“La Muerte Del Angel” – TURINA: Quartet in A minor; TANSMAN: Suite-Divertissement; SURINACH: Quartet; PIAZZOLLA: La Muerte del Angel – Ames Piano Quartet – Albany TROY 1052, 62:36 ****:
This inventive disc showcases four works for piano quartet whose commonality is combining the music of their native country with new classical techniques emerging during the times of their composition. It took Joaquin Turina (1882-1949) a journey to France and conversations with De Falla and Albeniz in 1907 before he was convinced to celebrate the folk music, melodies and rhythmic modes of native Spain in his music. The Quartet in A minor, Op. 67 is filled with Spanish rhythms, tender, wistful melodies, and Latina energy. It’s Turina’s version of an impressionistic sunny Spanish afternoon.
Alexandre Tansman (1897-1986) also left his home country – Poland – for France in the early twentieth century. He flourished as a pianist in the early 1920s and toured Europe and the United States. Many of his compositions used themes from Polish folklore. “I have not used popular themes, but I have used the same sort of melodic line. This is because Polish folklore is very rich in both harmony and melody,” he stated. The Suite-Divertissement (1929) incorporates Polish melodies with twentieth century twists. The Sarabande is a sweetly dissonant dance; the Nocturne a panorama of visions and dreams of ghost-like creatures in the night; the Finale is joyfully frenetic.
Carlos Surinach (1915-1997) combined his Spanish heritage with stints in Germany, France and the United States. He’s primarily known for his colorfully orchestrated ballet scores written for many American companies, including Martha Graham and Robert Joeffrey. His Quartet (1944) is an early work that combines his Spanish musical beginnings with German musical language. The attraction of this 22-minute work is its variety: the contrapuntal writing redolent of Bach, the constant tempo variations, and vibrant Spanish cross-rhythms. Astor Piazzola (1921-92) is remembered for his transformation of the tango into the status of the art song and the use of the bandoneon in sophisticated musical settings. The short La Muerte del Angel (1962) is part of the incidental music for a play written by the Argentine dramatist Alberto Rodriguez Munoz. Using fugues and speedy tempos, it depicts a knife fight in which Death kills a ministering angel. Scintillating!
The Ames Piano Quartet, known for its brilliant CD of the Dvorak Piano Quartets, matches that incandescent performance here in close and impactful sound. An excellent disc of unknown piano quartets that will entertain lovers of that medium. [Why is it nobody thinks a Piano Trio means three pianos, but the term Piano Quartet is confusing? Call me weird but I would prefer it were it in fact four pianos. There have been both classical and jazz real piano quartets, you know…Ed.]
– Robert Moon
