(+++) HIGHLY PERSONAL JUXTAPOSITIONS

Schubert: Fantaisie in F minor, D. 940; Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Schumann; Beethoven: Grosse Fuge, Op. 134; Messiaen: Visions de l’Amen—Amen du Désir; Amen des Anges, des Saints, du chant des oiseaux; Amen de la Création. Gülru Ensari and Herbert Schuch, pianists. Naïve. $16.99.

Ives: Second Sonata for Violin and Piano; Ravel: Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano; Ernest Bloch: Baal Shem Suite—Nigun; Sebastian Currier: Aftersong; Ivan Wyschnegradsky: Chant douloureux. Auerbach-Pierce Duo (Dan Auerbach, violin; Joshua Pierce, piano). MSR Classics. $14.95.

Amy Beach: Romance, Op. 23; Clara Schumann: 3 Romanzen, Op. 22; Rita Strohl: Great Dramatic Sonata “Titus et Bérénice”; Reena Esmail: one word makes a world; Nadia Boulanger: Trois Pièces pour Cello et Piano; Maria Theresia Paradis: Sicilienne. Yoshiko Masuda, cello; HyeJin Kim, piano. AVIE. $19.99.

     In their endless seeking for new ways to present music and its underlying thoughts and emotions to audiences, performers frequently turn inward, choosing mixtures of material that, in their view, communicate ideas and feelings effectively even though the pieces were written at vastly different times and for vastly different purposes. Ideally, this form of selection and presentation shines new light on familiar pieces and/or exposes the audience to works they have not heard before – certainly not in this context. As a practical matter, though, these recitals have their higher and lower points, and are effective as a totality only to the extent that they reach listeners already predisposed to share the performers’ very specific emotional attachment to the individual pieces and the way they are set side-by-side with each other. As a result, no matter how well-played these recitals may be, for most audiences they will be less than revelatory – even if individual works within them are performed to a high standard. Thus the highly impressive playing by Gülru Ensari and Herbert Schuch of works for two pianos and others for piano four hands is better heard as a series of individual performances than as a continuity – unless a listener happens to find these specific pieces, in this specific order, to be highly convincing at the full almost-80-minute duration of the new Ensari/Schuch CD on Naïve. Certainly the playing itself soars here. Schubert’s Fantaisie in F minor is a work of pervasive beauty, the pianists complementing each other elegantly while bringing forth the thoroughgoing gentleness and lyricism of the music. Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Schumann, Op. 23 – a theme and 10 variations for piano four hands, all but the last one quite short – begin in stately fashion before showing Brahms’ considerable adeptness in the variation form, as well as his awareness of the ways in which writing for two pianists can expand on the capabilities of a single player. The quiet and slightly sad warmth of the fourth variation and the contrasting jauntiness of the fifth are among the especially effective elements of this performance. And the Ensari/Schuch handling of the piano-four-hands version of Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge – which has its own opus number, affirming its distinctness from the more-familiar string-quartet version – is enormously impressive: this is an exceptionally difficult work on all levels, but Ensari and Schuch surmount its technical challenges while affirming its communicative power. Heard on their own, the Schubert, Brahms and Beethoven works are convincing in the extreme. But in the overall context of this CD, they are somewhat less so. That is because Ensari and Schuch intersperse them with three excerpts from Messiaen’s 1943 suite for two pianos, Visions de l’Amen. The Schubert is followed by the fourth of Messiaen’s pieces, Amen du Désir. Then comes the Brahms, and then the fifth Messiaen work, Amen des Anges, des Saints, du chant des oiseaux, and then the first, Amen de la Création, and finally the Beethoven. Messiaen’s seven movements are closely related and build to a seventh-movement climax, so taking three of the seven out of context and out of order is at best a questionable decision; placing them in two positions of separation among these Schubert, Brahms and Beethoven pieces is more questionable still. Like everything on this CD, the Messiaen pieces are played very well indeed – in fact, a full recording of the Messiaen by Ensari and Schuch would be welcome. But although the performers clearly believe these individual Messiaen movements shed additional light on the other works here, that is scarcely apparent – they seem more intrusive and uncalled-for than anything else, no matter how well they are performed. So this disc, if listeners essentially take it apart into its component pieces, has much to recommend it; but as a totality, it is at best a presentation of limited audience reach.

     The situation is somewhat analogous in the very fine performances by Dan Auerbach and Joshua Pierce on an MSR Classics CD that also mixes music in ways that clearly “work” for the performers but not necessarily so well for a general audience. Ives’ Second Sonata for Violin and Piano is a high point. Many of the salient characteristics of the irredeemably idiosyncratic innovator are present here: rapid rhythmic change, juxtaposition of hymn and popular-dance tunes with distinct dissonances, and a refusal to accept the inevitability of tonality. Auerbach and Pierce explore the many moods of the sonata with technical skill plus attunement to Ives’ sound world and its variegated elements. This sonata is actually the midpoint of the disc, though, and the way in which other works lead up to it and move on beyond it is not entirely convincing. The CD opens with the two-movement Aftersong by Sebastian Currier (born 1959). The piece mixes fanfares, glissandi, chordal elements and expressive-but-not-really-lyrical ones to uncertain effect: the whole thing seems disjointed – an accusation that, it is true, can also be made of the Ives sonata, except that Ives’ insatiable cleverness knits matters together surprisingly well. After Currier’s piece comes a short Ernest Bloch interlude: Nigun from the Baal Shem Suite. The straightforwardly emotional evocation of this piece contrasts both with Currier’s music and with the Ives that appears next on the disc. After the Ives there is another brief work, Chant douloureux by Ivan Wyschnegradsky (1893-1979). Here the rather growly piano part fits somewhat uneasily with the singsong material for the violin, all in an harmonic world that remains in flux. And then the CD ends with Ravel’s Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano, which is actually the longest work on the disc. The pleasant near-simplicity of the sound of this sonata contrasts with the generally denser and more-complex sonorities of much of the rest of this recital. The dissonant and insistent second-movement Blues and the initially hesitant final Perpetuum mobile are engaging and quite different from anything else on the disc – surely a pleasant contrast for some listeners, but likely a somewhat confusing non-climactic conclusion for others. Auerbach and Pierce play everything with aplomb and with sensitivity to the composers’ varying styles, but like the Ensari/Schuch CD, this one comes across better when heard as a series of individual pieces than it does if listened to in the hope of discovering clear continuity (or distinct contrast) from start to finish.

     On one level, it is less difficult to follow the musical arc on a new AVIE disc featuring cellist Yoshika Masuda and pianist HyeJin Kim: this is yet another of the now-common CDs offering works solely by woman composers, the aim being in some not-entirely-clear way to redress the balance of the many releases featuring music by men. Political correctness aside, the approach is rather silly, since the music stands or falls – or should stand or fall – based on its quality rather than the gender of those who created it, and women are quite as capable as men of writing music of excellence or mediocrity. In any case, the underlying organizing principle of this release is clear, but the effectiveness of listening to it from start to finish is less so. That is because the 73-minute disc is very much dominated by a single 39-minute piece: Great Dramatic Sonata “Titus et Bérénice” by Rita Strohl (1865-1941). The entire CD thus succeeds or fails based on audience response to this work – the five other offerings here, including those by composers much better known than Strohl, take up only 34 minutes total and are all relegated to being little more than preludes or encores. By arrangement, though, the other pieces lead up to and then away from Strohl’s work, much as there is a lead-in and follow-up to Ives on the Auerbach/Pierce CD. Strohl’s sonata itself is very much a large-scale work – its first movement alone is longer than any non-Strohl piece on this disc. That movement proclaims the broad concept of the sonata from the start, then progresses through a series of broadly Romantic gestures to paint a portrait of the complexities and intrigues involving the Roman emperor Titus and his lover Berenice, who among other things was present at the trial of the apostle Paul. The second movement is a delicate Vivace; the third, a slow and expressive (if somewhat overdone) Lento, Tristamente; and the finale, another large-scale movement that balances the first in its dramatic impact. The sonata is somewhat overextended and tends to wallow a bit in its emotions, but it is well-constructed and sounds warmly convincing in this performance – it is a very fine rediscovery, if scarcely a masterpiece. In terms of placement on the CD, Strohl’s work follows two by far-better-known composers. The disc opens with Amy Beach’s Romance, whose understated rather than over-the-top lyricism and reasonable length (six-and-a-half minutes) make it an effective curtain-raiser and a pleasure in its own right. It is followed by Clara Schumann’s 3 Romanzen, the first two quietly crepuscular and the third having a bit more momentum but retaining a level of twilight. Strohl’s grand sonata follows, after which Masuda and Kim offer the world première recording of one word makes a world (one of those pieces without capital letters in the title) by Reena Esmail (born 1983). Despite a gloomy opening that more-or-less ties to the mood of Strohl’s sonata, Esmail’s piece never quite establishes its seriousness, although Masuda and Kim play it as carefully and convincingly as they perform Strohl’s much larger work and, indeed, all the music on this CD. After the Esmail, Masuda and Kim offer Trois Pièces pour Cello et Piano by Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979). These are a form of high-quality salon music: the cello dominates the sound, which is warm and pleasant throughout without exploring any particularly profound feelings. The bright and bouncy final piece is the most winning of the three. The CD concludes with Sicilienne by Maria Theresia Paradis (1759-1824). A sweetly rocking berceuse-like dollop of gentleness, this offers a quietly pleasing conclusion for the CD and shows Masuda and Kim at their most delicate. Listeners interested in discovering a major Romantic-era violin-and-piano work will scarcely be disappointed in having a disc centered on Strohl’s sonata. But the remaining pieces here are, on their own, rather thin fare, although all are well-made and well-performed. The recital as a whole clearly reflects the performers’ desire to display this collection of musical moments in a certain way – which means that listeners who happen to find this specific sequence congenial are the ones who will enjoy hearing the disc from start to finish. Others will likely find individual pieces here more inviting if taken out of this particular context and heard on their own.