 4/5 Stars

This is one the earliest successful sound mass pieces that comes to mind. I consider the piece successful for several reasons:

1) Complete chaos is achieved. Imagine an atomic bomb going off and try to conceive of the terror that would course through a person's body who was in the vicinity. This is a musical encapsulation of that emotion.

2) Penderecki was trying to create a dissonance more striking than standard western tunings were/are able to create. His use of quarter tone pitches allow for a denser tone cloud, and the sense of instability and unease to be greatly heightened.

3) The distribution of sound back and forth creates the illusion of mass panic.

I doubt it possible to hear this piece for a first time and not have an increased heart rate!

Listening to this piece 5o years after it was written isn't the same as it must of been hearing it for the first time in 1960. So many of the then new-ish extended techniques Penderecki was using have long been over used these past 5 decades. Many of the sounds even come off as a little cliche and perhaps taken from a 1970's horror movie.

If you're looking for a catastrophic piece that sounds like Armageddon might sound, look no further. Also, I think it important for musicians to be acquainted with the piece from a purely historical-importance perspective.

Stravinsky - Symphony of Psalms

Stravinsky – Symphony of Psalms - 5/5 Stars

Written in 3 movements without pause between movements, this exquisite piece takes listeners on an unusual symphonic adventure. Stravinsky himself considered “it not a symphony in which I have included Psalms to be sung. On the contrary, it is the singing of the psalms that I am symphonizing”

One truly enjoyable feature is the broad usage of styles. The opening movement sounds very neo-classical with all its standard deviations from the classical period: abrupt time shifts, nontraditional treatment of harmony and resolutions, and ostinatos. The second movement however sounds like it dates back 300 years by employing the fugue (double fugue in this case) and writing in the style of the high renaissance Venetian choral composer. This movement is very calm and allows deep reflection on the psalms:

I waited patiently for the Lord: and He inclined unto me, and heard my calling.
He brought me also out of the horrible pit, out of the mire and clay.
and set my feet upon the rock, and ordered my goings.
And He hath put a new song in my mouth: even a thanksgiving unto our God.
Many shall see it and fear: and shall put their trust in the Lord.

The third movement starts as a rousing and boisterous ride. Stravinsky wrote:

"The final hymn of praise must be thought of as issuing from the skies; agitation is followed by the calm of praise. In setting the words of this final hymn I cared only for the sounds of the syllables and I have indulged to the limit my besetting pleasure of regulating prosody in my own way".

Later in the movement we hear a slower, ominously dark section that shifts back and forth between mood and uses descending chromaticism to create a sense of unease. This is a little unusual considering the text:

Alleluja.
Praise God in His sanctuary:
Praise Him in the firmament of His power.
Praise Him for His mighty acts:
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet:
Praise Him with the timbrel and dance.
Praise Him with stringed instruments and organs.
Praise Him upon the high sounding cymbals,
Praise Him upon the loud cymbals.
Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord.
Alleluja.

Perhaps what I interpreted to be slightly dark was simply a misunderstanding for reverence? Nonetheless, the composer ends with the final cadences sounding almost heavenly.

This piece is a must for anyone interested in 20th century music. Stravinsky was one of the greatest innovators in western music and his music is brilliantly crafted. The Symphony of Psalms stands alone in its own genre of symphony plus psalm and is well worth a listen or ten.

Reich - Four Organs

Reich – Four Organs – 2.5/5 Stars

Steve Reich is one my all time favorite composers. However this piece didn’t exactly do it for me. Reich has always had a fascination with music repeating and changing over time—whether it be some type of increased augmentation, diminution, or evolving offset, one can frequently expect insane amounts of repetition in his works.

18 Musicians is by far the greatest and most successful example of repetitious music organically evolving over time. Four Organs, much to my displeasure, had a few flaws stacked against it:
1) That obnoxious shaker that runs unchanging through the entire piece. It truly goes to the top of “Annoying Usage of Percussion” list, right next to the cowbell in Don’t Fear the Reaper.

2) Four organs playing loudly for 16 minutes could draw a confession out of innocent man.

3) The evolution of sound didn’t change enough and the overall cells were a bit boring. The overall texture shift was nice, and by the end the piece had smoothly transformed. However, both the original cell and the final product weren’t all that aural pleasing.

The biggest redeeming feature offered by this piece is taking a little fun from the experience of listening to the slow shifts, as if watching the tide come in—each wave comes an inch closer. If you’re really interested in hearing a piece like this, I highly recommend 18 Musicians over this piece.

Berg - Violin Concerto

Berg – Violin Concerto - 4/5 Stars

Berg does a wonderful job of combining both a clear 12-tone technique with a slightly more tonal style. His usage of 12-tone rows is clearly influenced by his teacher—Arnold Schoenberg. I find myself drawn more toward Berg’s music simply because his tonal moments ground his pieces and give the ears something to cling to. 12-tone technique can often sound very random and give the impression of chaos. However, mixing in some tonal aspects makes the serialistic moments seem like an adventure instead of random chaos. One aspect I really enjoyed was the way Berg employed his rows. He frequently spaced his rows out to span several octaves—giving the piece an arpeggiated, leaping sensation—always expanding or contracting. This is, in my opinion, much more favorable than small, stepwise motion.

If you’re looking to expand your ear a bit and try to get into 12-tone and serialism composers, Berg’s violin concerto is the perfect way to sample the water considering its palatable application of rows and its mixture of tonality. Also, this piece is very virtuosic for the soloist, and who doesn't enjoy watching a violinist sweat?? ;)

Beethoven - Symphony 1

Beethoven – Symphony #1

4/5 Stars

Overall this is a wonderful and musically concise piece. Being Beethoven’s first symphony, we don’t see a lot of the radical innovations that we typically associate with his works. Instead, we hear a piece that sounds as if it could have been written by one of his predecessors, i.e. Mozart,or even Haydn.

The opening is quite unusually however. The first 12 bars tease the ear as to the home key. Perhaps this is some sort of a musical joke? There is a constant tonic-dominant relation occurring, but each time it’s in a different key, further confusing the ear.

Both of the first 2 movements are written in clear sonata form, with very well articulated and memorable themes. The motivic development in these two movements stand out as remarkable in comparison to symphonies written by his predecessors. The intricacy and careful crafting of his themes is truly amazing in all his works, and this piece is no exception.

The third movement isn’t marked as a scherzo, but similar movements in later symphonies are. This begs the question if Beethoven had yet discovered this label. The final movement opens with a startling bang! Calling back the chordal relations from the first movement. It’s hard not to appreciate the symmetry.

My only major criticism of this piece is its lack of balance in terms of movement lengths. The first two movements are closer to 10 minutes and the last two are 9 minutes combined. The third and fourth movements are over so fast, I felt a little short changed and was looking for more.

On the whole this is a wonderful introduction to Beethoven’s music and brilliantly exemplifies much of what defines the late Classical era in music.

Aaron Jay Kernis - Musica Celestis

Aaron Jay Kernis - Musica Celestis

Arranged for String Orchestra

5/5 Stars

Transcribed from the slow movement of his string quartet, Musica Celestis is one of the best single movement orchestral pieces I have heard to date. Undeniably it bears many parallels with Barber’s famous Adagio for Strings: chords overlapping and fading in and out in a mysterious and magical quality, using a full range of registers, and striking dissonances resolving to consonance.
Several striking moments come back to my memory upon reflection of the piece. The gradual acceleration and thickening of texture throughout the middle section that culminates in beautiful and long held chords (that are so dense with harmonies and color that one can almost taste the moment) give an astounding since awe. Also, and most memorable, is the abrupt cutout of near the end. The polyphony builds to a tense roar as the violinists find their highest notes, then, as if in mid sentence, the piece stops, taking the breath out of us--a truly deafening silence. Kernis follows that moment by bringing back the high ethereal string moment much like the beginning.
Given the title, one can’t help but think of outer space. I liken the aforementioned mentioned moment to a rocket powering through the atmosphere, then, without warning, breaking free into the silence and calm of space.
What an amazing work!