Search - Jean [1] Barraque, Herbert Henck :: Barraqué, Jean

Austere and rewarding

klangfarbenguy | 10/29/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The word that keeps coming to mind with this piece is "uncompromising." It is a 45-minute work that doesn't exhibit any standard form or progression of events, or, for that matter, any traditional sense of pianism. The texture is strictly single notes that accrue or disintegrate in varying densities.



What Barraque can express in this limited world is impressive. Not self-indulgent formula, the Sonata is a fearless, emphatic statement of belief not only the power of the composer's musical ideas but in the power of music.



It always struck me as incredible that the austere aesthetic statement of the Sonata makes for Barraque's "opus one". Other pieces like Sequence or the Concerto are much more user friendly (but are no less powerfully expressive). Perhaps that makes the Sonata even more unique.



Herbert Henck attacks the piece with abandon. This is the recording of the sonata to get (avoid the Litwin interpretation on CPO).

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Serialist intervention

somebody | NYC | 05/21/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The "Sonata" is an extraordinary twelve-tone work, adhering to the formalities and strict structural components that define serialism. Filled with jagged rhythms and acute harmonic developments, composer Jean Barraque blends together a spectrum of music. Alongside the likes of Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, Barraque's compositional complexities are equally as daunting to a performer as his counterparts experimental works were. Influenced by Arnold Schoenbergs' atonal inventions, Barraque set out to explore serial compositional techniques to bring his own unique voice to the fore of the genre. This work combines the use of rigid and free tempi, alternating registers in the tone row. This basic form, having determined the pitch structure of the entire work, lies in the use of juxtaposing slower sections with faster ones, and vice versa. Motives are controlled with mathematical precision, hiding in swift rhythmic alterations, and retrograde inversion. This balance in contrast is consistent, with pianist Herbert Henck performing with critical attention to every detail. A composition seldomly recorded, Hencks' interpretation will be hailed as one of the finest. Pure, and full of adventure, the "Sonata" ranks among one of the most demanding serial works for piano produced in the 20th century."