変化 transformations

シェーンベルク、セッションズ、カーシュナー
20世紀アメリカのヴァイオリン作品集!

「変化 transformations」と題された近現代室内楽作品集。
ニューヨーク生まれの米国の作曲家、レオン・カーシュナー(1919-2009)はカリフォルニア大学でアーノルト・シェーンエルクに学んでおり、21世紀に入るまで長年活躍した。ヴァイオリンとピアノのための二重奏曲第2番は2002年、カーシュナーが80歳を超えてからの作品。師匠譲りのモノトーンの音楽に加え、老境のカーシュナーの穏やかな芯の強さが映えている。ロジャー・セッションズ(1896-1985)は言うまでもなく人気作曲家。無伴奏ヴァイオリン・ソナタは1953年、ヴァイオリンとチェロのための二重奏曲は1978年の作品。
エリザベス・チャンは米国で独奏者としてまた室内楽で活躍するヴァイオリニスト。
東武ランドシステム

The Transformations title of this album is apt, for all of the music on this release is linked by personal and generational ties, as well as by the serialist idea. Violinist Elizabeth Chang was a student of composer Leon Kirchner at Harvard, and Kirchner was a student of both Roger Sessions and Arnold Schoenberg, with the former having come under the strong influence of the latter. Its interesting that the pieces on this album are all late works; Schoenbergs Phantasy for violin and piano (1949) was one of his last works, and the Duo for violin and cello of Sessions and Kirchners Duo No. 2 for violin and piano were both written when their composers were well into their 80s. Some later composers rejected serialism in favor of Romantic-influenced styles later in life. These composers did not do that, but one can nevertheless detect an orientation toward emotional expression in these pieces. Chang puts it nicely in a short note when she writes that Kirchners voice reflects the thorny complexity of modernism while palpably reaching for the sensuality of the musical language of a previous era, and in her hands, and those of pianist Steven Beck, this is true of all the music here. The music is still not for those who reject the radical dissociation from the musical language of the surrounding society that serialism entails, but as a tracing of the development of serialist thought through the works of Schoenbergs followers, this is both clear and impassioned.