Volume XIX – Dispersion. Pièces pour piano d’Erwin Schulhoff, Paul Hindemith, Alfredo Casella, Raymond Moulart et Louis Vierne
Steven VANHAUWAERT (piano)
2016-DDD-73′ 28 »- Notice en français et en anglais-Hortus 719
Après les errances et les désespoirs du volume XVIII, voici de quoi requinquer l’ambiance ! Le CD démarre en trombe avec les brillantes Fünf Grotesken de Schulhoff (1917), décidément un compositeur qui surprend toujours. Ces cinq petites danses allantes et bien rythmées sont jouées avec une verve folle; elles évoquent tour à tour Hindemith, Roussel ou Prokofiev. Une belle découverte, à laquelle on reviendra souvent ! Quand Hindemith compose le cycle In einer Nacht, il a trente ans et va bientôt se lancer dans sa période iconoclaste. En 1919, il est encore assez sage, et écrit ces 19 petites pièces, sous-titrées « Rêveries et expériences ». Souvent atonales, de caractère introspectif, elles alternent, pour le pianiste, un jeu raffiné (les numéros 11 ou 16) à une écriture puissante, comme dans la grandiose double fugue finale. Page mineure d’après Michel Stockhem, auteur de la remarquable notice de ce CD, Inezie, de Casella, petit cycle de cinq minutes à peine, tourne autour de notes obsédantes, même dans la berceuse conclusive. Qui se souvient de Raymond Moulaert (1875-1962) qui fit une remarquable carrière académique en Belgique ? La Sonate pour piano ici présentée (1917) témoigne d’un talent dérivé de Saint-Saëns ou de Fauré. Tempi allègres alla Ravel pour le premier mouvement, fluide rêverie centrale, et presto finale en forme de perpetuum mobile : une musique somme toute fort agréable. Revenons tout de même à l’ambiance morbide de ces années de guerre avec Le Glas de Louis Vierne, extrait d’un recueil qui n’a jamais vu le jour : le Poème des cloches funèbres. C’est une marche lente, un crescendo lugubre. Le pianiste belge maîtrise l’écriture complexe de ces différentes pages, pour en rendre toute l’expressivité tendue, tragique même.

Bruno Peeters

 

http://www.crescendo-magazine.be/2016/11/les-musiciens-et-la-grande-guerre-8/

The nineteenth volume in this long-running series devoted to musicians and composers of the First World War is intriguingly programmed. Ervin Schulhoff’s transitional Fünf Groteskenrevels in dance-based anti-romanticism and its droll aspect embraces filmic compression and exaggeration as well as traces of the Baroque. The subversive elements of Schulhoff’s compositional imagination, fermented by his war service, are also apparent in this five-movement cycle which is played by Steven Vanhauwaert with real appreciation of its frantic and thumbing qualities.

Hindemith’s In Einar Nacht is a multi-movement suite with some vaguely impressionist hues and rapt stillness in places that vests it with a tremendous sense of concentrated quietude, as well as character. Then again, the refractive intimacy of the Lassitudes movement is balanced by the nocturnal calls in Rufe in der horchenden Nacht, the fluttering-winged sixth movement, the febrile Nersosität and the birdsong of the ninth. Following the penultimate, all-the-rage Fox-Trot with the concluding Double Fugue is a little stroke of mocking genius. Casella’s brief triptych Inezie, meanwhile, is full of rhythmic and harmonic interest and ends with a quietly insistent Berceuse. Wrapped up in five minutes this hardly outstays its welcome.

Raymond Moulaert, a now almost-forgotten figure, was Belgian and held a series of prestigious academic positions over the years. His piano training with Arthur de Greef must have equipped him well and his Sonatine teems with fresh minted Fauréan sensibility, though occasionally one that veers into slightly knottier areas. Debussy haunts the central movement of the panel through the over-busy finale might profitably have been pruned a little. Finally, Louis Vierne is represented by his Poème des cloches funèbres: Le Glas. This is the only surviving movement of what was intended to be a four-movement suite. By 1916 Vierne had already lost two sons – one in combat – and his soldier brother, and the controlled anguish that permeates the piece evokes Ravel in places. The bells are intoned by the stentorian bass.

Here again Vanhauwaert proves an excellent guide in a reasonable recorded acoustic. This is a most enjoyable disc, full of a ripe variety of expressive piano music.

Jonathan Woolf

 

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2016/Nov/Dispersion_719.htm

Warming up for the Salastina Music Society performance of the Franck violin sonata lecture/performance with violinist Kevin Kumar and K-USC’s host Brian Lauritzen!

 

Noon to Midnight was an incredible event at Disney Hall featuring all of L.A.’s incredible new music scene. Here are some shots from the event. I performed Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux with Piano Spheres colleagues, and Steve Reich’s incredible 8 Lines with pianist Vicki Ray, Jacaranda musicians and conductor Donald Crockett.

 

“Con la consueta regolarità, Hortus presenta un nuovo cd della sua ambiziosa collezione dedicata ai musicisti che hanno composto negli anni della prima guerra mondiale, più o meno impegnati nel conflitto dalle due parti del fronte. Questo volume XIX raccoglie composizioni per pianoforte, interessanti per la vastità dell’orizzonte percorso, dai 5 Grotteschi del céco Erwin Schulhoff alle Inezie di Alfredo Casella che con opposti ideali esplorano nuovi itinerari espressivi, lontani dal romanticismo, come il tedesco Paul Hindemith con il suo In Einer Nacht (In una notte). Egualmente distanti emotivamente la Sonata inedita del belga Raymond Moulaert, che ignora l’agitazione del conflitto, e Le glas dal Poème des cloches funèbres del francese Louis Vierne, immerso nelle profondità di un dramma umano che vive le lacerazioni della guerra attraverso il dolore personale.

Il pianista belga Steven Vanhauwaert è l’impegnato interprete di questo così variato programma, particolarmente attento ed efficace nella fredda complessità di Hindemith e negli angosciati tormenti di Vierne.”

 

 

https://www.grey-panthers.it/ideas/cd-musiche-settembre-f-nuzzo/

I will be playing Grieg’s concerto in A minor with the Lviv Philharmonic for their season opening concert with conductor Taras Krysa on September 2nd 2016 at 7pm. More info at: http://www.philharmonia.lviv.ua/09-2016/news-20160622-1604/?lang=ua

 

Here is a new review for On-Mag in France by Michel Jakubowicz!