EM Records is delighted to present ‘Exploring
Spirit’, a disc the central concept of which is the profoundly
transformative effect of a questioning, explorative treatment of musical
material and the sense of vividness and invigoration that such an approach can
bring. The recording is dedicated to the memory of Robert Luck, father of the
violinist on the disc, who died the day before the recording sessions began, and
whose life personified the questing outlook that ‘Exploring Spirit’
celebrates.
The disc opens with Peter Maxwell Davies’s
‘Sonata for Violin Alone’, a set of 22 variations on a wide-ranging
and richly contrasted theme, different variations each exploring certain aspects
of the work’s opening minutes. It is followed by the ‘Fantasia on
Yorkshire Folk Tunes’ by Richard Pantcheff, a work which uses six folk
melodies as its basis, elaborating them in a way that presents them in a new
context whilst maintaining their sense of location and identity. These are not
simple harmonisations, but arrangements which emphasise the many different
facets of the tunes and their words.
The same composer’s ‘Introduction and
Allegro’ for violin and cello essentially concerns itself with the
interaction of the two instruments’ thematic material, the (occasional)
finding of common ground, but also vigorous disagreement. By contrast, the
nature of the dialogue between the two instruments in Pantcheff’s
‘Introduction and Allegro no.2" for two violins is rather different from
that heard in the first: in this instance, both are recalling past events or
experiences, but here they find unity of purpose and finally a sense of mutual
support.
Alan Gibbs’s ‘Enigma Duet’ for Violin and
Cello forms a quirkier and more whimsical conclusion to the disc. Written to
celebrate the fiftieth wedding anniversary of two close friends of the composer,
it takes as its premise Nemorino’s aria ‘Una furtiva lagrima’
from Donzetti’s ‘L’elisir d’amore’ but cloaks it
in a disguise of near-serialism. The instruments’ playful exploration of
this theme, the mischievous pleasure they take in transforming and punning on
its intervals and contours, and the delight they take in contrasts of dynamic,
tessitura and colour make this a wonderfully sparkling close to a recording that
speaks of a special and unique quality of the human condition.