Search - Andrew Schroeder, Kevin Oldham, Gian Francesco Malipiero :: Kevin Oldham: Piano and Vocal Music

A Brilliant Composer Cruelly Cut Down Before His Time

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 03/02/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Not all composers have the ability to write a memorable melody. Kevin Oldham had it in spades. I defy anyone to hear the second movement of his Piano Concerto, here played in a solo piano arrangement, and not have it linger in memory. The same is true for a number of the other works here, such as 'Sleep and Dream' from his unfinished opera, 'Thérèse Raquin.' Oldham (1960-1993) was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988 and the knowledge that he might not have long to live spurred him to turn his attention from his burgeoning career as a virtuoso pianist to that of composer. In the New York Times Oldham was quoted in 1992, less than a year before his death, as saying that when he knew he was dying he realized 'It's your work that must have a life of its own.' In a moving tribute to him in the CD booklet, Washington Post music critic Tim Page recounts Oldham's performance as pianist in the première of his own Piano Concerto only a few weeks before his death. A recording of the Concerto, made afterwards, features pianist Ian Hobson.This CD was obviously a labor of love for its participants, many of them friends of the composer. The primary contributor, playing on all but the last selection which is of Oldham himself playing in recital in 1986, is the sensitive and skilled pianist, Karen Kushner, perhaps best known as Igor Kipnis's partner in the Kipnis-Kushner piano duo. She plays a number of solo works, including the iridescent and multilayered 'Ballade,' written for her New York recital début. The impressionistic Sarabande had to be transcribed from a tape of the composer playing it, and its companion piece, the spikily obsessive Toccata, left unfinished at his death, was completed seamlessly by Steve Cohen. The two Scriabinesque Nocturnes feature delicate filigree but also have hints of Mahlerian melancholy. The solo transcription of the Andante tranquillo movement of Oldham's Piano Concerto was done by Lawrence Rosen. It is played gorgeously, with great nuance and lushly romantic feeling by pianist Kushner. When I first got this CD several years ago I found myself putting this band on repeat and immersing myself in its serene beauty.Written in his teens, the three songs set to the 'Gaspard de la Nuit' poems of Aloysius Bertand reflect but do not copy Ravel's well-known piano work inspired by the poems. They are effectively sung (and acted) by soprano Susan Rosenbaum. The complex piano accompaniment is handled nicely by Kushner, particularly in the undulations of the opening song, 'Ondine,' and in the fleet 'Scarbo.' A achingly touching love-song, to Oldham's own words, is 'Not Even If I Try,' sung movingly by tenor Carl Halvorson. 'Across the Sea,' also to words by the composer ['I know a place where my heart has built a home ... across the sea'], can only be heard as a metaphor for Oldham's eventual fate. It is sung eagerly by Rosenbaum; the breathtakingly presto piano accompaniment is done with aplomb by Kushner.There are three selections from Oldham's 'Thérèse Raquin,' set to his own words after Zola's novel. 'Sleep and Dream,' with its wistfully hopeful lyric, is sung by soprano Camellia Johnson. The dramatic aria, 'Paint Me', is sung thrillingly by soprano Maria Russo. The trio, 'Row, I Love to Row,' sung by the opera's ultimately tragic love triangle of Laurent, Thérèse and Camille, is dramatically apt and a bit overlong; it probably would have been reshaped by the composer had he lived to finish the opera. Russo and Halvorson are joined by baritone Andrew Schroeder. The final selection on this disc is from a tape of a live performance Oldham gave as part of the Chicago Public Library's Dame Myra Hess Recital Series in 1986. It is a set of variations on an old French Christmas carol, 'Noël nouvelet, Noël chantons ici.' There is some tape hiss and crowd noise but one doesn't care because this is a blisteringly virtuosic performance of a 10-minute set of variations that shows off not only Oldham's pianistic fireworks but also his ability to write a set of polystylistic variations that could easily find a place in the repertoire of adventurous pianists. Strongly recommended.TT=67:34
Full texts.Scott Morrison"