GERNOT WOLFGANG VIENNA AND THE WEST

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

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Listening to Road Signs, an intriguing etude for bassoon and piano by Gernot Wolfgang in the Albany CD Vienna and the West (TROY 1760) I am reminded of how much I enjoyed Wolfgang’s work in the past, and of how unpredictable the young Austrian composer’s music can be. Here’s a lovely compilation of minimalist compositions written between 2002 and 2017.

Playing music conceived for the unjustly ignored lowest member of the woodwinds family and using all the technical bells and whistles at the disposal of a virtuoso, bassoonist Judith Farmer elicits a plangent and haunting sound from her instrument in a composition by Wolfgang that musically evokes the sparse vividness of a Georgia O’Keefe canvas.

Wolfgang next turns on a dime to juxtapose in a bold move his Passage to Vienna to the American West landscape of the prior track. Oh but wait, while the violin of Tereza Stanislav and the cello of Ben Hong court playfully, pianist Joanne Pearce Martin  provides a rhythmic underpinning redolent of Latin America.

As I said, Gernot Wolfgang is unpredictable to a fault. In both these compositions Gernot Wolfgang creates an homage to the Dodecaphonists without slavish adherence to a fixed tone row, and even while avoiding a clearly established tonal center, the Austrian-American composer writes sweeping melodic turns here assigned to the violin here, the bassoon there.

This, in a few words, is music that defies pigeonholing, as it embraces the rigorous conservatory training of its creator while at the same time giving more than a passing nod to the improvisatory feel of jazz.

Route 33 affords a solo turn to Gloria Cheng, a superb pianist utterly comfortable in the unclassifiable music of Wofgang.

The 2014 Windows gives clarinetist Edgar David Lopez a chance to shine in tandem with bassoonist Judith Farmer.

Impressions dates back sixteen years, giving us a glimpse at the right out of the gate accomplishments of its composer in three dreamscapes titled Carnival in Venice, Dream, and Country Road. Lopez’ clarinet, Farmer’s bassoon, and Stanislav’s violin, come together with horn player Amy Jo Rhine, violist Robert Brophy, cellist Charles Tyler, and bassist Steve Dress in a richly executed performance.

The CD’s final track features violinist Maia Jasper White who adds her playing to that of violist Robert Brophy, cellist Charles Tyler, and pianist Robert Thies in From Vienna with Love, a lovely Valentine from Gernot Wolfgang to the capital of his birth-country,.

Unpredictable, surely, but I will choose surprise any day over a musical déjà vu.

Rafael de Acha            http://www.Rafael’sMusicNotes.com

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”