CD ECM Records Sofia Gubaidulina: Canticle Of The Sun

2012

Gidon Kremer - vioara
Nicolas Altstaedt - violoncel
Marta Sudraba - violoncel
Kremerata Baltica
Andrei Pushkarev - percutie
Rihards Zaļupe - percutie
Rostislav Krimer - celesta
Riga Chamber Choir, dirijor Māris Sirmais

Sofia Gubaidulina :
- The Lyre Of Orpheus
- The Canticle Of The Sun

Sofia Gubaidulina’s 80th birthday in October 2011 generated much press coverage around the world, appropriately stressing the uniqueness and the variety of her compositional approaches. Both are in evidence on these recordings from Lockenhaus. Gidon Kremer is the soloist and Kremerata Baltica the ensemble on the premiere recording of “The Lyre of Orpheus”, dedicated to the memory of Gubaidulina’s daughter. Kremer has long been a committed advocate of Gubaidulina’s work, and the composer has praised the way the violinist seems to unleash music from the soul. In this work of austere beauty and raw lyricism, violin, string orchestra and percussion intermingle in new ways. At a subterranean level, the piece is also an exploration into acoustic phenomena and the physics of sound, with pulsating difference tones part of its underlying structures. “The Lyre of Orpheus” was recorded in 2006, a month after Kremer gave the first performance. “Canticle of the Sun”, recorded in 2010, revisits the celebrated piece that Gubaiduilina wrote in tribute to Mstislav Rostropovich on the occasion of his 70th birthday in 1997. Rostropovich’s famously sunny disposition was an inspiration, by association prompting Gubaidulina to set St Francis of Assisi’s “Canticle of the Sun” for choir. In this recording, Nicolas Altstaedt, one of the most accomplished cellists of his generation, takes on the highly expressive lead role. A further, timely, Lockenhaus connection here: as of this year, Altsteadt takes over from Kremer as the new director of the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival.

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Featuring unorthodox showcases for violin and cello, this album is testament to the sensitive individualism of Sofia Gubaidulina. Performed by Gidon Kremer´s Kremerata Baltica, 'The Lyre of Orpheus' proceeds via a series of discrete violin flourishes and glissandi, until coaxed into the open under cover of the ensemble. Its inclusion of sleighbells is one example of Gubaidulina´s characteristic use of unusual percussion, which reaches further extremes in her setting of St Francis´s 'Canticle of the Sun' when cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, having detuned his instrument to its lowest possible note, eventually abandons it to bow first a drum, then a flexatone device. Strange, but beautiful.
Andy Gill, The Independent

Schubert’s music for violin and piano presents an unusual range of challenges. The earliest three sonatas, which are not recorded here (the ones published posthumously as sonatinas), are disarmingly direct. The Fantasy in C, on the other hand, has a monstrously awkward piano part, and both it and the Rondo in B minor can, in the wrong hands, sound as if Schubert just didn’t know when enough of a good thing was enough. Carolin Widmann and Alexander Lonquich are wonderfully alert to the risks, taking nothing for granted, and their playing is of a kind that never just coasts along. Every slightest gesture has been considered, every interplay is of interest, every strange harmonic shift makes sense, every repetition is made to sound fresh. And the recorded balance is kind to both players.
Michael Dervan, The Irish Times