Used Bin Troll Tweets RRR

Ethelbert Nevin

[December 2024.]

Thalia FIELD: Ululu (Clown Shrapnel) (2007). Coffee House Press 978-1-56689-196-7. (www.coffeehousepress.org).

Razor-sharp poesy vividly reacts to and extends Wedekind, Berg and Pabst’s Lulu tales. Continually impenetrable, surreal and historical. YES.

Christopher TRAPANI: Noise Uprising (2024). Sophia Burgos, Sofia Jernberg (voices), Zwerm: Toon Callier, Johannes Westendorp, Bruno Nelissen, Kobe Van Cauwenberghe (guits), Christopher Trapani (guits, electronics). New World Records 80843-2 (2 CDs) (www.newworldrecords.org).

Very interesting, but also very long. Sparked by research into the world of early 78s, Trapani invents a “what-if?” musical universe. MAYBE.

“Sonata Fantasia.” Domenico SCARLATTI arr. Robert GROSLOT: Var. Sonatas. Il Novecento, Robert Groslot (cond.). Antarctica Records AR 056 (1 CD) (www.antarctica-records.eu).

Sixteen orchestrations reissued from a 1994 Vanguard disc. Perhaps it’s the decades speaking, but this is a sluggish and flavorless set. NO.

“Orchestral Music, Volume Five.” Fridrich BRUK: Symphony No. 13, “The Artist Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935)” (2014), Symphony No. 14, “The Scream” (2015). Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, Imants Resnis (cond.). Toccata Classics TOCC0661 (1 CD) (www.toccataclassics.com).

More Lutosławski than Schoenberg, Bruk’s programmatic symphonies offer atonal easy listening, vigorous and angular but not difficult. MAYBE.

Alberto FRANCHETTI: Symphony in E minor (1884)¹; Nella Foresta Nera, Impressione Sinfonica (1900)². Ermanno WOLF-FERRARI: Sinfonia da camera in B-flat major, Op. 8 (1901)³. Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma^1,2, MiNensemblet³, Francesco La Vecchia (cond.). Naxos 8.574271 (1 CD) (www.naxos.com).

Franchetti’s forest panorama contrasts a competent Germanic symphony. Wolf-Ferrari’s piano-heavy Sinfonia heralds a different future. MAYBE.

Dan ROMÁN: String Quartet No. 3, “DVXNS” (2018). Cuarteto Latinoamericano: Saúl Bitrán, Arón Bitrán (vln), Javier Montiel (vla), Álvaro Bitrán (vlc). Neuma 211 (1 CD) (www.neumarecords.org).

These superimposed palindromes have intellectual possibilities, but the ensemble’s potential is squandered on narrow and tedious sounds. NO.