Your guide to classical music online

First Rate Harrison from Fain, Boriskin, and the PostClassical Ensemble

David Hurwitz

Artistic Quality:

Sound Quality:

All of this music has been recorded before successfully, but this particular compilation works very well as a unified program, while the performances are second to none. Harrison’s Violin Concerto (really Concerto for Violin and Percussion) is a major masterpiece. Harmonically inspired by Berg, in that the violin line is what you might call “atonal-lyrical,” the opposition of a single solo cantabile instrument against the mass of unpitched percussion creates a distinctive expressive contrast unique in the instrumental literature. The mood is neither Asian nor Western avant-garde, but somehow a world unto itself, and utterly compelling.

Tim Fain plays a very passionate solo violin. Close miking, it sounds to me, exaggerates his ample vibrato to a degree, and prevents him from achieving a true pianissimo, but the balances still reveal every detail of the timbrally fascinating accompaniment, and the intensity is unrelenting. He’s more naturally pitted against the piano in the Grand Duo, a five-movement suite that includes one of Harrison’s signature “Stampedes”, along with a round, an air, and a very un-Polish concluding polka. Pianist Michael Boriskin gives an excellent account of himself as Fain’s partner. Double Music, for percussion, is a collaborative work with John Cage. It’s pretty well known in modern music circles, and this performance by the PostClassical Ensemble revels in its alluring sounds and infuriatingly repetitive rhythms. You’ll either love it or hate it–or perhaps a little of both.

Harrison was a composer of great imagination and inventiveness. His best work captures a sense of wonder and fantasy that’s very much in evidence here. Give it a shot.


Recording Details:

Reference Recording: None

  • HARRISON, LOU:
    Violin Concerto (for violin and percussion); Grand Duo; Double Music (with John Cage)
  • Record Label: Naxos - 8.559825
  • Medium: CD

Search Music Reviews

Search Sponsor

  • Insider Reviews only
  • Click here for Search Tips

Visit Our Merchandise Store

Visit Store
  • Ideally Cast Met Revival of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette
    Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, NY; March 19, 2024—The Met has revived Bartlett Sher’s 1967 production of Gounod’s R&J hot on the heels of its
  • An Ozawa Story, November, 1969
    Much has justifiably been written regarding Seiji Ozawa’s extraordinary abilities and achievements as a conductor, and similarly about his generosity, graciousness, and sense of humor
  • Arvo Pärt’s Passio At St. John The Divine
    Cathedral of St John the Divine, New York, NY; January 26, 2024—When one thinks of musical settings of Christ’s Passion, one normally thinks of the