Non Profit Music specializes in contemporary tonal music, and that’s exactly what we find on this very enjoyable CD. As a “concept” album it works unusually well, much better than most of its type. The Piazzolla piece is quite well known; it’s performed here in the arrangement for solo violin and chamber orchestra made for Gidon Kremer, but it has to be said that conductor/violinist Ara Malikian plays the piece better than Kremer did, with more guts in the hard-driving passages and sweeter tone in the lyrical episodes. Equally substantial is Joan Valent’s Four Seasons in Mallorca. The style is somewhat minimalist, though with more variable harmony, some atmospheric percussion effects, and a lovely melody or two (particularly in “Summer”, with its evocative pizzicato accompaniment). It’s a fine work, well worth getting to know.
Jorge Grundman’s Four Sad Seasons Over Madrid is effectively a lengthy concert aria setting four poems about a woman’s coming to grips over the course of a year with the death of her lover. The first three “seasons” (summer, autumn, and winter) flow together, while the tempo increases to create a natural climax in “spring”. The poems are set in English, and I will give the performers the benefit of the doubt where the printed text looks a bit, uh, strange grammatically (i.e. “leaved” rather than “left” in the last poem). The idiom is unashamedly sentimental and cinematic in the same way that, say, Malcolm Arnold is in the slow movement of his Fifth symphony, and the scoring for strings and piano is very effective. Best of all, soprano Susana Cordón offers a really excellent account of the solo part–remarkably good diction, excellent intonation, and lovely timbre in all registers.
The whimsically-named Non Profit Chamber Orchestra is obviously a “pick-up” ensemble, but a very good one nonetheless. The group plays excellently for Ara Malikian, and the SACD multi-sonics are lifelike, warm, and well-balanced. This production really does showcase the ongoing vitality of traditionally tonal music, and it repays repeated listening. Very appealing indeed. [2/2/2010]
