Chicago Classical Review

Garrop: Invictus. Joie de vivre. Marta Aznavoorian, pianist. Scott Speck, conductor/Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra (Cedille).

Two recent recordings present equally compelling music for piano cast in starkly differentiated styles, both by contemporary composers. 

Stacy Garrop’s Invictus received its world premiere last October at the Ear Taxi Festival with Marta Aznavoorian as soloist alongside Scott Peck and the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra. The current Cedille disc presents the same musicians in a recording made just after that live debut.

Garrop takes the titled inspiration for her piano concerto from a short poem by William Ernest Henley—a writer beset by chronic medical issues, whose poem reflects the struggle over his personal adversities. The half-hour work is cast in four continuous movements, each of which is titled after a stanza from Henley’s poem.

The concerto opens (“Out of the Night that Covers Me”) with an imposing piano chord, followed by quiet slithery music in orchestra against deep ominous bass piano rumblings by the soloist, as if arising from a black pit. The orchestra builds to a climax with a tense theme imbued with a striving, heroic quality. A more lyrical solo passage for the soloist follows against quietly musing strings.The reflective expression continues in the piano against the ominous shimmering orchestra. The piano ascends to a broader theme and the music accelerates to another climax.

The second movement (“Black as the pit from pole to pole”) begins with malign Prokofiev-like chords in orchestra against which the soloist indulges in frenetic passages as if “tossed from side to side.” The violent oscillations echo n the orchesra with pounding timpani alternating with virtuosic runs by the soloist. The agitated keyboard fragments seem to depict attempts to escape fatum and the storm-tossed violence in the orchestra. The third section (“I thank whatever Gods may be”) provides a respite from the relentless sturm und drang, with quiet high piano passages set against hushed strings. Like an oasis of temporary peace the music reflects a prayer for resilience. Eventually woodwinds seem to offer a more optimistic note amid the uneasy peace, as the piano muses hesitantly, searching for a path out of the abyss. 

A brief piano cadenza (Interlude) builds in intensity leading to the finale (“For my unconquerable soul”), which provides more drama and keyboard fireworks. The music accelerates and becomes increasingly brilliant and virtuosic as the solo protagonist makes an arduous climb out of the slough of Henleyian despond. The roiling music reaches a silence near the coda and ends quietly with a final solo statement by piano against hopeful woodwinds in a still unsettled coda.

At times one wishes for more indelible lyrical music to better balance the frenetic, nervous atmosphere that dominates the work. Even so, Garrop’s music effectively reflects Henley’s stanzas, and Invictus is one of the Chicago-based composer’s most powerful and dramatic inspirations.

Marta Aznavoorian plays with unflagging energy and brilliance in the nearly nonstop demands of the solo keyboard protagonist. The pianist is just as communicative in the solo coupling of Garrop’s concise Joie de vivre, which is nicely contrasted between the spirited and inward.

Kudos also to conductor Scott Speck and the Chicago Philharmonic for their fizzing, equally committed accompaniment. It’s good to be reminded what a fine and flexible ensemble this orchestra still can be—on the rare occasions when the Philharmonic is actually allowed to play classical music, instead of acting as back-up band to pop and rap artists.

The only blot on this premiere recording is the appalling lack of information with the CD. There are zero notes on the music, pianist or composer, just a self-consciously artsy-minimalist design. (Why have a foldout CD when there is nothing but black space on either side?) One has to access a QR code on the back to get the notes on Cedille’s website. There is no excuse for such nickel-and-diming on a premiere recording of a new work. Get with it, Cedille. 

Jóhannsson: Piano music. Alice Sara Ott, pianist. (Deutsche Grammophon).

Those needing a break after the sturm und drang of Garrop’s concerto could hardly do better than turn to Alice Sara Ott’s recent disc of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s music. 

The innovative, genre-defying Icelandic composer found equal success as a concert and film composer, garnering Academy Award nominations for his scores for Sicario and The Theory of Everything. Sadly, Jóhannsson died at the age of 48 in 2018 due to a fatal mix of cocaine and flu medication. 

Ott’s program offers a generous selection of Jóhannsson’s music in solo piano arrangements, which were recently published by Faber. The thirty brief selections include music from The Theory of Everything and other film scores (Personal Effects, Dis, Free the Mind and Copenhagen Dreams) as well as many non-cinematic Jóhannsson works.

The music is slow and meditative throughout yet often quite beautiful in its unadorned, elegiac simplicity. Performed on an upright, the closely miked piano is immaculately recorded with an uncanny harp-like sound at times. Ott plays Jóhannsson’s music with refinement and the utmost sensitivity to its shifting moods and colors. The occasional creaking and clickety-clack from the old instrument add to the private, domestic quality of the performances.

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