Tabakova String Paths

[Barbirollians]

I knew I'd read this composer's name recently, before Barbi's OP. In the current issue of Tempo, Martin Anderson reviews a work of hers that featured in the recent(-ish: from last November) Second London Festival of Bulgarian Culture. He writes of her Moreni for Clarinet, Piano & S4tet from 2007:

[The work], which lasts 14-15mins, opens with exquisite slides over a rocking piano accompaniment before presenting an achingly beautiful open-air Clarinet solo - it was one of those rare moments that somehow catches something inside you, and tears were rolling down my cheeks before the Clarinet's second entry. The strings pass material between them before the 'cello launches a little folk tune, which the Clarinet picks up. In the Second Movement, Debussian "waterfall" figures, falling and rising in the Piano over long string chords, point to the underlying conceit of the work, and a hesitant Clarinet line slowly builds in intensity. The Third [movement] is a vigorous folk-dance launched by the Piano; it also has a slight hint of Jazz. The 'cello then launches a calmer folk-dance before the first one resumes. With more waterfall Music from the Piano, it becomes clear that we are retracing our footsteps and as the end approaches, one senses the Music settling into something comfortable, as you would sink gratefully into an armchair after a journey. Throughout, Tabakova treats the Clarinet as another strand in the texture, although she allows it the occasional solo flourish; even-handedly, she now supplies the Strings with little flourishes of their own in the closing pages.

Martin Anderson is evidently a big fan he reviewed the disc in IRR .

[amateur51]

Martin Anderson is evidently a big fan he reviewed the disc in IRR .

He gave it an IRR Outstanding Award or somesuch too. I haven't listened to the whole CD but I have listened to the 'bits' that I've managed to find on amazon & youtube of other works by Tabakova and I regret to say that her music is not for me.

But I'm pleased that you are so taken with it Barbs and I thank you for bringing it so enthusiastically to my attention

[Barbirollians]

Each to their own ams - the slow movement of the Cello Concerto is particularly fine IMO as well as Such Different Paths which is apparently inspired by the Lark Ascending no less - an unusual influence for a modern composer .

There is rather too much minimalist doodling as it is described in some of those earlier YT pieces .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Martin Anderson is evidently a big fan he reviewed the disc in IRR .

Interesting: the reviewer in the BBC MusMag was Calum MacDonald, who is the Editor of Tempo in which magazine the MA article from which I quoted appeared. MacDonald (an enthusiast for both Schoenberg and Ronald Stevenson) is a writer whose views I greatly respect.

[Barbirollians]

Well I am glad to hear I am in such good company - the Cello Concerto I am particularly smitten by at present.

[Barbirollians]

I have come back to this CD after three weeks or so away from it and it is making just as big an impression on me as before . A real discovery and the Cello Concerto continues to hold me in its thrall in particular.

[Dave2002]

There's another CD with oboe music - http://musicweb-international.com/cl...ver_cc2021.htm

I listened to Frozen River Flows, though I was perhaps rather more taken with Howard Skempton's "Random Girl".

[amateur51]

I have come back to this CD after three weeks or so away from it and it is making just as big an impression on me as before . A real discovery and the Cello Concerto continues to hold me in its thrall in particular.

Given your enthusiastic advocacy, Barbs I've been waiting for it to emerge on Spotify/Naxos library but so far to no avail.I shall persist

[Dave2002]

Given your enthusiastic advocacy, Barbs I've been waiting for it to emerge on Spotify/Naxos library but so far to no avail.I shall persist

However the oboe work(s) mentioned in msg 22 are on Spotify - http://open.spotify.com/track/2WEwooADhXnJg9Va6d0TyX

[Ruhevoll]

I wanted to like this based on the IRR review and enthusiasm here. But it all seemed like so much sub-Arvo Part/Max Richter wallpaper music. Harmless, nice, but going nowhere and doing nothing. If this is the 21st Century's idea of consolation, how far we've strayed from the path offered by Taverner, Tallis et al!

Where are our Bachs, Beethovens, Bruckners and Mahlers? Tonal music doesn't have to be dull. Surely there is a future for serious modern classical music, or did the film score and electronic revolution kill it off for good?

[Barbirollians]

Sorry you feel like that . I think her gift for melody and whether they are borrowed from folk songs or not it prevents this being wallpaper music to my ears.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Where are our Bachs, Beethovens, Bruckners and Mahlers? Tonal music doesn't have to be dull. Surely there is a future for serious modern classical music, or did the film score and electronic revolution kill it off for good?

Boy, that's a lot of questions!
"Where are our Bachs, Beethovens, Bruckners and Mahlers?" is like asking "Where are the 19th Century's Barretts, Birtwistles, Lachenmanns, and Ferneyhoughs?" or"Where are the 15th Century's Bachs, Beethovens, Bruckners and Mahlers?" Each generation (as Mahler told Brahms) produces its own astonishing Music and Musicians - as well as its "also-rans": Ms Tabakova should no more be used to exemplify the best of today's Music than Stamitz should the Music of the 1740s - and there is merit in both Stamitz and Tabakova.

But you're quite right: "Tonal" Music doesn't have to be dull - Ronald Stevenson's Passacaglia on DSCH is a magnificent work,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jFuKZTqnjY

as is the String Quintet of Alistair Hinton,

http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/5404206/a/alistair+hinton%3A+string+quintet.htm

both of which are by composers very much with us and in a language that is rooted in Tonality. But it would be wrong to compare Tabakova's slight works with these monumental odysseys - whilst I'm not impressed by the works of hers that I've heard, these are not her aesthetic concerns.

As for electonics "killing" tonality - well, just as the move from Vocal composition to instrumental was reflected in the shift from Modality to Tonality, then so the move to Electronics can be said to mirror the shift away from Tonality. That is why "a future for serious modern classical Music" lies therein.

[Ruhevoll]

Boy, that's a lot of questions!
"Where are our Bachs, Beethovens, Bruckners and Mahlers?" is like asking "Where are the 19th Century's Barretts, Birtwistles, Lachenmanns, and Ferneyhoughs?" or"Where are the 15th Century's Bachs, Beethovens, Bruckners and Mahlers?" Each generation (as Mahler told Brahms) produces its own astonishing Music and Musicians - as well as its "also-rans": Ms Tabakova should no more be used to exemplify the best of today's Music than Stamitz should the Music of the 1740s - and there is merit in both Stamitz and Tabakova.

But you're quite right: "Tonal" Music doesn't have to be dull - Ronald Stevenson's Passacaglia on DSCH is a magnificent work,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jFuKZTqnjY

as is the String Quintet of Alistair Hinton,

http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/5404206/a/alistair+hinton%3A+string+quintet.htm

both of which are by composers very much with us and in a language that is rooted in Tonality. But it would be wrong to compare Tabakova's slight works with these monumental odysseys - whilst I'm not impressed by the works of hers that I've heard, these are not her aesthetic concerns.

As for electonics "killing" tonality - well, just as the move from Vocal composition to instrumental was reflected in the shift from Modality to Tonality, then so the move to Electronics can be said to mirror the shift away from Tonality. That is why "a future for serious modern classical Music" lies therein.

All rhetorical, more a cri de cœur, but thanks for the interesting response! I shall investigate your suggestions and ponder more upon your ideas. Note tho', I did say 'film scores' and 'electronics' metaphorically slaying the symphony (not tonality). The last person who seemed to want to try and achieve something monumental and 'new' with the symphony, it seems, was Simpson. I mean, try and succeed. However, he has no audience (aside of those who haunt boards such as this! ) Hans Zimmer and a host of electronic artists (the dreaded Jarre, Kraftwerk and Aphex Twin (much more interesting, these two, esp. Aphex Twin's occasional piano miniatures) do...

I wonder what you make of Tom Service's analysis of Beethoven's 5th in today's Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/music/tom...th-tom-service

[Barbirollians]

I don't see anything slight about her music on that CD. fhgl 's attitude is not a surprise - he prefers barbed wire music after 1950 !

[Dave2002]

The whole of the String Paths CD is available from eMusic for under £4 (£3.78), or you can just download the cello concerto for £1.26, or just the slow movement for 42p. By using this site you can at least decide whether it's worth buying the CD. The slow movement of the cello concerto is indeed rather beautiful. It sounds similar to some works by Pärt, and maybe it doesn't really "go anywhere" - but does that matter? I am interested to note the connection with Diana Burrell, with whom, amongst others, she studied composition. I haven't been able to find any recordings of music by Burrell - so can't comment whether Tabakova's work is in any way derived from one of her mentors.