|
|||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Ragtime & Blue Elena Kats-Chernin
Elena Kats-Chernin is a composer who defies categorisation and is probably best summed up as a force of nature. Her prodigious imagination has produced a vast body of work, unparalleled in range, drawing from all the musical traditions of the past and present. A virtuosic pianist and improviser, her compositions flow from her like a fountain. This CD is drawn from the small works she often writes for her own enjoyment - a cornucopia of rags, blues and heart-melting melodies. These small vessels of fine feelings offer an intimate view into the composer’s heart. 1. Alexander Rag In 1998 Elena met her partner, the lighting designer Alexander Koppelmann, who co-incidentally shared the same name as her middle son. This work inspired by her love for both of them, is optimistic and bright, despite being in C minor. 2. Green Leaf Prelude The opening number from her ballet Wild Swans, based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, this work which acted as the overture, grew out of the initial image in the ballet where Eliza imagines a fantasy world by peering through a tiny hole she has made in a green leaf. 3. Russian Rag The very first rag that she wrote in 1996 after a long period of writing in a modernist aesthetic, this piece has become the most performed of Elena’s works and has been arranged for many different instruments. This work set her on a new path of writing small miniatures as an antidote to the pressure of serious large scale composition, and is the oldest piece on this CD. 4. Get Well Rag Elena’s son became seriously ill in 1998, and this crisis inspired her to write a lullaby. Wistful, this piece became a lifeline between them as he attempted to fully recover. 5. Blue Rose Blue Rose is based on two folk melodies which have been freely developed. It uses uneven beats and bars which create a rocking feeling that is somewhat reminiscent of Balkan music. The title refers to the way the piece starts, unfolding and blooming as it slowly becomes stronger, like the blue light of dawn. 6. Eliza’s Aria The signature tune from her 2003 ballet Wild Swans, it was originally for soprano and orchestra and introduces the main character Eliza as a young girl. It is very light and charming and reflects the young princess’s purity and innocence. 7. Backstage Rag One of Elena’s rags which never enjoyed the popularity of Russian Rag and others, it was called Backstage Rag because it was upstaged by them. Written in 1999, this is the first recording of the work. 8. Birthday Rag Birthday Rag was written as a birthday present for Chris Latham who has premiered many of these pieces with Elena. The piece starts in a slow jazzy manner and then suddenly wakes up and goes almost twice as fast, much in the way that Chris says he functions in the mornings. 9. Brothers Meryl Tankard, the choreographer for Wild Swans asked Elena for music that sounded both Hungarian and Irish, to be danced by the eleven brothers of the story while wearing slippers and acting up. The work is both energetic and light-hearted in the nature of young boys. 10. Peggy’s Minute Rag Peggy’s Minute Rag was originally written in 1996 while a recipient of the Peggy Glanville-Hicks residential grant. Elena wrote this piece as a tribute to this great female Australian trailblazer, and to thank her for leaving her house to future generations of composers to live in. The original piano version was four minutes long and Elena made this one minute version for the Barossa Festival in 2004. 11. Reflections Drawn from her music theatre work Mr Barbecue, this song reflects the main
character’s realisation, as he shaves in the mirror, that his face is
becoming just like his father’s and how much of his Dad he sees in his own
eyes. It is about the sadness of ageing and missing 12. Cocktail Rag Written in 2004 for the wine making family of Peter and Margaret Lehmann,
who are famous for their hospitality towards composers, this rag was
intended to accompany a very civilised imaginary cocktail hour or two in
13. Butterflying Originally a song for children about flying in one’s dreams, this lyrical piece tries never to touch the ground. The work has also appeared in the Rugby 2003 World Cup opening ceremony in a version for full orchestra, and was arranged for brass quintet for Lady Downer’s 80th Birthday. 14. Sunday Rag Elena wrote this work on a very hot Sunday in the summer of 1997. As often happens with her, she started and finished it on a single free day - her version of a busman’s holiday. 15. Nostalgic Piece Written as an incidental piece of music for a play by Joanna Murray-Smith in 1997, this piece has had many titles and lives - this being the latest version. 16. Bucharian Melody This piece was a tribute to Elena’s mother who worked as an eye doctor in Buchara in Uzbekistan, where, because it was so dry and sandy, many of the local inhabitants suffered from eye problems. Young opthalmologists were sent to work there and Elena remembered her mother’s descriptions and stories about the place and its people, and wrote this exotic sounding piece based on those memories. 17. Revolving Doors The idea came in New York while Elena was visiting her publisher Boosey and Hawkes in 2000, and was struck by the enormous number of revolving doors, some of which seemed rather threatening. In the end the piece was inspired by this endlessly revolving image, and thus is built on a repeating figure. 18. Suburban Rag Originally written as incidental music for a theatre production in Berlin of Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya, the rag draws on Elena’s memories of Russian urban and suburban life. 19. Sapphire Rag Written for her portrait concerts at the 2004 Barossa Festival, where Elena performed almost thirty of her recently written works, the piano writing is simpler than usual, in order to accommodate her reservations about performing in public. 20. Tranquil Interlude Probably the calmest of all the works on this CD and originally for viola solo, Elena made this version for piano and violin for this recording. 21. Mute Princess Another work from the ballet Wild Swans, here the Princess Eliza is bound by a spell not to talk, while knitting jumpers for each of her eleven brothers out of stinging nettles. This silence causes everyone to shun her, on top of the terrible physical pain of making thread out of the nettles. 22. Slicked Back Tango Written as the title track to a film about the star theatre and festival director Barrie Kosky (the original version was even called the Kosky Tango). This piece has a Rudolf Valentino feel, hence the title which refers to his slicked back hairstyle. 23. Removalist Rag A piece that Elena wrote while moving house, writing the first half in one and finishing it in another. It is a wry look at the absurdities of moving one’s possessions and the feeling of heaviness that all those cardboard boxes create. 24. Melancholic Piece This is a piece that seems to not be able to decide if it is in 4/4 or in a waltz rhythm. It evokes the harmonic language of the music of 1920s Russia and creates a palpable sense of nostalgia for that lost era. Christopher Latham c 2005 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
