COMPOSERS: Ferneyhough
LABELS: Stradivarius
ALBUM TITLE: Ferneyhough
WORKS: Fun´railles I & II; Bone Alphabet; Unsichtbare Farben
PERFORMER: Ensemble Recherche; Arditti Quartet; Christian Dierstein (percussion)
CATALOGUE NO: STR 33739
This second Ferneyhough disc from
Ensemble Recherche includes the first
recording of Unsichtbare Farben for
solo violin, alongside the much earlier
Funérailles for harp and strings, for
Sandrine Piau and Hervé Lamy
capture the mood both of each song
and the whole project, from the
desolation of Debussy’s ‘Le tombeau
des Naïades’ to Saint-Saëns’ upbeat
duet ‘Viens!’. In Schoonderwoerd’s
hands, the less ‘pure’ tuning of
the 1907 Erard’s upper register
shimmers like dust in sunlight,
while De Talhouët’s wooden flutes
are bewitching. Christopher Dingle
PERFORMANCE ?????
SOUND ????
? BBC Music Direct £13.99 inc. p&p
which members of the ensemble team
up with the Arditti String Quartet.
Ensemble Intercontemporain’s first
recording is currently unavailable,
but this new version surpasses it
for grit, detail, and sonic image.
Funérailles refers to an imaginary
ritual glimpsed from afar, and the
way in which the harp punctuates
the strings’ held notes and outbursts
(especially in the second of the two
movements) certainly has something
of a ritual’s spellbinding quality about
it. It’s the richness of detail that first
strikes the listener unaccustomed
to Ferneyhough’s idiom, making
Funérailles a good introduction.
The violin piece is rather more
demanding, but Irvine Arditti’s
characteristically astringent tone is
matched by a sure sense of pacing,
making the work’s 13 minutes seem
rather shorter. But perhaps the
most approachable work here is the
delightfully inventive Bone Alphabet,
for seven ‘unpitched’ percussion
instruments, in which Ferneyhough’s
complex metrical patterns are allowed
to unwind into playful, rockinghorse
rhythms. Though the detail is
less satisfying than Stephen Schick’s
recording for Neuma (particularly at
the higher end of the dynamic level),
the sounds chosen by percussionist
Christian Dierstein are captivating.
All in all, a valuable and worthwhile
issue.