Milestones
Lera Auerbach (b. 1973)
Violin Concerto No.1 (2003)
Errollyn Wallen (b. 1958)
Violin Concerto (2024)
Lora Kvint (b.1953)
‘Odyssey’ Rhapsody for violin and piano (2023)
Florence Price (1887-1953)
Adoration (1951)
Philippe Quint (violin)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Andrew Litton
rec. 2024, Glasgow, UK; Skillman Music Studio, New York City
Pentatone PTC5187408 [62]
Three premiere recordings and a popular encore add up to much listening pleasure. Violinist Philippe Quint is at the centre: the main pieces were composed for him. When there are so many accounts of violin repertoire staples on disc, it is encouraging to find new music, all by women composers, that deserve attention. Furthermore, the performances are authoritative are exceptionally well played and recorded.
Lera Auerbach’s music had impressed me greatly; that includes the Piano Trios (review) and Preludes for Violin and Piano (review). Auerbach, Russian-Jewish by birth, moved to New York in 1991 to pursue a music career. She graduated from Juilliard with degrees in composition and piano, and has not looked back since. She is already quite prolific. The Violin Concerto on this disc is the first of four she has written, but the only recorded. If the others are of similar quality, I hope they appear on disc soon.
The four-movement Violin Concerto No.1 has a Russian darkness and desolation, alleviated by passages of grotesque, sardonic humour. The work is scored for woodwinds, horns and strings, plus a whole battery of percussion: triangle, whistle, flexatone, bells (including temple bells), cymbals (including antique cymbals), tam-tam, glockenspiel, xylophone, vibraphone, musical saw, celesta, piano, harp and timpani. Quint premiered the concerto in Los Angeles in 2004, so it waited twenty years to be recorded.
The first movement, marked Grandioso, begins with loud orchestral chords. Auerbach’s booklet notes describe them as apocalyptic, and as “Deathclusters”. When the violin enters, accompanied by woodwinds, the music is quiet and mysterious. As the tempo increases, the music becomes a danse macabre with creepy and rather cinematic themes before concluding powerfully with dense orchestration and pounding timpani. The second movement is a very creepy scherzo. The solo violin plays pizzicato in waltz rhythm, accompanied by the flexatone or the musical saw, both with that weird, shimmering glissando sound. The contrabassoon growls underneath with grotesque humour.
Auerbach calls the contrasting third movement, Andante religioso, a “prayer in the form of a passacaglia based on the E-flat major scale”. It is clearly more lyrical than the first two movements, though it builds to a tumultuous, angry orchestral passage before becoming quiet once again. The solo violin’s sad, even tragic tune contrasts with the violent orchestral outbursts. The movement ends quietly and pensively with chimes in the background.
All comes to life in the finale, a rondo and the work’s longest movement, with a memorable, rhythmic theme by the orchestra and accompanying violin. Auerbach calls this “a fiery dance of life and death”. There is much variety, including a haunting flute solo and a violin cadenza. The piece concludes with vehement orchestral chords reminiscent of the first movement. Quint and the RSNO under Andrew Litton deliver a persuasive account. I will be revisiting this work and this recording in future.
The other major work here is Errollyn Wallen’s Violin Concerto. Belize-born Wallen has been the Master of the King’s Music since 2024. I was only familiar with her tone poem Mighty River with its references to spirituals, which I find very attractive. While the Violin Concerto is also compelling in parts, I have some difficulty with its structure; I feel that the first movement rambles a bit. The concerto includes biographical material from Quint’s life that Wallen cites in the notes: “The listener will hear in the first movement music which triggered the memory of the sound of church bells heard by Philippe as a child in the Soviet Union and, in the second movement, a lullaby, ‘Shlof Mayn Fegele’ sung to the young Philippe by his grandfather. The third and final movement is playful and optimistic—evoking the welcome of a new life in America.”
After the first two minutes, the opening movement marked Slow and mysterious is anything but. It begins well with the sound of church bells and a brass chorale followed by flute and the solo violin. There is much heavy brass and energetic, even violent music, and a virtuosic violin part. There follows a Lamenting slow movement. The music is rather sad and darker than that of the preceding movement. It contains a poignant harp solo, while the violin plays a pensive and melancholy tune. The movement becomes dissonant, and ends on a bitonal chord. The finale, marked Cheeky and lively,bursts forth from the full orchestra. The violin part is both plucked and bowed. The music contains jazzy passages, and in general the mood is lighter and more joyous than before. A violin cadenza is accompanied later by the harp. The concerto concludes with a fortissimo pluck on the violin followed by the orchestra. While I like individual ideas, the work does not hold my attention to the degree that Auerbach’s concerto does. Perhaps more exposure to it will change my opinion. In any case, Quint and the orchestra could hardly be bettered.
Lora Kvint, Philippe Quint’s mother, is a Soviet-born composer. She has made “significant contributions to symphonic repertoire, musical theater, opera, film and TV” according to the liner notes. (Her name was new to me.) When she was a child, her favorite book was Myths of Ancient Greece. It influenced her ‘Odyssey’ Rhapsody for violin and piano, a ten-minute accomplished piece. The piano’s role is more than accompaniment. There is a long introduction before the violin enters on an urgent theme that nevertheless becomes lyrical. The work is songful and not atonal, but not traditionally melodic either. Towards the end it becomes fast, rhythmic and folkish. It concludes decisively on a piano and violin chord. Conductor Andrew Litton accompanies Quint on the piano, demonstrating his skills as pianist.
Florence Price’s Adoration,originally for organ, here in a violin/piano version, completes the programme as a kind of encore. Much simpler than the other works, it is romantic and soothing—a lovely little song. Quint employs prominent portamento, as befits the music. They choose a quicker tempo than in the other performances I have heard, but that does no harm to the piece. It just keeps it flowing nicely.
Not everything on this Milestones album is of equal quality, but there is much good music here. I shall return to it first for Auerbach’s concerto. Quint has dazzling technique and refulgent tone. The recorded sound and production values leave little to be desired. The personal notes by the composers are an additional attraction, though more information about them and the works presented would have been helpful.
Leslie Wright
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