GRAHAM FITKIN: “Circuit” = Circuit for 2 pianos & orchestra; T1, T2 & White for 2 pianos; Relent, Carnal, From Yellow to Yellow & Furniture for solo piano – Noriko Ogawa & Kathryn Stott, duo-pianists/Tokyo Symphony Orchestra/Naoto Otomo – BIS multichannel SACD-1517, 68:36 [Distr. by Qualiton] ****:
A very aptly-named album title. British composer Fitkin (born in 1963) has created a wide-ranging series of works over the past two decades, including for electronics and audio manipulation. He has mentioned that some of his influences include Stravinsky, Miles Davis, Webern, Steve Reich, Frank Sinatra and The Pet Shop Boys. But in all his explorations with classical form he has always concentrated on the piano, and often on two and even many more pianos. He studied in Amsterdam with Louis Andriessen and his style has been called post-minimalist. All the works on this SACD remind me of the sonic equivalent of little electrons rushing around a circuit, bumping into one another, and racing like Las Vegas chase lights. The added clarity of the SACD reproduction is very appropriate to this music, although BIS’s sonics are usually not quite up to the high level of some of the other SACD labels.
So the title of the 20-minute 2-piano concerto that opens the disc becomes the overall title. The exuberant work shows both the percussive and lyrical sides of Fitkin’s busy and usually nervous style. The grid-like plan of the concerto further supports the electronic circuit model. Five separate musical blocks, each with their own system and rules, are juxtaposed in the piece. Like most single-movement concertos, it still has its own conflated three-movement shape. In the middle of the concerto is a fascinating rapid-fire exchange between the two pianos – very spatial-sounding if you’re sitting in the sweet spot; something like a frenzied ping-pong match with many balls all at once. The final portion of the work adds a jazzy touch to the exchanges between the two keyboards.
The solo pieces for one and two pianos are interspersed on the rest of the program. The percussive side of the piano is paramount in most of them. From Yellow to Yellow is the only departure, having a more gentle tone. Relent is a searching, nervous ostinato in both the treble and bass at the start. It’s not very tonal but not really atonal either. One would expect the detailed complexity of most of the music, with its machine gun-like passages, to be off-putting, but it actually adds to the excitement and interest. Carnal also has a nervous pace, combined with a sort of threatening character. The short piece for two pianos T2 makes a great wind up for the SACD with some pauses, and some longer-held chords on one of the pianos while the other freaks out over it. Plus it swings.
— John Sunier
