FABIÁN PAN ISELLO: Various works – Dimitri Vassilakis, p. – Neos

FABIÁN PANISELLO: Estudio No. 1, Chroma 1; Estudio No. 2, Chroma 2; Estudio No. 3, Chroma 3; Estudio No. 4, Chroma 4; Estudio No. 5, Pentafonías; Estudio No. 6, Estudio doble; Estudio No. 7, Aksaks I; Estudio No. 8, Armonías; Estudio No. 1, Aksaks II; LIGETI: Étude No. 1, Désordre; Étude No. 2, Cordes à vide; Étude No. 4, Fanfares; Étude No. 5, Arc-en-ciel; Étude No. 8, Fém; Étude No. 10, Der Zauberlehrling; Étude No. 11, En suspens; Étude No. 15, White on White; Étude No. 18, Canon – Dimitri Vassilakis, piano – Neos 10946 [Distr. by Naxos], 57:04 ***1/2:
There are etudes written solely for the training and edification of the pianist, such as those by Clementi and Czerny; at least that’s how musicians and audiences alike approach them. Then there are etudes that manage to be something more: fine music worth hearing in their own right, such as those by Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, and Debussy (though these last are decidedly harder listening). Whether the etudes on the current disc fall into the latter category will be up to individual taste. I found them quite interesting in spots, though I’m not sure I’d want to hear a batch of them played in recital.
Argentine-born composer and conductor Fabián Panisello lives in Madrid, where he acts as academic director of the Scuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía and the Instituto Internacional de Música de Cámera. His two sets of etudes Primer quaderno (Estudios Nos. 1-6) and Segundo quaderno (Estudios Nos. 7-9) were written as studies preliminary to the composition of his orchestral work Aksaks of 2008. Harmonically, Panisello’s musical language incorporates strains of diatonic, chromatic, and pentatonic writing, which coexist in a sort of “unstable balance,” according to the notes to the recording. There is a sense of instability in the music, especially in the second set of etudes, which are most closely based on the aksak, an irregular rhythmic pattern found in the music of Turkey and the Balkans. Estudio No. 7, Aksaks I, is especially off-kilter in its rhythm, with jagged syncopations that seem to map a series of crazed dance steps. While Estudios Nos. 8 and 9 are slower and tamer, the whole set makes for an apropos segue into the wildly disordered world of Ligeti’s Étude No. 1, titled Désordre.
The first set of Panisello etudes works less well for me, mostly because the first three Estudios seem like déjà vu all over again. They all feature a series of descending chromatic runs and arpeggios that give them a vertiginous bombs-away feeling. One such excursion would be fine; two, maybe; but three variations on the same theme prove to be too much for me. Later etudes in the set are more interesting, including No. 5, which features independent rhythmic figures in the two hands, and No. 6, which is especially gnomic and fragmented, with tiny thematic cells that finally expand into longer and longer musical periods.
Ligeti’s expressed aim in his first book of etudes was to revisit the similar works of his musical forbears, as well as incorporate the constantly shifting polyrhythms he admired in the work of American composer Conlan Nancarrow—hence the wildly polyrhythmic Étude No. 1. But there are more influences in the Ligeti etudes, including folk music, canon and other polyphonic music, as well as Bartókian forays into polytonality and rhythmic ostinato. The Ligeti etudes (issued in three books between 1985 and 2001) seem more varied as a result and thus more satisfying as a listening experience on disc and, I would assume, in recital as well.
Pianist Dimitri Vassilakis, with his steely fingers and equally steely resolve, seems to be just the man for the job of bringing off this often grueling music. As a soloist with the ensemble intercontemporain, he clearly knows his way around contemporary music and in fact has won a Grand Prix du Disque for his recording Le Scorpion (2004). If the works on the current disc don’t always hold my attention or win my sentiments, that’s not his fault; in fact, his remarkably assured pianism is maybe the best reason to hear this recording.
— Lee Passarella