Search - Helmut Lachenmann, Massimiliano Damerini :: Helmut Lachenmann: Allegro Sostenuto; Pression; Dal niente; Intérieur

A Mixed Bag

Christopher Forbes | Brooklyn,, NY | 01/10/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The name of Helmut Lachenmann has been bandied around alot lately in avant-garde circles. A slightly younger contemporary of the great Darmstadt composers, Lachenmann had very little recognition here in the US for many years, and then suddenly - BOOM. His music is now ubiquitous on new music programs and heavily discussed in the pages of Fanfare Magazine. So i bought this album to see what all the fuss was about. And while the strong works here are truly wonderful, I find the album as a whole to be rather a mixed bag. Lachenmann is interested here in sonority. But rather than the cloud sounds of Ligeti or the tone clusters of Pendericki, Lachenmann is interested in a sort of "acoustic music concrete". In other words, he treats unconventional sounds on conventional instruments as if they were being assembled in an electronic music studio. The results are most fascinating when you loose the sense of the original instrument, or it's unaltered tone color shines through only partly. But in works where the tone color is more prominent, the technique can border on the gimmicky. Strongest on the album is the opening work, Allegro Sostenuto. The transformations of sound come fast and furious. Though there aren't any obviously new inside the piano effects or extended techniques in this work, the assembly of these effects is quite original and effective. You are never sure what sound will be coming next, but when it does come, it sounds inevitable, as if obeying an inner logic that you just can't quite put your finger on.Likewise, Pression for solo Cello. In this work, the actual tone of the cello is masked for most of the piece and often two or three different sounds are made simultaneously, creating a very electronic sounding montage, full of innovative sound. The same can't be said for either piece in the Interieur series. The clarinet piece is indistiguishable from many other avant-garde works for solo clarinet. It is created with a mixture of overblowing, multiphonics and key clicks that sound dated rather than fresh. The solo wind etude has been sorely overdone since Berio's Sequenzas. This work does nothing to chance my feeling about that. Add to it the legnth, which seems about five minutes too long, and I can't reccommend this work much. The solo Percussion Interieur I is better than the clarinet piece, showing some of the richness of the modern percussionist, but this work too, overstays it's welcome. I find myself wishing for the end much before it comes. So as too my rating - the first two works on the album are five star material, quite impressive and with an emotional punch. But the other two works seem like note spinning to me and I can't recommend them all that highly. As a result, though I will still explore more of the music of Lachenmann, I don't think that I will be listening to this disc all that frequently. So at best, a lukewarm review here."