This collection of chamber music by the author of some genuinely thorny and loud scores (Three Screaming Popes, Blood on the Floor) is surprisingly quiet and intimate–and unabashedly tonal. If only it did not lack for fast music–with the exception of the “Shout” movement of Two Elegies Framing a Shout (a quirky, frantic dance)–this might be a perfect little collection. Nonetheless, it’s a gentler, more personal view of this composer than we usually hear.
Mark-Anthony Turnage is a gifted melodist, able to spin out long, elegiac lines, as in the very moving ensemble piece Cortège for Chris, or the piano piece Tune for Toru. He also can activate stillness, as in his chamber piece An Invention on Solitude–though it does eventually wear out its welcome, being several minutes longer than all the miniatures contained on this disc. Ultimately, you do miss the faster, angrier side of Turnage, and the more you listen the more you wish that some of it had found its way into this chamber music.
Turnage has a way with the solo saxophone, and the four unaccompanied pieces included here are some of the best music on the disc. They range from the solemn “Memorial” from Two Memorials to the bluesy and almost frantic “Trier” (the other Memorial) to the slow and sultry “Elegy No. 1” from Two Elegies Framing a Shout. The Nash Ensemble’s (unfortunately unnamed) saxophonist makes short work of them all.
The performances are all excellent, enhanced by the ideal blend of this seasoned group. The ensemble’s cellist (again, whomever he or she may be) plays the unaccompanied middle section of Sleep On (“Refrain”) with a potent lushness and blends beautifully with the piano. The violist really attacks the solo portion of “Music to Hear”, a movement from Three Farewells, playing an almost concerto-like part with casual power. Sadly, the music has been a little too closely recorded, not allowing these slower, more intimate pieces the proper space to breathe.
