Cabinet of Curiosities
Delirium Musicum/Étienne Gara (violin)
rec. 2024/25, Zipper Concert Hall, The Colburn School, Los Angeles, USA
Reviewed as lossless download
Warner Classics 2173284463 [66]

In some imaginary (and fanciful) dictionary, looking up the word “eclectic” would offer up the definition “the album Cabinet of Curiosities”. Where else would one find Schubert rubbing shoulders with Philip Glass and Bernard Hermann, and Florence Price with Jean-Féry Rebel? Yet, as you will have seen by the summary on the homepage, somehow it seems to work.

The album’s success, I believe, derives, in part, from the intelligent sequencing of the various styles and moods of the fifteen pieces. This is exemplified in the opening and closing pieces, where the album begins with the energetic rhythms of a traditional Mediterranean piece, and closes gently and calmingly with one of Arvo Pärt’s lesser known works. The shower scene from Psycho is followed by Barber’s famous Adagio, providing a balm after the horror of the knife strikes; the two scenes from Psycho seem an entirely logical follow-on from the terror of Schubert’s Erlkönig.

As well put together as the programme is, it would be for nought if not supported by the performances, which are excellent. Delirium Musicum and Étienne Gara play very well; crisp and vital in the fast pieces, gentle and caressing in the slow (though their sound could not be described, even in the Barber Adagio, as warm).

I became aware of this album, released in October last year, when researching another album of Philip Glass music, featuring Anne Akiko Meyers (review), which also included Echorus. It was a disappointing reading, lacking energy; Delirium Musicum’s version is a distinct improvement, with so much more life (yes, Echorus is a slow piece, but it does need to have forward movement). By an odd coincidence, both recordings were made within a short space of time at Los Angeles’s Colburn School.

I won’t attempt to comment on each work, but there are no weak moments. The highlight is Danse macabre, which can be over-Romanticised and syrupy, but here is given the most energised performance I’ve heard, and the music responds accordingly. Of the unfamiliar works, Cactus-Yucca Scrub by American composer Gabriella Smith doesn’t greatly appeal to me with all its scurrying, arid activity, but I do accept it is a very clever picture in sound of the desert. The three movement mini-concerto Jindo Arirang by Korean composer Jisoo Lee is very appealing in its changing moods, but I can’t tell you anything else about it for reasons outlined in the paragraph below. Somehow, I’ve managed to miss the Florence Price bandwagon, but the Dvořákian slow movement of her first string quartet suggests to me that I should investigate her music further.

The booklet is one of those pointless ones which are a waste of ink and paper (if you have the physical CD), full of arty images and waffly text, stating the “bleeding obvious” (to quote Basil Fawlty) and the meaningless. It doesn’t even tell us anything about the ensemble (a photo shows they are all young) or its leader and artistic director Étienne Gara. Some Googling determined that he is French, and the ensemble, comprising musicians from ten different countries, is based in Los Angeles. It is a small string chamber orchestra with added percussion and electronic keyboards on some pieces; the latter is not especially obvious (which I suspect will be a relief to some reading this). The more important production value – sound quality – is excellent, the detail and spatial separation in Danse macabre as good as I’ve heard through my new speakers.

This is an intriguingly offbeat selection of music, given excellent performances.

David Barker

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Contents
Nicholas Roubanis (1880–1968)
Misirlou (after Traditional Eastern Mediterranean)
Erik Satie (1866–1925)
Gnossienne No.1 (arr. Gianluca Bersanetti)
Gabriella Smith (b.1991)
Desert Ecology V. Cactus-Yucca Scrub
Jean-Féry Rebel (1666–1747)
Les Élémens I. Le Cahos
Florence Price (1887–1953)
String Quartet in G II. Andante moderato
Philip Glass (b.1937)
Echorus
Étienne Gara, YuEun Kim solo violins
Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
Erlkönig D.328 (arr. Gianluca Bersanetti)
Bernard Herrmann (1911–1975)
Psycho: Prelude; The Murder
Samuel Barber (1910–1981)
Adagio for Strings Op.11
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
Danse macabre Op.40 (arr. Gianluca Bersanetti)
Jisoo Lee (b.1981)
Jindo Arirang
Arvo Pärt (b.1935)
Silouan’s Song