Gernot Wolfgang: Vienna and the West
Albany Records

Not for the first time, the subtitle “Groove-Oriented Chamber Music” appears on the cover of a Gernot Wolfgang release, which in the most regrettable imagining would amount to some vulgar orchestral-techno mashup. Vienna and the West thankfully commits no such offence, and the term itself functions more as a hook to grab the listener's attention. The gesture reflects the Austrian-born, LA-based composer's desire to integrate rhythms from jazz, rock'n'roll, pop, world music, and electronica into his material, yet while groove-related elements are present on this fourth chamber music volume, they're treated subtly and artfully. Wolfgang's preceding release, 2016's Passing Through, was nominated for a Grammy Award in the ‘Best Classical Compendium' category, and it wouldn't be hard to imagine the new one being recognized in similar manner.

If anything, the subtitle could be deemed misleading, considering that rhythm isn't the aspect of Wolfgang's music that on this release dominates: melody, polyphony, counterpoint, and harmony are accentuated as much if not more in the six pieces performed. The album cover's juxtaposition of Vienna and the American West is, on the other hand, wholly apt, given that the recording likewise juxtaposes settings that suggest a Viennese connection (embodied in Wolfgang's recent interest in the harmonic advances made by Second Viennese School figures Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern) and a pronouncedly American influence stemming from the composer's time in Los Angeles, his home for more than two decades. Fittingly, Vienna and the West was recorded in May 2018 in LA, and the musicians who perform its material are orchestra players and first-call studio pros from the area.

That Second Viennese School detail also could mislead in suggesting that the six compositions, the earliest written in 2002 and the latest 2017, are atonal investigations rooted in Schoenberg's twelve-tone concept. Not so: Wolfgang's material downplays dissonance, favouring instead a style that's accessible, explorative, and harmonically rich. He's not averse to imparting a programmatic dimension either, with program notes for each piece clarifying associations and ideas that preceded their creation. A case in point is the piano-and-bassoon duet Road Signs, which attempts to capture the experience of driving in LA, with all the twists, turns, and abrupt changes in direction that entails. The piano trio Passage to Vienna, by comparison, is intended to take the listener on a voyage from contemporary America to Vienna in the early 1900s and back again. Of all the album's pieces, it's here that references to the Second Viennese School are most apparent, even if the performance begins with a rather jazz-inflected violin solo. Given the fifteen-minute length, it doesn't surprise that the piece advances through multiple contrasting episodes, some ponderous and others energized.

Though Route 33, which was commissioned by pianist Gloria Cheng in 2014 and is performed by her on the release, works six subchapters into its compact, eight-minute frame, it fluidly transitions from one section to the next. Again the Viennese character surfaces, especially when the writing expands beyond traditional territory into realms that seem more free-floating and suspended harmonically. All six pieces are single-movement works except for Impressions, a three-movement composition for clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, violoncello, and double bass. Rhythm is a factor here more than anywhere else on the release, with the opening “Carnival in Venice” exuding a seductive swing feel, despite its 7/4 time. Pizzicato and bowing by the strings add to the propulsion, though in truth all of the instruments give the material drive. Rhythm asserts itself in the central “Dream” movement, too, albeit this time as a languid, moody waltz, and in the rousing swing of “Country Road,” in particular its fiddling-styled background of repeating sixteenth notes.

Certainly one of the recording's most appealing aspects has to do with the different instrumental groupings that appear. While all six are chamber works, having one performed by solo piano, another by bassoon and piano, and others in trio, quartet, and septet configurations makes for a varied and engaging presentation. Wolfgang's compositions are also well-served by the calibre of the musicians, with pianists Cheng and Nadia Shpachenko, hornist Amy Jo Rhine, bassoonist Judith Farmer, clarinetist Edgar David Lopez, and violinist Tereza Stanislav among those elevating the release with distinguished performances.

April 2019