Search - Varese, Mehta, Lap :: Arcana / Integrales

An intriguing disc

Christian Miller | UK | 03/01/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Varese pieces on the disc are essential in the collections of anybody interested in 20th century concert music; inevitably they won't be to everyone's taste, but I find them immense fun and very dramatic, as well as being Seminal Artworks (with all the usual modernist pomp, etc.) Those familliar with Varese might be interested to compare this recording to the Boulez recordings; in places Mehta conjures an almost Shostakovichian sound from snare, xylophone and wind passages! Also, the strings in Arcana retain a certain romantic expressiveness in this recording, jarring when set against the angular, spare writing for Vareses' favoured winds and percussion. The Kraft is an excellent coupling; adapting Shoenbergian and Varesian techniques into his own style, he retains a melodic lyricism, but also, unsually for a disciple of these composers, incorporates a Beethovian sense of political and social commentary. There are interjections from a Jazz band, and a moving elegy to Martin Luther King in the finale of the second Kraft work on this disc. Mehta's direction is perhaps better suited for this composer than for Varese, although I have heard no work by Kraft conducted by anyone else. Sound is digitally remastered from analogue, and as a result, bright clear and present, if a little brittle. The LAPO play well throughout, with a few out of tune notes in the extreme top woodwind register."