A very rewarding, if difficult, release
G.D. | Norway | 04/23/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Music hardly comes more difficult than this. Ferneyhough's music is definitely rooted in the most complex and forbidding of avant-garde styles, but also draws much inspiration from the rhythmic and harmonic complexity and intricacy of ars nova and ars subtilior. This is probably why his music is so rarely heard, which presumably only adds to the difficulty of appreciateing it properly. Being, however, of the firm conviction that music shouldn't necessarily be easy, the fact that music requires concentration and effort on the part of the listener is no indication that it lacks quality or merit. But of course, with complexity also comes a certain duty to make the end results really worth the effort. Does Ferneyhough's music satisfy that criterion?
In general: yes. The works on this disc date from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Terrain, for violin and ensemble, is a work where the soloist, here convincingly (even overwhelmingly convincingly) taken by Irvine Arditti, is set up in competition against the ensemble. But it is not a generally aggressive work - rather, the busy but often fragile, almost faint textures, wonderfully rendered by the Asko Ensemble, create fleeting tensions and resolutions with the scurrying whispers and shimmers of the soloist. It is a very compelling work if given the concentration and listening efforts it needs. But even stronger is the fourth quartet with soprano, which is filled with magical touches and ideas such as the strange, slithering and soaring textures of the almost scherzo-like third movement. Most striking however, is perhaps the long soprano cadenza leading up to a stirring movement when the strings reenter. Again, this is definitely not music for casual listening, but that it rewards the efforts required is not in doubt.
I was less taken, however, with the solo pieces. I have no qualms about Magnus Andersson's playing of the guitar pieces, but I at least was unable to get anything out of them. The same holds for the double-bass works (and I keep it entirely open that I am to blame), which seem meandering and relatively dull even if they are performed with conviction and astounding technical mastery. Still, this is a very rewarding release that can be strongly recommended to adventurous listeners who don't mind a challenge."
