50 Jahre neue Musik in DarmstadtReview by: Rick AndersonNotes, Second Series, Vol. 65, No. 2 (Dec., 2008), p. 380Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27669861 .

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380 Notes, December 2008

large instrumental forces are wielded to

very powerful effect, and the surging or

chestral chords halfway through the

"Miserere mei Deus" section are especially

impressive (though the voices seem to be

fighting to be heard and could have been

mixed a bit more prominently). The second disc under consideration is

also a reissue, though sold at full price. However, the quality of the music is such

that it is hard to object, and one is inclined

rather simply to celebrate this recording's return to the retail marketplace at any

price. Though titled Fl?tenkonzerte it in fact

consists of four concertos, two sonatas

and a sinfonia, all sequenced so that the

chamber works alternate with the concertos

and break up the texture of the program

very nicely. Soloists Laurence Dean and

Christina Ahrens-Dean play with excep tional grace, as does the Hannover

Hofkapelle. Given the composer's relative

obscurity any new recording of Hasse com

positions is to be welcomed, but even if the

pieces presented were more familiar and

frequently recorded, this disc could confi

dently be recommended to any classical

collection.

50 Jahre neue Musik in Darmstadt.

Various composers and performers. Col Legno WWE 4CD 31893, 2008.

Recently reissued but still bearing its

original 1996 imprint date, this four-disc set

documents fifty years of performances at

the Internationale Ferienkurse f?r Neue Musik

in Darmstadt, an annual event that has be come something of a pilgrimage for stu

dents and composers of new music since its

inception in 1946. The performances se

lected for this multi-decade overview offer a

good variety of works by composers both

familiar and relatively obscure. Among the

usual suspects are Arnold Schoenberg, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and,

inevitably, John Cage. The latter's Varia

tions I is played with charming good humor

by the composer and David Tudor, and re

ceived by the audience with what sounds

like audible delight, but may in fact be

amused incredulity; Cage's appearance at

the 1958 event was hugely controversial.

Works by Luigi Nono (the unsettled but

texturally lovely Polifonica-Monodia-Ritmica) and Morton Feldman (the painstakingly

beautiful Durations 2) are included as well.

Selections from slightly less familiar com

posers include a lovely flute-and-tape work

by Bruno Maderna, a string quartet by Mario Garuti, and a quintet titled Treize

couleurs du soleil couchant by the French

spectralist composer Tristan Murail. As an

overview of world-class academic composi tion from the mid-twentieth century, this

box is invaluable; as a listening experience, it is . . . well, it is an overview of world-class

academic music from the mid-twentieth

century. With distance, it becomes more

and more apparent which of these emper ors were wearing clothes and which were

not; Michael von Biel's Quartet 2 offers a

useful and technically interesting catalog of

extended string techniques, but little to en

courage actual musical engagement in the

listener, whereas G?nther Becker's Streich

quartett No. 1 is both texturally adventurous

and aurally challenging and musically com

pelling at the same time?and while even

today it would probably be considered be

side the point to criticize the music of

Pierre Boulez on grounds of listenability, one could be perhaps be forgiven for ask

ing whether the Livre pour quatuor III

performed here is valued chiefly for its dif

ficulty, and if so, why that should be re

garded as intrinsically valuable in the

absence of greater musical interest. The

quality of the performances on these discs

is consistently quite high, while the sound

quality is more variable?an understand

able and acceptable limitation given the

context of the recordings, and also in light of the added dimension provided by audi ence reaction in several cases. Every library

with a collecting interest in twentieth

century composition should own this set.

Kyle Gann. Private Dances. Sarah

Cahill; Da Capo Chamber Players; Bernard Gann. New Albion NA137,

2007.

It is difficult to put one's finger on ex

actly what it is that makes Kyle Gann's mu

sic so affecting. This set of five works, three

for piano solo (played by Sarah Cahill), one for a quintet of winds, cello and piano, and one for a quintet of winds, sampling

keyboards and fretless electric bass, is con

sistently quiet in mood, but is never exactly either contemplative or somber. The only

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