Schwabe, Natalie (Piccolo) / Piccolo Works = Music By Gyongyosi, Wilden, Donatoni, Mower, Kanefzky, Mkalsen A
| Album: | Piccolo Works = Music By Gyongyosi, Wilden, Donatoni, Mower, Kanefzky, Mkalsen A | Collection: | Classical | |
| Artist: | Schwabe, Natalie (Piccolo) | Added: | Mar 2017 | |
| Label: | Metier | |||
A-File Activity
| Add Date: | 2017-03-28 | Pull Date: | 2017-05-30 | Charts: | Classical/Experimental |
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Album Review
Gary Lemco
Reviewed 2017-03-22
Reviewed 2017-03-22
The piccolo - called “The Screaming Twig” or the “AKA47 of the Orchestra” because of its high register – generally receives little attention, except for an occasional piece by Vivaldi. Here, seven contemporary composers take advantage of its penetrating and inescapable sonority in virtuoso pieces, some commissioned by the featured artist, Natalie Schwaabe.
Levente Gyongyosi (b. 1975), wrote his Sonata for Piccolo and Piano in 2007. He likes sharpness and precision. He pushes the upper range of the instrument into high C’s and F’s. The instrument shrieks, whistles and clanks with percussive fury. Gert Wilden, Jr.’s (b. 1954) jazzy, snappy two and a half-piece (2013) is meant for Natalie Schwaabe. In song form, it comprises a lament and scherzo with some piccolo solo, occasionally in a laid-back manner. Franco Donatoni (1927-2000) composed Due pezzi per ottavino in 1979. The 1st piece seems spare and skeletal, like a notebook’s preliminary sketches. The 2nd escalates in tempo and technique, rife with grueling ornaments, displaced octaves and shimmering textures. Mike Mower’s (b. 1958) 2002 Sonata for Piccolo and Piano stresses the piccolo’s ability to display charm and bucolic lyricism through riffs that are primarily jazzy.
Franz Kanefzky (b. 1964) wrote Pied Piper of Hamelin Town for Flute and Piccolo for Natalie Schwaabe in 2008. Using the Brothers Grimm story, he wishes to convey the “rather strange but moving tune” that frees the town from a plague of rats. When the miserly townsfolk refuse to pay the Piper, he plays “a sweetly seductive melody” that lures the town’s children away forever. Jan Erik Mikalsen’s (b. 1979) year 2000 Huit ilium for Piccolo and Piano takes its inspiration from Kurt Vonnegut’s notion of “jumping In time” in the novel Slaughterhouse Five. Gruff, brutal and harsh, this music demands that the player shriek in violent gestures, perhaps a reference to the fate of ancient Ilium, or Troy. The title of Derek Charke’s (b. 1974) Lachrymose for Piccolo (2006) derives from the Latin Requiem Mass. The composer wishes to express “the fragility of life” through “tearful” gestures, often repetitious in three-note themes. To sail from the “highest heights” to the “lowest depths” invokes aspects of Mozart and Dante.
Levente Gyongyosi (b. 1975), wrote his Sonata for Piccolo and Piano in 2007. He likes sharpness and precision. He pushes the upper range of the instrument into high C’s and F’s. The instrument shrieks, whistles and clanks with percussive fury. Gert Wilden, Jr.’s (b. 1954) jazzy, snappy two and a half-piece (2013) is meant for Natalie Schwaabe. In song form, it comprises a lament and scherzo with some piccolo solo, occasionally in a laid-back manner. Franco Donatoni (1927-2000) composed Due pezzi per ottavino in 1979. The 1st piece seems spare and skeletal, like a notebook’s preliminary sketches. The 2nd escalates in tempo and technique, rife with grueling ornaments, displaced octaves and shimmering textures. Mike Mower’s (b. 1958) 2002 Sonata for Piccolo and Piano stresses the piccolo’s ability to display charm and bucolic lyricism through riffs that are primarily jazzy.
Franz Kanefzky (b. 1964) wrote Pied Piper of Hamelin Town for Flute and Piccolo for Natalie Schwaabe in 2008. Using the Brothers Grimm story, he wishes to convey the “rather strange but moving tune” that frees the town from a plague of rats. When the miserly townsfolk refuse to pay the Piper, he plays “a sweetly seductive melody” that lures the town’s children away forever. Jan Erik Mikalsen’s (b. 1979) year 2000 Huit ilium for Piccolo and Piano takes its inspiration from Kurt Vonnegut’s notion of “jumping In time” in the novel Slaughterhouse Five. Gruff, brutal and harsh, this music demands that the player shriek in violent gestures, perhaps a reference to the fate of ancient Ilium, or Troy. The title of Derek Charke’s (b. 1974) Lachrymose for Piccolo (2006) derives from the Latin Requiem Mass. The composer wishes to express “the fragility of life” through “tearful” gestures, often repetitious in three-note themes. To sail from the “highest heights” to the “lowest depths” invokes aspects of Mozart and Dante.
Track Listing