Elena Kats-Chernin (b. 1957)
Eliza’s Aria from the Wild Swans (2002)
Ancient Letters for piano and orchestra (2017)
Piano Concerto No. 3 Lebewohl (2018)
Prelude Machine (2019)
Bach Prelude (2010)
1720 (2024)
Tamara-Anna Cislowska (piano)
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra/Johannes Fritzsch
rec. 2019, Eugene Goossens Hall, Sydney; 2024, Federation Concert Hall, Hobart, Australia
ABC Classic ABCL0118D [62]
Elena Kats-Chernin is one of Australia’s most popular composers. In the UK, this is largely due to the use of Eliza’s Aria from the ballet The Wild Swans, which was used in a long running TV advert for a bank. The disc begins with a rather unappealingly dry version of that work arranged for piano and orchestra. That aside, her accessible, approachable music has endeared her to audiences worldwide, and she has received numerous commissions internationally.
Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, she studied at the Sobinov Conservatory in Yaroslavl, and then at Moscow’s Gnessin Academy of Music. But, in 1975 at the age of seventeen, she and her family emigrated to Sydney, Australia. There she continued her training at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where she became the first graduate to be granted a double degree as pianist and composer. Graduate study was in Germany with Helmut Lachenmann in Hanover from 1980 to 1982 and where she then lived for almost fourteen years. There she wrote many works for theatre and dance, and dance elements are a key feature of her music. In 1994 she moved back to Australia where she embedded herself into the musical life of the country.
Her music eschews the radical modernism of so much contemporary music and in it can be found elements of minimalism, dance, folk and Baroque music. Indeed, it is folk and Baroque which influence the works on this CD.
The Ancient Letters recorded here is an arrangement for piano and orchestra of a work written originally for amplified harpsichord and orchestra. It was inspired by reading the first known documents of the Sogdian people who lived across what is today Uzbekistan. The five letters, written in about 312 CE, were rediscovered in 1907, and they offer a glimpse into the lives of Sogdian merchants and their families traveling the Silk Road.
“Tiger Cub” is a portrait of a feisty woman called Tiger Cub or Mewnai, who has not seen or heard of her husband for three years. That said it is a surprisingly energetic and hopeful sounding movement constructed around immediately appealing melodic material and colourful orchestration. The percussion includes a part for ‘pots and pans’ who add an intriguing touch of domesticity to the proceedings. The swoops and slides on the strings are reminiscent of the Uzbek Tanbun and Qanun.
Next “Musk Trade” conjures up the aromatic world of musk using harp and celeste alongside the piano in melodies coloured in non-western scales. The ensuing fast section “Trade “illustrates the traders hurriedly making last minute deals before the end of daily trading. It is a brilliant scherzo type movement which anyone familiar with Alan Hovhaness’s music will recognise.
“Goodbye Samarkand” pictures the ancient, heat-swamped city in which the travelling merchants realise that they are many months away from their homes and may never return. The composer who has written a number of TV and film scores brings that experience to bear in this colourful finale. It is very enjoyable and Tamara- Anna Cislowska is a convincing advocate. However, I keep thinking I would like to hear it in its original format, as the sound of the harpsichord would add greater depth and nuance to the score.
Kats-Chernin’s Piano Concerto Nos 1 and 2 were written quickly after each other in 2000 and 2001, this Piano Concerto No. 3 Lebewohl (Farewell) appeared sixteen years later. It was inspired by the year 1720 the year in which JS Bach’s wife of 12 years, Maria Barbara, died and was buried while he was away from home. The concerto attempts to explore Bach’s feelings at that time and acts as a tribute to his largely forgotten wife of which little is known.
The composer tells us that “the five movements roughly follow the stages of bereavement: shock and denial, pain and guilt, anger and bargaining, reflection and loneliness, acceptance and reconstruction. Each movement is prefaced by a quote from one of Bach’s Cantatas from the period.” If that all sounds too cerebral and dark the concerto sounds Iike a lively and moving meditation on loss. The first movement marked agitato, is a violently disturbing portrayal of the Bach’s initial mood at hearing the news of his wife’s death. I am sure I heard reminiscences of Hermann’s score for Hitchcock’s film Vertigo. As that film deals with obsession, it seems a possibility. The occasional note cluster from the piano and the inclusion of log drum, brake drum and stones in the percussion make it clear we are not in the 1720s! The nightmare ends with the mournful sounding of the tubular bells which seem to shock JS into reality. That reality is the tragic outpourings of the second movement. It begins with a darkly moving piano chorale whose opening notes, first rising, then falling, provide the basis for the movement to which are added more Bernard Hermann like sounds, first from the strings and then wind and percussion. Built from the simplest of materials it is a masterclass in construction and builds to an overwhelming climax with romantic sweeps from the piano. Ms. Cislowska colours the simple, repetitive material immaculately. The third movement is a somewhat disturbing, occasionally violent, scherzo with a classically romantic clash of wills between piano and orchestra. Motoric rhythms broken up by perkier passages portray perhaps a not always harmonious home environment for the Bachs and their four living children. The fourth movement is an exquisite depiction of sorrow. It is based around Kats-Chernin’s piano work Eggshell, from the collection Unsent Letters, meditations on Erik Satie published in 2017. To the melancholy material of the original piano work is added an emotionally rich accompaniment from the strings joined sensitively by the wind for a final benison. The finale is fleetfooted and cathartic. Fast trilling passages on the piano accompany a hymn like tune from the brass. The wind and strings give added colour, and the overall impression is of something, maybe Maria’s soul, breaking free. It builds and builds to a snazzy climax in which the piano is given the option to add more florid chordal passages.
The work as a whole is very impressive. The piano writing and the scoring are exemplary, but what I find most fascinating is that in a work created in homage to Johann and Maria Bach there is no Baroque pastiche. The composer talks about references to keys which have significance for Bach (D and C# minor if you are interested), but I could not detect any quotations. The composer has channelled her love of Bach and fascination with his wife and her death into a work that is wholly her own.
However, Baroque music does colour, in quite different ways, the three solo piano works which end the disc. The first Prelude Machine is an arrangement of a 2019 work for small ensemble which, in its spiky, perkiness, works very well on piano. The quote from the C minor Prelude of Book 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier is like the welcome return of an old friend. The second is called Bach Study in the liner notes and Bach Prelude on the cover; her publishers list it as the former, so I’ll go with that. It was written for Angela Hewitt who gave the first performance at The Wigmore Hall. The composer calls it “a reflection on Bach’s most famous Cello Suite in G major”. It may have been inspired by that work, but it is quite different being mainly lively and energetic, with a darker middle section. There are Bachian keyboard touches in the arpeggios and towards the end an obvious quotation from the original work. It is a really enjoyable reinvention of Bach without descending into mere pastiche. The last work 1720 was written for this album and in a dark B minor reflects on Maria Barbara Bach and makes a very impressive end to a very impressive album.
Tamara-Anna Cislowska has had a long association with this composer and gives what should be considered definitive performances. The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra under Johannes Fritzsch are wonderfully adroit companions. The programme notes highlight the inspirations for all the works and what for me is so successful is that there is no pastiche writing. At this stage in her career, with numerous works to her credit, the composer has synthesised all of her influences – and she bravely admits to many – into an instantly recognisable and appealing sound world all of her own. Apart from the arrangement of Eliza’s Aria, I happily recommend the rest of the disc unreservedly.
Paul RW Jackson
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