DANIIL TRIFONOV – MY AMERICAN STORY: North = Solo and Concerto works by GREEN/TATUM; GERSHWIN; COPLAND; YOUNG/EVANS; ADAMS; CORIGLIANO; GRUSIN; NEWMAN; BATES; CAGE – Daniil Trifonov, piano/ The Philadelphia Orchestra/ Yannick Nézet-Séguin – DG 486 5756 (2 CDs: 52:54; 51:59, Complete Content List Below) (10/04/24) [Distr. by Universal] ****: **:
Russian-born pianist Daniil Trifinov (b. 1991) embarks upon a personal journey of appreciation for the American musical mystique, given his having lived in the United States for half his life, and so assembling a “mosaic of repertoire” dear to his heart. Two major concertos brace the compilation, those by George Gershwin and Mason Bates, while the individual selections embrace diverse musical styles: jazz and swing, modernism, minimalism, and popular film soundtracks. This collection – My American Story North – will eventually find a complement in a second collection, My American Story South, that will embrace the music of Latin America.
Trifonov opts for a signature sentiment from jazz great Bill Evans’s (1929-1980) classic, “When I Fall in Love,” a lushly harmonized version of the original song by Hollywood’s Victor Young (1899-1958). Its sudden seizure of passion beyond the chromatic intimacy, almost by Debussy, provides what Trifonov calls “an authentic American sound.” He opens with a stride hit by Art Tatum (1909-1958), his arrangement of John W. Green’s “I Cover the Waterfront,” a splashy showpiece for the right hand in New Orleans style. The 1925 Concerto in F marks a notable development in Gershwin’s style after the immediate success of his Rhapsody in Blue. The jazz elements enjoy a spontaneity and freedom of impulse that does not feel superimposed upon a classical scheme of development. Conductor Nézet-Séguin dotes on the splashy, percussive contours of the orchestral tissue, even while indulging Gershwin’s luxuriant capacity for melody. Trifonov compares the piece to a film noir chase through the street of Chicago, though Woody Allen endeared the music of the bluesy Adagio movement, via his movie Manhattan, to New York City. If Trifonov does not pack the naturally suave style of Oscar Levant, his affection for this excellent amalgam of jazz and classical concert life shines through.
Trifonov rebels against type for his next selection, Aaron Copland’s austere, metallically harsh Piano Variations of 1930. Eschewing any sense of the Romantic ethos, Copland conceived a piece reliant on Boulanger and Stravinsky, touched by the Second Viennese School, a style would-be dedicatee Walter Gieseking labelled “crudely dissonant and severe.” The use of a 7-note row in strict permutations of minor seconds, major seconds, and ninth chords. The effect created imposes an aesthetic distance, and the line from W.B. Yeats, “a terrible beauty is born,” seems apt. Trifonov credits the work as “the most challenging to play” among his chosen pieces.
Trifonov concludes Disc One with a minimalist piece by John Adams, his 1977 China Gates. A series of pearly eighth notes cascade in the manner of gentle rain, tinged by pentatonic scales. A kind of perpetuum mobile ensues, delicate and obviously repetitive, but indicative of Nature’s beguiling contrasts of light and shade.
Disc Two begins with another study in minimalist principles: John Corigliano’s 1985 Fantasia on an Ostinato, conceived – for the Seventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition – as a meditative response to the second movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. The piece evolves by (obsessively) employing interlocking repetitions and chains of major/minor modalities. The texture remains bright, diaphanous, and exotically vibrant. Trifonov then segues into film music once more, Dave Grusin’s Memphis Stomp, written for the 1993 film based on John Grisham’s tense thriller The Firm. The story details attorney Tom Cruise’s dark disillusionment with an unethical law practice that permits no disloyalty to its profit motive. This Grusin piece rocks and rolls in Southern Country style, heavy on the bluesy cadences and jabbing syncopations. From the bitter parody of American life, Sam Mendes’ 1999 American Beauty, we have composer Thomas Newman’s main theme, with its nostalgic atmosphere that persists in the midst of the chaos of Kevin Spacy’s catastrophic family romance. Do we hear faint touches of Satie peeking though the haze?
Composer Mason Bates (b. 1977) created his 2022 Piano Concerto expressly for Daniil Trifonov, here in its world premiere recording. Each of its three movements pays homage to a distinct style in classical music: the first, a playful evocation of the Renaissance; the second, a poignant meditation between keyboard and orchestra in the Romantic tradition; the third, an eccentric excursion into rhythm, blues, and cinema. Movement I opens with shimmering figures from both Debussy and Hollywood. A rustic ,makes its presence known, rather glamorously energized. The progress becomes more exotic, incorporating first Latin rhythms, then tropes from rural folk music, then minimalist repetition. The mix intensifies, culminating in potent fanfares, bras and cymbals ablaze. Trifonov offers some meditative parlando to conclude the movement.
More shimmering gloss opens Movement II, a pedal point’s holding brass and timbrel effects in suspension. The Philadelphia brass enjoy their opportunity to shine, while Trifonov extends the introspective mood as it encounters Hollywood colors. The lack of a discernible melody, here replaced by pleasant kernels, reminds this listener of New Age music, a slightly edified notion of elevator riffs, here made epic by Rachmaninoff block chords. For sheer sonic homogeneity of tone, few ensembles can compete with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Attacca to Movement III, opening from soft ostinato percussion and immediately assuming a syncopated dance pattern. The pungent energy becomes much more indicative of American classical music, ostentatious in its whirling and percussive patterns. The sensation lies close to the impact that Prokofiev often brings to the concerto medium, only less distinctly imaginative. Again, Bates settles for pretty blurs of sound, on a par with Delius or Respighi for pleasantly lively, booming, non-threatening filler.
Trifonov concludes with a moment from America’s great musical iconoclast: John Cage (1912-1992). His 1952 New York City excursion 4’33” captures a ride from Columbus Circle to Central Park, a virtual candid-camera narrative. When I served on a panel at SUNY Binghamton who interviewed Cage, he made no distinction between “art” and “life,” denying the existence of objective reality. So, take with walk with Trifonov, eavesdrop; and if you follow my New York City inclinations, grab a slice of pizza, a knish, and a Dr. Brown Black Cherry soda.
—Gary Lemco
DANIIL TRIFONOV: MY AMERICAN STORY NORTH
GREEN/TATUM: I Cover the Waterfront;
GERSHWIN: Concerto in F;
COPLAND: Piano Variations;
YOUNG/EVANS: When I Fall in Love;
ADAMS: China Gates;
CORIGLIANO: Fantasia on an Ostinato;
GRUSIN: Memphis Stomp;
NEWMAN: American Beauty;
BATES: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra;
CAGE: 4’33”
