15-work collection a tribute to compassion

COMPASSION: Fifteen compositions by 15 contemporary composers from around the world. Angel 57179.

"Why don`t we approach composers around the world to write pieces inspired by the theme of universal compassion - an antidote to the chaotic times we live in?"

It was about four o`clock in the morning, and the question had been put to Lord Yehudi Menuhin by a friend who was in a car with him being driven from Prague to Vienna. The pair had only recently left an after-concert party in the capital of the Czech Republic, and Lord Menuhin was talking animatedly about the conditions in the world. It was the time of the upheavals in Yugoslavia.

As the story goes, the great violinist, "with a sort of twinkle in his eye," told his friend, "Knowing you as I do, you not only have this idea, you will bring it to fruition!"

The friend is Edna Michell, protege of, co-performer with, and long-time friend and colleague of Lord Menuhin, in an association that extended back to the time she was a 12-year-old prodigious violin student in Israel. Now, the artist who had thrilled millions of listeners with the beauty of his playing, beginning in San Francisco when he first performed in public when he was but 7 years old, was 75 and was soon to die. He had gained accolades and honors from all quarters of the musical world and the political world of governments. He had built a distinguished discography. He did all of this, and much more, including, in his later years, becoming a respected conductor and establishing the Yehudi Menuhin School of Music in Surrey, England.

Michell did bring her idea to fruition and readily states that it was the high prestige of Lord Menuhin himself who, through his long life in music and his brilliant history as a humanitarian, inspired the 15 composers to produce the works that make up this CD. Michell herself is a noted violinist who has enjoyed a distinguished career as a soloist, in chamber music and as a teacher.

The pieces here are as diverse in structure and in mood as they could possibly be; and that is exactly what Lord Menuhin and Michell wanted. This 15-work collection of pieces, all built on the idea of universal compassion, allows us to hear each composer expressing the idea in her or his own way.

These are the composers:

John Tavener, Shulamit Ran, Chen Yi, Hans Werner Henze, Yinam Leef, Poul Ruders, Somei Satoh, Wolfgang Rihm, Iannis Xenakis, Lukas Foss, Karl Husa, Betty Olivero, Gyorgy Kurtag, Philip Glass (to poetry of Allen Ginsberg) and Steve Reich.

The instrumentalists are:

Edna Michell, violin; Igor Ardasev, pianist; Nachum Erlich, violin; Ulf Hoelscher, violin; Michal Kanka, cello; Bohuslav Matousek, violin; Shlomo Mintz, violin; Susan Narucki, singer; Ludmila Peterkovo, clarinet; Patricia Rozario, singer; Andreas Weiss, conductor. Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Lukas Foss, conductor. The narrator of the Glass piece is Allen Gins.

How does all this play out as you listen to these pieces, one after the other, lasting from just over eight minutes to just under three? Very, very well. Indeed, you`ll find yourself hearing them as a single work, a work of 15 movements, a total work of the broadest kind of invention. One can feel a continuing connection throughout the progress of the pieces. At the conclusion, there is a sense of having heard one thing of many parts rather that 15 different things. And the performances of the pieces are brilliant.

American audiences heard a number of these pieces for the first time at a tribute to Yehudi Menuhin, given in August 1996 as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. Lord Menuhin himself conducted the works with the Orchestra of St. Luke`s. It was his last concert appearance in the United States. However, it had been Lord Menuin`s feeling that the work should be recorded and that the 15 pieces should be presented as a whole. Unfortunately, he died March 12, 1999, before a recording could be made. But happily for us, it was his co-originator of this project, Edna Michell, who, armed with the authority of the great Menuhin prestige, actually gave it life.

ROMANTIC RUSSIAN RARITIES: Alexander Sitkovetsky, violin; Olga Sitkovetsky, piano. Angel 57025.

It is most appropriate that we follow the CD above with this one: Alexander Sitkovetsky studied violin with Lord Yehudi Menuhin; Lord Menuhin invited pianist Olga Sitkovetsky to be accompanist at the Yehudi Menuhin school of Music in Surrey, England.

The pieces on this disc are termed "Russian Rarities," and so they are; however, they are not so rare that many listeners will not recognize at least a few of them. Also, as you listen carefully, you`ll recognize that a number of them have been transcribed from their original forms into a work for solo violin.

The composers and their works played here: Wieniawski, Souvenie de Moscow; Prokofiev, Five Pieces from Cinderella; Rachmaninoff, Daisies, Hungarian Dance, Romance; Tchaikovsky, Song Without Words; Gliere, Romance; Glinka, Mazurka; Zimblast, Fantasy On a Theme from Rimsky-Korsakov`s Le Coq D`or. The arrangers include such famous artists as Heifetz and Kreisler.

Nothing heavy about any of this. Call it simply pleasurable. And isn`t it grand, once in a while, to have simply grand music that is simply pleasurable?

Violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky, born in 1986, was another of those gifted ones who seemingly came into this world with a fiddle in his hands. He was only 8 years old when he made his debut performing with the chamber orchestra of Montpellier, France. Later the same year, he was invited to become a student at the Yehudi Menuhin School of Music. He had the honor of performing the Bach Double Violin Concerto with Lord Menuhin in Belgium and France and the Bartok Duos at St. James Palace in London in 1996. He also played the Mendelssohn Violin concerto with Lord Menuhin conducting. And since then his career has proved most successful as he played with orchestras and at music festivals in Europe, Russia and the United States.

The tone Sitkovetsky gets from his violin is strong and true and very beautiful. In 2000 he signed a long-term recording contract with Angel Records, so we should expect to hear additional recordings by him in the months ahead.

Pianist Olga Sitkovetsky gives Sitkovetsky superb support in her role as accompanist. She is, indeed, a sought-after accompanist as well as a solo artist, at important venues in Europe and the United States and Asia.

(c) Copley News Service

Article continues below

---

advertisement

---

Author: King Durkee