The poetic title of this CD conceals an attractive anthology of 20th century piano music, continuously balanced between East and West and cleverly presented by Peter Serkin. Anton Webern’s elusive Variations and Stefan Wolpe’s robust Toccata, delicate Pastorale, witty Rag-Caprice, and abstract Form IV–Broken Sequences collect many of the tendencies and influences at work in Western music of the first half of the century, including dodecaphonism, atonalism, diatonism, and jazz. With its primitive violence, elementary rhythms, and big splashes of color, Olivier Messiaen’s Cantéyodjâya at the middle of the century opens the doors to a completely different universe, inspired by Oriental scales and moods.
Toru Takemitsu’s hallucinated Rain Tree Sketch diptych (the second piece is subtitled In Memoriam Olivier Messiaen) borrows its magic harmonic world from Messiaen and Debussy. In turn, Oliver Knussen and Peter Lieberson both pay a soulful homage to the Japanese master: the former with an intense evocation of Oriental spirituality, the latter in a more direct, mournful way. Lieberson’s powerful Fantasy closes the circle with a return to a more abstract, adamant writing. Finally, Charles Wuorinen’s contemplative Bagatelle comes as a post-scriptum to this fascinating pianistic journey.
A long-time champion of new music, Peter Serkin plays with deep commitment and beauty of tone, even though a certain stiffness sometimes prevents the expression from flourishing as generously as one could wish. The sound is rather inconsistent due to different recording dates and venues, but it keeps enough clarity all along to do justice to Serkin’s precise playing. [4/13/2000]
