Private Dances by Kyle GannReview by: Rick AndersonNotes, Second Series, Vol. 65, No. 2 (Dec., 2008), pp. 380-381Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27669862 .

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380 Notes, December 2008

large instrumental forces are wielded to

very powerful effect, and the surging or

chestral chords halfway through the

"Miserere mei Deus" section are especially

impressive (though the voices seem to be

fighting to be heard and could have been

mixed a bit more prominently). The second disc under consideration is

also a reissue, though sold at full price. However, the quality of the music is such

that it is hard to object, and one is inclined

rather simply to celebrate this recording's return to the retail marketplace at any

price. Though titled Fl?tenkonzerte it in fact

consists of four concertos, two sonatas

and a sinfonia, all sequenced so that the

chamber works alternate with the concertos

and break up the texture of the program

very nicely. Soloists Laurence Dean and

Christina Ahrens-Dean play with excep tional grace, as does the Hannover

Hofkapelle. Given the composer's relative

obscurity any new recording of Hasse com

positions is to be welcomed, but even if the

pieces presented were more familiar and

frequently recorded, this disc could confi

dently be recommended to any classical

collection.

50 Jahre neue Musik in Darmstadt.

Various composers and performers. Col Legno WWE 4CD 31893, 2008.

Recently reissued but still bearing its

original 1996 imprint date, this four-disc set

documents fifty years of performances at

the Internationale Ferienkurse f?r Neue Musik

in Darmstadt, an annual event that has be come something of a pilgrimage for stu

dents and composers of new music since its

inception in 1946. The performances se

lected for this multi-decade overview offer a

good variety of works by composers both

familiar and relatively obscure. Among the

usual suspects are Arnold Schoenberg, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and,

inevitably, John Cage. The latter's Varia

tions I is played with charming good humor

by the composer and David Tudor, and re

ceived by the audience with what sounds

like audible delight, but may in fact be

amused incredulity; Cage's appearance at

the 1958 event was hugely controversial.

Works by Luigi Nono (the unsettled but

texturally lovely Polifonica-Monodia-Ritmica) and Morton Feldman (the painstakingly

beautiful Durations 2) are included as well.

Selections from slightly less familiar com

posers include a lovely flute-and-tape work

by Bruno Maderna, a string quartet by Mario Garuti, and a quintet titled Treize

couleurs du soleil couchant by the French

spectralist composer Tristan Murail. As an

overview of world-class academic composi tion from the mid-twentieth century, this

box is invaluable; as a listening experience, it is . . . well, it is an overview of world-class

academic music from the mid-twentieth

century. With distance, it becomes more

and more apparent which of these emper ors were wearing clothes and which were

not; Michael von Biel's Quartet 2 offers a

useful and technically interesting catalog of

extended string techniques, but little to en

courage actual musical engagement in the

listener, whereas G?nther Becker's Streich

quartett No. 1 is both texturally adventurous

and aurally challenging and musically com

pelling at the same time?and while even

today it would probably be considered be

side the point to criticize the music of

Pierre Boulez on grounds of listenability, one could be perhaps be forgiven for ask

ing whether the Livre pour quatuor III

performed here is valued chiefly for its dif

ficulty, and if so, why that should be re

garded as intrinsically valuable in the

absence of greater musical interest. The

quality of the performances on these discs

is consistently quite high, while the sound

quality is more variable?an understand

able and acceptable limitation given the

context of the recordings, and also in light of the added dimension provided by audi ence reaction in several cases. Every library

with a collecting interest in twentieth

century composition should own this set.

Kyle Gann. Private Dances. Sarah

Cahill; Da Capo Chamber Players; Bernard Gann. New Albion NA137,

2007.

It is difficult to put one's finger on ex

actly what it is that makes Kyle Gann's mu

sic so affecting. This set of five works, three

for piano solo (played by Sarah Cahill), one for a quintet of winds, cello and piano, and one for a quintet of winds, sampling

keyboards and fretless electric bass, is con

sistently quiet in mood, but is never exactly either contemplative or somber. The only

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Sound Recording Reviews 381

word that comes immediately to mind is im

passive, but that is not right either. Watchful

might be better, although the term may be more apt than really helpfully descriptive.

In any case, despite the somewhat varied

textures and tempi of these pieces, they all

share a similar feeling, one that is emotion

ally calm and almost dry. The title piece is a

six-part suite for solo piano, capably played

by Sarah Cahill, each movement titled with a "mood" word starting with the letter S?

"Sexy," "Sultry," "Swingin'," etc. However,

only a few of these pieces convey moods

that actually correspond well to their titles.

"Sad" and "Sultry" seem almost tonally in

terchangeable, though both are very lovely;

"Sexy" seems more desultory than sexy, and

although "Swingin' "

deploys both a blues

chord progression and a nominally swing ing rhythm, it really might have been more

accurately titled "Stumpy" or (breaking the

naming convention) "Blocky." Time Does

Not Exist and On Reading Emerson, the other two solo piano works, are both more suc

cessful; the former is built on a strange

melody that repeats and layers upon itself,

eventually moving out of phase with its own repetitions, while the latter is an at

tempt to reflect what Gann sees as the es

sentially nonlinear nature of Ralph Waldo

Emerson's poetry in music. But best of all are the two ensemble pieces, both of which, in rather different ways, contribute new

shades to the program's limited but inter

esting palette of tonal colors. Hovenweep

employs a similar technique to that of Time

Does Not Exist in the service of a sort of tone

poem designed to invoke images of Anasazi

culture with results that are heartbreakingly pretty and deeply regretful; The Day Re

visited is a microtonal reworking of a piece Gann originally produced in 1982. Though

harmonically unsettling, this work is ulti

mately no less accessible and attractive than

Hovenweep. Cahill's playing is at times a bit

workmanlike, but overall the performances are committed and sensitive, and the

recorded sound is excellent.

Lorraine Feather. Language. Jazzed

MediaJM 1032, 2008.

There are quite a few jazz singers who

have sweet voices, highly refined technique, and a powerful sense of swing. Very few of

them, however, write their own lyrics, and even fewer do so with the kind of wit, acu

ity, and startling creativity that Lorraine

Feather demonstrates on her solo albums.

Feather does not actually write most of her own music; instead, she appropriates classic

instrumental jazz compositions by the likes

of Duke Ellington and Fats Waller, giving those pieces both new titles and new lyrics.

(Interestingly, she does not set words to

horn solos in the manner of Jon Hendricks;

instead, she pens lyrics to accompany the

"head," or the regular melody of the tune.)

Joined on her latest release by such simi

larly gifted singers as Cheryl Bentyne, Janis

Siegel (both of the Manhattan Transfer), and the perennially brilliant Tierney Sutton, she focuses here on songs written

in collaboration with pianist Shelly Berg. In

addition to the aforementioned sweet voice

and swinging delivery, Feather's approach is characterized by a gently wicked sense of

humor; tracks like "We Appreciate Your

Patience" and "Traffic and Weather" take some of the more absurd aspects of mod ern life and carry them to a logical extreme

that works beautifully on both musical and

rhetorical levels. On the other hand,

"Making It Up As We Go Along" could have

been written for a musical melodrama of

1930s vintage, and "Waiting Tables" sets

wry lyrics about waiting for one's big break to a sinewy, bebop-derived head played by a

large but nimble horn section. The more

you listen to this wry and winning album, the more you think you would love to

spend an evening getting to know Lorraine

Feather.

Keith Jarrett. Setting Standards: New

York Sessions. ECM 2030-32, 2008.

Is there anything more frustrating than a

standards album by Keith Jarrett's brilliant

trio? Put one of the finest and most inven

tive jazz pianists ever to touch a keyboard into a studio with bassist Gary Peacock and

drummer Jack Dejohnette, ask them to put their personal mark on some of the most

enduring compositions of the American

repertoire, and the results can hardly fail to

be stunning. Peacock and Jarrett enjoy the

kind of rapport that characterized the all

too-brief collaborative relationship of Bill

Evans and Scott LaFaro, while Dejohnette has the kind of expansive tonal vocabulary that sets apart the very few truly brilliant

jazz drummers from those who are merely virtuosic. But there is a problem, and it is a

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