LCMS’ cd A Place Between receives a great review in Gramophone Magazine Oct.09.
The godfathers of spiritual minimalism in a beautifully understated recording.
It’s difficult not to become increasingly sceptical about the way record companies exploit the commercial success of so-called “spiritual minimalist” composers such as Arvo Pärt, Górecki and Tavener, despite the fact that their music is fundamentally anti-materialistic. Many have also been cynical about the term “spiritual minimalism”-not least the composers themselves-as a catch all branding gimmick, but A Place Between does much to reinforce the view that in fact a common bond unites them.
Don’t expect to hear unbridled virtuousity or showmanship here; lento is about as dynamic as it gets, at least on the surface level. However, there are moments of understated beauty, notably in Valentin Silvestrov’s Lullaby for violin and piano. Written to commemorate the centenary of Tchaikovsky’s death, a series of hauntin melodic variations are woven in the violin around a descending, chaconne-like chord progression, with the piano progressively reinforcing each melodic statement. Russian minimalist Alexander Knaifel also inhabits a similar musical universe, as heard here in O Heavenly King.
Silvestrov’s Lullaby is more immediately expressive than Part’s similarly conceived and better known Spiegel im Spiegel. His music is represented here in Hymn to a Great City for two pianos ( multitracked on this recording by the talented Michael McHale): a cleverly constructed “mirror” of imperfect-perfect cadences (ie C major to G major and back again). If the majority of the disc’s music appears to be in suspended animation, Gorecki’s Good Night brings proceedings almost to a standstill, with the final movement “sounding out” in complete silence. Appropriate then that the dreamy In a Landscape by the patron saint of silence himself, John Cage, should round things off. Pwyll ap Sion.
