STRAVINSKY: Jeu de Cartes; Agon; Orpheus – BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/ Ilan Volkov – Hyperion

by | Sep 13, 2009 | Classical CD Reviews | 0 comments

STRAVINSKY: Jeu de Cartes; Agon; Orpheus – BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/ Ilan Volkov – Hyperion CDA67698, 72:45 [Distr. by Harmonia mundi] ****:

Ilan Volkov is Principle Guest Conductor of the BBC Scottish Orchestra, and he obviously relishes the ballet scores of Stravinsky. The 1936 “plotless” ballet Jeu de Cartes ostensibly describes the high cards from a poker game, the Joker perhaps the principal because of his capacity to be a wild card, any other desirable card.  In the second Deal four queens appear; in the Third Deal we experience a battle between Spades and Hearts, quoting from Rossini’s The Barber of Seville Overture. The severe neo-classically jagged lines evolve with nimble grace from the BBC, especially in the woodwinds, Stravinsky’s specialty.  Some of the writing, in its blaring pomp, sounds like a modern transposition of Handel, at least until the wry scale patterns resume.

Agon (1957) marks Stravinsky’s serious encounter with 12-tone serialism, which makes its presence felt in the Coda to the galliard, in which Stravinsky models the solo violin part (Elizabeth Layton) after Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto. The “agon” or struggle lies in the metric and tonal clashes and confrontations, while 12 dances, eight female and four male, move in fearful asymmetries according to the choreography of George Balanchine.  Volkov elicits diaphanous, knife-like clarity from his BBC constituents, often playing with cool cerebral detachment. Abstract fleeting sound clusters follow one another; and though given titles from the neo-classical or romantic age, the dance forms little resemble their antique counterparts, no more than Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase resembles one’s sexy aunt. The few allusions–like the duet in canon a 5 by mandolin and harp in the galliard–pay homage to Schoenberg rather than Bach. If the tenor of this music is “experimental,” then Volkov’s forces embrace these aural audacities with penetrating fervor.

Orpheus (1948) takes its inspiration from Lincoln Kirsten as well as from Greek mythology, offering us three extended scenes or tableaux in the life, death, and apotheosis of the lyric personage. Like the “white ballet” Apollo, Orpheus remains static and austere in tone, opening with a lament in muted colors, as Orpheus grieves for Eurydice. A jazzy violin solo with flute invites us to the Air de danse, sounding much like an angular improvisation. The Angel of Death enters and leads Orpheus to Hades, despite subdued protests from the Furies. The extended Second Scene pulsates with ostinati and slashing string chords against punctuations from the brass, eventually to be  quelled by Orpheus’ lyre. The music becomes–in the Interlude–a series of concertante ensembles for various combinations, the figurations small repetitive colors without melodic substance. The muted cello might signify Orpheus’ blindfold, insuring his faithful delivery of Eurydice from the (polyphonic) maze of the Underworld. But Orpheus succumbs to temptation and rips the blindfold from his eyes and causes Eurydice‘s death–and invokes a great silence from the orchestra. Despite the Spartan textures and noble austerity of the figures, a tragic dignity manages to exert itself. The Maenads attack Orpheus, and his dismemberment leads to his three-minute Apotheosis whose musical means suggest a Venetian motet.

–Gary Lemco

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