(+++) SONIC EXPERIMENTS

Richard Strauss: Sonatinas Nos. 1 and 2 for 16 Wind Instruments; Serenade for 13 Wind Instruments, Op. 7; Suite for 13 Wind Instruments, Op. 4; Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks—arrangement for wind instruments and percussion. Members of Staatskapelle Berlin conducted by Gregor Witt. Capriccio. $20.99 (2 CDs).

Missy Mazzoli: Tooth and Nail; Jen Shyu: Jeom Jaeng Yi (Fortune Teller); Angélica Negrón: Panorama; Miya Masaoka: Mapping a Joyful Path; Samantha Fernando: Balconies. Olivia De Prato, violin. New Focus Recordings. $16.99.

     Most listeners who associate a specific instrumental group with the music of Richard Strauss would likely select the brass, since his use of brass instruments is so all-pervasive and effective both in instrumental music and in opera. Strauss’ music for winds is a much smaller part of his oeuvre than are his brass works: his entire output for wind ensemble amounts to only some two hours of music. All of it is now available on an exceptionally well-played two-CD Capriccio set featuring members of Staatskapelle Berlin conducted by Gregor Witt, Staatskapelle Berlin’s longtime principal oboist. This recording is an interesting exploration for listeners looking for insight into some less-explored nooks and crannies of Strauss’ output, although it would be stretching things to suggest that any major new revelations about the composer’s sound world are to be found here. Strauss at his least inviting can be dense, even turgid, and the two latest and most-substantial works offered here suffer from a kind of overpowering massing of sound in instruments that are at their best when handled with much greater delicacy and individuality than Strauss proffers. Both these “sonatinas” (a misnomer in light of their extensive nature) date to the last decade of Strauss’ life. Sonatina No. 1 was written in 1943 and titled Aus der Werkstatt eines Invaliden (“From an Invalid’s Workshop”), while No. 2 dates to 1944-45 and has the title Fröhliche Werkstatt (“The Happy Workshop”). Titles aide, there is nothing in either work particularly reflective of dismay or joy. Sonatina No. 1 is in three movements, Sonatina No. 2 in four, and both focus primarily on massed winds and a certain attempt to attain grandeur in the outer movements – an effort that lingers a bit too close to pomposity. Listeners will find little here in which the instruments attain the lightness of which they are capable – probably the second movement of Sonatina No. 2, marked Andantino, sehr gemächlich, comes closest – but will find more instances of a kind of bloat that is very definitely in line with Romantic-era expressiveness. There is more to enjoy in the much earlier music on this release: Serenade for 13 Wind Instruments of 1881 and Suite for 13 Wind Instruments of 1884. If the later 16-wind works are heavily Romantic, the earlier 13-wind ones have a lighter touch and more-balanced feeling that are akin to pieces from the Classical era – at least as close to it as Strauss ever came. The Serenade is in a single eight-minute movement, the Suite in four movements lasting some 26 minutes, but both fit their respective durations well and sustain interest not only through expressiveness but also because of Strauss’ well-balanced handling of the ensemble. For what it may be worth, though, the most-enjoyable piece on hand here is Matthias Pflaum’s arrangement for winds and percussion of Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks (1894-95). This hyper-familiar, unceasingly good-humored work fits surprisingly well into a wind arrangement. Or perhaps not so surprisingly, since the orchestral version has so many instances in which winds carry the story: the bassoon representing pretentious academics, the flutes as Till reaches the top of the gallows, and the justly famous clarinet wail of the execution. From these, it is not so long a step to having the winds (and percussion) tell the entire tale, which they do with relish. Strauss’ later and more-substantial wind-ensemble works are certainly worth hearing for anyone strongly interested in the composer; his earlier ones definitely show some Classical leanings that are otherwise rarely apparent in his music; but it is the arrangement of the tale of Till Eulenspiegel that provides the greatest musical pleasure in this interesting if somewhat narrowly focused release.

     The focus is even narrower – and of course newer – on a New Focus Recordings CD featuring violinist Olivia De Prato in combination with electronics and/or herself. The five pieces here give De Prato opportunities to show her skill in a wide variety of avant-garde works. Missy Mazzoli’s Tooth and Nail is inspired by the Jew’s harp (now usually called the jaw harp), combining violin with electronics (performed by Mazzoli) in a piece that starts with an insistent ostinato that recurs throughout as the music wanders from effects-driven material (notably glissandi) to near-lyricism. Jen Shyu’s Jeom Jaeng Yi (Fortune Teller) is for “speaking violinist” and is one of those works whose genesis an audience needs to know in order to appreciate the music: it is inspired by the writing of performance artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha and is rhythmically reflective of speech patterns – but is musically rather vapid. Angélica Negrón’s Panorama, with the composer on electronics, is essentially a series of background sounds that become foreground material simply by virtue of nothing else being available – although its central section has more rhythmic energy. Miya Masaoka’s Mapping a Joyful Path, yet another piece with its composer on electronics, starts with an electronic sine wave that functions as a non-acoustic ostinato, then meanders into a typically contemporary set of extended rather than inherent violin techniques, with sound production whose microtonal focus keeps the instrument itself sounding as if it on the verge of becoming electronic. Finally, Samantha Fernando’s Balconies is for multiple violins, all five of them played by De Prato thanks to four recorded parts. The piece starts with a chordal background-ish sound from which individual lines seek, largely unsuccessfully, to emerge, and progresses through a series of auditory landscapes that never really resolve but are their own reasons for being. Like so much contemporary music, the five works here are explorations of sounds and of extended performance techniques – interesting for audiences already enamored of similar material, but unlikely to draw in new listeners who are accustomed to music with a stronger emphasis on thematic development, rhythmic variety and perhaps even emotional connections.