Michael Jarrell: Émergences-Résurgences, …Le ciel, tout à l’heure encore si limpide, soudain se trouble horriblement…, 4 Eindrücke
Tabea Zimmermann (viola), Renaud Capuçon (violin)
Pascal Rophé / Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire (BIS)
(scroll down for English review)
瑞士作曲家賈維爾（生於1958年）的專輯，香港觀眾聽過他一首寫給Ilya Gringolts的小提琴協奏曲，是由小交舉辦的音樂會。不打算推介這張碟，只是想稍為介紹。三首樂曲，每首大約20分鐘，有點花巧的曲名，其實是一首中提琴協奏曲、一首管弦樂曲以及一首小提琴協奏曲。之所以想談這碟，因為兩首協奏曲都是為知名獨奏家而寫，而且在這裏由他們演奏。
軌一至四的《出現／重現》是寫給塔比亞齊默曼的中提琴協奏曲，不過我想不到有甚麼好說。軌五《清澈的天空忽然變得懾人》但樂曲本身卻是先是暴戾然後變得平靜，到最後幾分鐘再轉為躁動，但可以斟酌的是，中段開始的平靜其實也可以是一種恐怖不安。
最後軌六至九《四個印象》是寫給卡普森的小提琴協奏曲，也是我覺得較易捉摸的一首作品，四個印象其實相等於快板—諧謔曲—慢板—急板的分佈。我從這作品想像出海、風、天的情景，隨着這四種心情轉變。雖不敢說喜歡或討厭，賈維爾有這麼多出名獨奏家請他寫曲，知道一下他寫甚麼音樂也不壞的。
Two concerti and one orchestral piece by Michael Jarrell, each clocking in at around 20 minutes. What makes this disc special to me is that both concerti were written for star soloists, Tabea Zimmermann (viola), Renaud Capuçon (violin), and they played on these recordings.
Émergences-Résurgences (tracks 1-4) is a viola concerto but I couldn’t find anything to comment on. The next piece has a fancy title, “The sky, recently so clear, suddenly becomes horribly murky” (track 5). Despite the title the mood of it is mostly violent with a relatively peaceful interlude. But I’d say that that interlude is deceptively peaceful.
Four Impressions (tracks 6-9) is Jarrell’s fourth violin concerto and written for Renaud Capuçon. Perhaps because of the dedicatee I find this work to be the easiest to grasp. The four impressions somehow correspond to a four-movement structure of Allegro-Scherzo-Adagio-Presto. My imagination took me to the interactions among the sea, the wind and the sky, varying to the different moods of each movement. I can’t really say if I like these pieces or not but it’s still worth knowing a composer who got so many commissions from noted performers.