FINNISSY Beat Generation Ballads. First Political Agenda. Singular Voices
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: David Lesser, Michael (Peter) Finnissy
Genre:
Chamber
Label: Metier Sound & Vision
Magazine Review Date: 08/2016
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 63
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: MSV28557
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Lord Melbourne |
Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer
Carl Rosman, Clarinet Clare Lesser, Soprano David Lesser, Composer Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer |
Song 1 |
Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer
Clare Lesser, Soprano Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer |
Song 16 |
Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer
Clare Lesser, Soprano Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer |
Song 11 |
Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer
Carl Rosman, Clarinet Clare Lesser, Soprano Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer |
Song 14 |
Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer
Clare Lesser, Soprano Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer |
Same as We |
Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer
Clare Lesser, Soprano Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer |
Song 15 |
Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer
Clare Lesser, Soprano Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer |
Beuk o' Newcasasel Sangs |
Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer
Carl Rosman, Clarinet Clare Lesser, Soprano David Lesser, Composer Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer |
Composer or Director: Michael (Peter) Finnissy
Genre:
Chamber
Magazine Review Date: 08/2016
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 63
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: HCR11CD
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Beat Generation Ballads |
Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer
Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer Philip Thomas, Piano |
First Political Agenda |
Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer
Michael (Peter) Finnissy, Composer Philip Thomas, Piano |
Author: Philip Clark
Consigning narrative plots and their correspondingly neat resolutions to the garbage can of history is one way to question the status quo and, a typical structural gambit for Finnissy, the five sections of Beat Generation Ballads download as a digressive tangle of cultural reference points. Finnissy writes his own history into the music, too. The opening section, ‘Lost But Not Lost’, was composed when he was 16 as background music for what is coyly described as a friend’s ‘certificate X’ film; the big surprise, though, is that Finnissy’s mature voice is already in place.
As subsequent sections proceed, his stylistic catchment is characteristically broad: shavings of material from sources including Bach, Beethoven, Webern and the Bill Evans Trio (with its harmonically outré bassist Scott LaFaro) are all variously put under the microscope, re-examined compositionally, cross-fertilised and held within frames of contemplative silence. In the 35-minute final section, ‘Veränderungen’, Finnissy spins threads from all that has gone before into a fragmenting labyrinth. But, despite the intensity of febrile purpose and concentration, nothing much goes anywhere. Instead, listeners are locked into the moment while the music retains its wide-angled panorama, a paradox that pianist Philip Thomas does nothing to resolve as he keeps the music on the tightest structural leash. The companion piece, First Political Agenda, concerns its turbulent structures with the political and cultural disorientation of the 1990s: a prime minister adored and despised in equal measure is deposed and football tournaments popularise grand opera.
Clare Lesser’s ‘Singular Voices’ disc follows a similar career trajectory: the early Song 1, Song 11, Song 15 and Song 16, written between 1966 and 1976, are heard alongside Lord Melbourne (1980) and Beuk o’ Newcassel Sangs (1988). The later pieces find Finnissy resculpting folksy diatonicism, microtones stretching melodic intervals. The songs, performed here with considerable grace, are studies in extended line as long, lithe melodies crumple into obsessive detail and undertake obsessive detours – the Beat goes on, music truly on the road.
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