JOSÉ MANUEL LÓPEZ LÓPEZ: Concierto para piano y orquestra; Concierto para violín y orquestra; Movimientos para dos pianos y orquestra – Alberto Rosado and Juan Carlos Garvayo, piano / Ernst Kovacic, violin / Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin /Johannes Kalitzke – Kairos 0013022KAI [Distr. by Allegro], 49:03 **:
IRCAM-trained Spanish composer López López (born 1956) takes us back to that ruggedly individualistic period of the late 50s and early 60s, when composers said, in effect, the public be damned; I’m writing for other composers. Those tough highly- principled days when composers such as Luigi Nono, Pierre Boulez, Iannis Xenakis, et al. wrote works that just about nobody (other composers always excepted) listens to today.
Here, for instance, is López López’s description of his Piano Concerto:
This work, a grand polyphony of particles, stands for a new vision of a musical event and is based on the pioneering ideas of Horacio Vaggione. Within this polyphony are manifested conditions of time and energy which exist in parallel and are given treatment beyond the traditional notions of harmony, counterpoint, rhythm, orchestration, etc., building upon today’s knowledge of sound, the widely known techniques of the acoustic instruments, and spatialization, as well as of form and micro-form, important for the work’s creation are the various ways of handling and preparing the solo piano. They find their direct correlate in the handling of the orchestra, and—in the piano’s case—are both fixed and mobile. Fixed preparation is an issue primarily at the beginning of the concert, when the sound in the piano’s high register is altered to such an extent that all resonance is eliminated. The resulting percussive sounds are very similar to those produced by the string players, plucking their strings behind the bridge with plectrums, creating a flow of particles coming from the most diverse locations within the orchestral space.”
I quote the liner notes at length to illustrate that this is clearly not music for the great unwashed (such as me). In order to fully appreciate the Piano Concerto, you must have an understanding of the “known techniques of acoustic instruments,” whatever that implies, and be adventurous enough to abandon “the traditional notions of harmony, counterpoint, rhythm, orchestration, etc.” Are you ready? If not, you’re probably not on the same page as the pioneering López López. But not to worry. I’m not there yet either, though I’m trying. [But hey, how about that spatialization? Sounds like just the thing for surround sound fans!…Ed.]
Actually, the prepared piano vs. orchestra treatment in the Piano Concerto is interesting. It’s notable how the choked plunk-plunking of the prepared piano is faithfully replicated in the pizzicato of the orchestral strings and tintinnabulation of the high percussion. This is, indeed, a strange and briefly intriguing sound world. The expanding tonal palette that López López applies is also interesting. The work actually does unfold and bloom, always within the constraints imposed by a composer more interested in the exploitation of sound than in organic compositional growth.
For me, the Violin Concerto is too severe an experiment in sound. In the composer’s words, “the essence of this composition. . . lies in the continuity of the orchestra as well as in an overtone colouration which is created via the spectral analysis of acoustic instruments and from physical models and algorithms derived from acoustics.”
Algorithms, huh? I work every day with computer programmers who know algorithms inside and out but who have no desire to compose music. Mr. López López, would you like to program? Maybe I have a job for you, if you’re looking for one.
The bottom line? I found the Piano Concerto fitfully interesting though I lose interest well before it’s over. I was more taken with the Movimientos, my favorite piece on this recording (coming in at an economical thirteen minutes). The work’s driving ostinatos and syncopations, its use of the instruments percussively yet in entirely traditional ways, appeal even if you know nothing about “hypothetical Fournier synthesis.”
The performances all seem fine to me. The recording is claustrophobic, however, especially that of the soloists, who operate in an unreal boxed-in acoustic. At less than fifty minutes, the timing is short, but I’m not sure that more López López would improve my take on the CD. For most listeners, this is will be a pass.
— Lee Passarella
