Schwantner-Chamber Works

Music of Joseph Schwantner (*1943)

Ensemble- und Vokalwerke

Music of Amber, Sparrows, Soaring, Distant Runes, 2 Poems of Agueda Pizzarro

Florian Hölscher, Klavier

Britta Stallmeister, Sopran

Holst-Sinfonietta

Klaus Simon, Musikalische Leitung 

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Kritiken

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 11.12.2004, Nr. 290 / Seite 42

Es darf gepfiffen werden

Joseph Schwantner ist ein Eklektizist, aber mit eigner Handschrift

Es gehört zu den Freiheiten Amerikas, nach Belieben in die Orthodoxien des alten Europa hineinschnuppern zu können, um zu schauen, was davon brauchbar ist. Joseph Schwantner, geboren 1943 in Chicago, ist ein Komponist, der dies getan hat. Er ließ sich inspirieren von Debussy und Messiaen, von der Renaissance und dem Barock. Auch seinen Landsmann George Crumb nennt er als Vorbild. Für Stilpuristen und Avantgardeschnösel ist das gewiß ein Graus, für alle übrigen mag Schwantner als virtuoser Klangerfinder und Meister der Anverwandlung gelten: ein Eklektiker mit unverwechselbarer Handschrift.

Die Freiburger Holst-Sinfonietta unter ihrem Leiter Klaus Simon hat sich nun des in den Vereinigten Staaten wohlbekannten, hierzulande weniger rezipierten Komponisten angenommen und eine Auswahl von Werken aus den Jahren 1979 bis 1987 eingespielt. Schon das erste namens "Sparrows" für Sopran, Flöte, Klarinette, Harfe, Schlagzeug, Klavier, Streichtrio und Instrumentalensemble gibt Auskunft über Schwantners komplexe Komponistenpersönlichkeit. Fünfzehn Haikus des japanischen Dichters Kobayashi Issa aus dem achtzehnten Jahrhundert bilden den Text des durchkomponierten Werks, in dem den kurzen Gedichten eine je eigene musikalische Stilistik zugeordnet wird, unter Verwendung barocker Sequenzierungen und Tanzrhythmen von renaissancehafter Anmutung ebenso wie der schriller Modernismen. Die Klanglichkeit der oft ungewöhnlichen Instrumenten-kombinationen ist betörend, aber auf der Suche nach Schönklang gerät Schwantner in die Nähe des Kitsches. Britta Stallmeisters Sopran erscheint beweglich, charakterstark und nuancenreich.

"Distant Runes and Incantations" heißt eine Art einsätziges Klavierkonzert, dessen Solopart Florian Hölscher virtuos meistert. Für großes Orchester komponiert, fertigte Schwantner später die hier eingespielte Fassung mit Kammerensemble an. Das Werk ist von gemäßigter Modernität, lebt vom großen pianistischen Gestus und wirkt homogener, weniger verspielt als "Sparrows". Wie weit der Komponist auf der Suche nach dem special effect geht, zeigt das Lied "Schadowinnower", bei dem die Sopranistin auch pfeifen und Crotales spielen muß, mit geisterhaftem Ergebnis. Die "Music of Amber" dagegen zeigt in ihren zwei gegensätzlichen Abschnitten die Instrumentationskunst Schwantners, die zur besonderen emotionalen Dichte des Werks beiträgt. Was die Holst-Sinfonietta und Klaus Simon hier wie in den anderen Nummern leisten, ist staunenswert: Jede Farbschattierung ist exakt getönt; ob fahle Streicher-, scharfe Klarinetten, perlendhelle Klavier- oder absterbende Flötenklänge - alles sitzt an seinem Platz.

Michael Gassmann

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Nov04/SCHWANTNER.htm

Persist beyond the clanging, echoing opening discords of ‘Sparrows’ and you will find a composer who, if you didn’t already know his music, has a real creative individuality, and a fine ear for the texture of sound. This first work, which sets the fifteen stanzas of a translated Japanese poem, is scored for solo soprano, with an instrumental ensemble of flute, clarinet, harp, percussion, piano and string trio. The music has a luminosity which recalls the Britten of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A curious Neo-Classicism steals into the music at the words ‘And, when I die,/ Be thou guardian of my tomb,/ Grasshopper’, leading the piece to its gentle conclusion. A satisfying piece, and Schwantner has the ideal soloist in Britta Stallmeister who moulds the demanding and very high soprano part wonderfully well. One of the most impressive things is that her words are so good, a quality rarely possessed by very high voices like hers.

‘Soaring’ that follows is a tiny piece for flute and piano, and, as these two instruments feature prominently in ‘Sparrows’, it feels like a postlude to that longer work. ‘Distant Runes and Incantations’ is more extended, and was originally written in 1984 as a concerted piece for amplified piano and orchestra. It appears here in a chamber arrangement the composer made in 1987, and would be immediately recognisable as originating from the same composer as ‘Sparrows’, though, as the title suggests, it is darker and more hieratic.

‘Two Poems of Aguedo Pizarro’ consist of the jagged ‘Shadowinnower’, receiving its première recording, and the lullaby-like ‘Black Anemones’, with a warmly expansive vocal line. The accompaniment is for piano solo, but Schwantner shows his love for the subtly exotic in the little touches from the crotales (small tuned cymbals).

The disc is completed by ‘Music of Amber’, which won first prize in the chamber music category in the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award in the year of its composition, 1981. (‘Bernstein’, by the way, is the German word for ‘Amber’ – just thought I’d mention that!). This is a two-movement work for an ensemble of flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin and ‘cello, and, as with ‘Distant Runes and Incantations’, the composer provides a poem as a kind of lyrical programme-note, which is a nice idea. ‘Wind Willow Whisper’ is, as its alliterative title suggests, full of atmospheric sounds, such as air blown through wind instruments. ‘Sanctuary’, on the other hand, is a restless piece, driven hither and thither by its jagged percussion rhythms. Evocative though this music is, it is tightly bound together by a short motif, whose notes are present in the first chiming discord of ‘Wind Willow Whisper’. Additional unusual colouring is provided by wordless vocalisation by the instrumentalists.

This is attractive, finely crafted music, not difficult to listen to for someone whose tastes are at all attuned to post-WW2 music, and it has received excellent performances from all the musicians involved here. As so often with Naxos, the recording is outstandingly good, capturing to perfection the distinctive sound-world of Schwantner’s compositions.

Gwyn Parry-Jones

3. Fanfare (2005)

Now in his early 60s, Chicago-born Joseph Schwantner seems to have receded somewhat from the forefront of contemporary American composers, a position he enjoyed from 1978, when he won the Pulitzer Prize for his orchestral work Aftertones of Infinity, through the mid 1980s. During that period new compositions appeared at a rapid rate, and were accorded the prestige of auspicious performances and recordings, partly spurred by the advocacy of soprano Lucy Shelton and conductor Leonard Slatkin. By now the intense interest seems to have abated, although several works—a haunting composition for band, And the Mountains Rising Nowhere (1977), a deeply moving tribute to Martin Luther King for narrator and orchestra, called New Morning for the World (1982), and a breathtaking Percussion Concerto (1994)—seem to have achieved an indisputable foothold in the repertoire.

This new release in Naxos’s “American Classics” series features five compositions dating from the years 1979-1987, which corresponds roughly to Schwantner’s period at center-stage. The recording appears to be the result of a project carried out by a group of enthusiasts located in the city of Freiburg, Germany, under the leadership of Klaus Simon. The selected repertoire includes two substantial works for chamber ensemble, two significant vocal works with chamber ensemble, and a tiny piece for flute and piano (billed as a recording premiere, but not really so (see Flute Moments, released by Laurel [LR-857] in 1998).

The program notes describe Schwantner’s music as reflecting the influences of Debussy, Messiaen, and George Crumb. This lineage has been cited elsewhere as well, and, although it is not without a vein of truth, it is quite misleading, as the impact made by Schwantner’s music bears little in common with that made by theirs. This is because, unlike the music of those composers, Schwantner’s exhibits a directness of appeal that at times suggests more commercial genres. In fact, I would cite a stronger affinity to the “folk-pop” arrangements from the 1970s associated with such talented figures as Joshua Rifkin and Peter Schickele. Add to this the mysterious quasi-literary titles Schwantner favors, and the simple, “New-Age-” texts he sets or uses as inspiration. What you have might be characterized as “other-worldly mood music.”

Furthermore, Schwantner is one of those composers whose musical voice is so distinctive that a piece can be identified as his after just a few seconds, although determining just which piece it is—if the scoring or text don’t give it away—is a good deal more difficult. So just what are the elements that make up the Schwantner “sound”? These are, chiefly, a strong footing in tonality, although melodic lines might be quite disjunct, with wide leaps; considerable attention to timbre, especially of a hushed, ethereal nature, with much emphasis on delicate percussion sonorities, often enhanced by soft vocalizing from the players; there are certain familiar gestures, e.g., what the program notes call a “fanning out” of arpeggiated chords based on open fifths, which serve to evoke bewitching, highly imaginative moods that glow with radiant luminosity—all presented in a context that is easy to assimilate and enjoy, making it somewhat more suitable to musical hedonists than to snobs. Schwantner achieves his results with considerable skill, although a little goes a long way, especially as its tendency toward a sameness of effect is probably its greatest weakness.

Having described the overall impact of Schwantner’s music, I am left with characterizing specific attributes of the individual works. The earliest piece here, from 1979, is Sparrows, settings of 15 18th-century haiku, for soprano and chamber ensemble. Two Poems of Aguedo Pizarro appeared the following year, and are settings of these surrealistic verses in English translations done by Barbara Stoller Miller. Both these compositions were written for soprano Lucy Shelton, who displays an uncanny affinity for Schwantner’s vocal music. Britta Stallmeister, who sings them here, is excellent, if a little shrill in comparison to Shelton’s more relaxed delivery.

Music of Amber (1981), scored for mixed sextet, and Distant Runes and Incantations, written for piano and orchestra in 1984, and re-scored alternately for chamber ensemble in 1987, are two of Schwantner’s strongest works. It feels safe to say that how one reacts to either of them will indicate how one will feel about Schwantner’s music in general. Music for Amber won the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award in 1981, and comprises two sections, each associated with an imagery-filled poem by the composer. Another literary work by Schwantner serves as “poetic support” for the single-movement quasi-concerto, Distant Runes and Incantations. According to the program notes, presumably authorized by the composer, “the poem provided a source of extra-musical imagery …, fitting with and forming the composer’s musical ideas.” Quoting the poem’s introductory lines will convey the sense of Pre-Raphaelite fantasy: “Give heed…/Lord of the Dark Winds,/Give heed…/solitary sentinel of the black moors,/Give heed…/fearsome knight/your daunting presence proclaimed,/ …slayer of foes/Forever vigilant…/cloaked guardian of the ancient citadel,/Forever endure…/you who for so long remained watchful, ever steadfast,…” The premiere of the work in its original version was given in Los Angeles by pianist Ursula Oppens, with Gerard Schwarz conducting. It was recorded in 1987 by Oppens with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin’s direction on an Elektra/Nonesuch LP (9 79143-1—see Fanfare 11:2) which seems not to have been reissued on CD. I must confess to a preference for the work in its full orchestral version, although the chamber instrumentation offered here is thoroughly effective.

Suitable as an encore piece, the 1½ -minute Soaring is a virtuosic showpiece bearing the composer’s unmistakable fingerprints.

As is true for so many releases in Naxos’s “American Classics” series, this recording allows the curious listener to acquaint himself with a representative sample of music, superbly performed, by a notable composer who might otherwise be just a vaguely familiar name. And this for less than the typical price of a movie ticket in a neighborhood theater!

BBC Music Magazine (12/04)

The Naxos American Classics series would be invaluable at any price, but this particular disc happens to be so board-sweepingly excellent that one almost feels guilty about buying it at its designated price point. Joseph Schwantner is still probably best known in the UK for his outstanding Percussion Concerto which soloist Adrian Spillett so memorably made his own as the winner of the 1998 BBC Young Musician of the Year. The opportunity to sample some of this composer’s smaller ensemble works would in itself be reason enough to part with the handful of coins required, but this collection is in fact absolutely masterly. The booklet notes use such words as ‘refined’, ‘delicate’ and ‘luminous’ in describing his work and allude to Crumb, Messiaen and Debussy as influences. All of this is true enough, but to the listener the fascination lies in Schwantner’s rare gift for avoiding both banality and gratuitous complexity while at the same time embracing both clarity and an uncompromising, undiluted modernism. The sensitive performances take the unpredictable but compellingly listenable nature of this apparent contradiction in their stride. Stallmeister’s richly lyrical interpretations of the two vocal works (Sparrows and Two Poems of Aguedo Pizzarro) positively glow. Absolutely unmissable.

Roger Thomas