Search - Kammarensemblen, Andersson :: Live

Of all the works to cut, why 'Le Marteau...'?

01/17/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"These are good performances of works that are tricky in execution. The Varese is particularly good; Kammarensemble exploits the dissonant sonorities and gets a 'sharp,' aggressive sound Varese performances often lack; Varese was interested in creating pieces that would 'shake the audience up.' The Grisey and Tanguy are good. To be honest I haven't studied either of them very much, and have never heard any music by Eric Tanguy before. Kammarensemble gives a clear reading of the Tanguy material, and the Grisey piece sounds consistant with the other works I've heard of his. Xenakis's 'Jalons' finds itself considerably more reserved, possibly because of the difficultly in maintaining sonorities that fall outside the equal tempered tuning system. Kammarensemble also interprets many textures as individual strands of melodic material, such as the violin glissandi in the opening section of the piece, which I feel sounds out of character with the compositional style of Xenakis. Ensemble Intercontemporain (the ensemble, for which Jalons was written) gives what I feel is a better reading of the piece in their Erato release. The great tragedy of this release is the choice to edit Boulez's 'Hammer without a Master.' The soprano never makes an appearance, and several of the movements are missing. This is a pity, because their are no other recordings of 'Le Marteau sans Maitre' on current release in the US. Aside from these elements (which are sadly, gaping holes) the performance of 'Le Marteau...' is excellent (the highlight of the performance, I feel), leaving me mourning the cuts."