Composer: Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
Performer: Vittorio Ceccanti, Contempoartensemble
Conductor: Mauro Ceccanti
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Naxos
Catalogue: 8572712
Release: 2011
Size: 227 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Linguae Ignis
Vesalii icones
02. I. The Agony in the Garden
03. II. The Betrayal of Judas
04. III. Christ and Pilate
05. IV. The Flagellation
06. V. Christ Condemned to Death
07. VI. The Mocking of Christ
08. VII. Christ Receives the Cross
09. VIII. St Veronica Wipes His Face
10. IX. Christ Prepared for Death
11. X. Christ Nailed to the Cross
12. XI. The Death of Christ
13. XII. The Descent from the Cross
14. XIII. The Entombment of Christ
15. XIV. The Resurrection – Antichrist
16. Fantasia
Fantasia on a Ground and 2 Pavans
17. Pavan No. 1: Quite slow (After Purcell)
18. Pavan No. 2: Quickly (After Purcell)
A new disc of instrumental works from the Master of the Queen’s Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.
Linguae Ignis is an instrumental motet for cello and ensemble, and was premièred in 2002 by the forces that perform it on this disc. This beautiful, elegiac work sees Maxwell Davies entwining two Pentecostal Plainchants around each other, and gradually generating rich dance patterns, to which the solo cello responds with eloquent reserve.
Dating from much earlier, Vesalii Icones again has a strong rôle for solo cello, and also a solo dancer. It’s a set of fourteen dances, based on illustrations by Vesalius, that play out the Stations of the Cross in music of profound ritualistic expression. By contrast the Fantasia and Two Pavans provide a sardonic and provocative gloss on Purcell.
This Naxos release features two works by Peter Maxwell Davies for solo cello and ensemble, Vesalii Icones from 1969 and Lingua Ignis from 2002. The first was written for the London-based Pierrot Ensemble (later renamed the Fires of London) that Maxwell Davies co-directed with Harrison Birtwistle during what was probably the most iconoclastic period of his generally iconoclastic career. Similar in musical style to Eight Songs for a Mad King, written the same year, Vesalii Icones uses a full bag of modernist techniques heavily sprinkled with interjections of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music, as well as enough popular modern dances like the foxtrot to keep the listener constantly off guard. The work is a theater piece and includes a dancer and projections of images of anatomical drawings by Vesalius. The composer insists that the work is not intended to be sacrilegious, but it is structured around the 14 Stations of the Cross, and it’s difficult not to hear the startling musical contradictions of the liturgical meanings as ironic. The piece may not have the same shock value as it did at the time of its premiere, but it’s a fascinating example of using baffling musical disjunctions to create a potent dramatic experience. Fantasia on a Ground and Two Pavans, realization for instrumental ensemble after Henry Purcell was written a year earlier and uses similar musical languages to similar effect. The Ground is easily recognizable as Purcell, but kept slightly off kilter with decorations of “wrong notes.” The pavans, though, have a comic out-of-tune dance hall quality that pretty much obscures the Purcell. Maxwell Davies dedicated Linguae Ignis (Tongues of Fire) to the performers who play it here, cellist Vittorio Ceccanti and conductor Mauro Ceccanti. Here, too, he draws on music of the past, in this case plainchant, but it is thoroughly integrated into the fabric of the music. It’s a shapely and lovely piece, mostly contemplative in mood. Vittorio plays with warmth and sensitivity, and tends to downplay the contrasts of Vesalii Icones, but Mauro, leading Contempoartensemble, doesn’t shy away from letting Maxwell Davies’ zany stylistic leaps and overlaps make the maximum impact. Naxos’ sound is clean, vivid, and well-balanced.