The Magazine for Serious Records Collectors September/October 1996 - Volume 20, Number 1

BLUMENFELD: La Face Cendree. Ange de Flamme et de la Glace. Carnet de Damne. Illuminations -- Symphonic Fragments after Rimbaud. Christine Schadeberg, soprano; Savely Schuster, cello; Seth Carlin, piano. Gerhard Samuel conducting the Contemporary Music Ensemble, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music; Randall Gremillion, baritone, Harold Blumenfeld conducting; Christine Schadeberg, soprano; the St. Louis Ensemble. Gerhard Samuel conducting the Cincinnati Philharmonia. CENTAUR CRC 2277 [DDD]; 65:20. Produced by Harold Blumenfeld (Distributed by Qualiton).

As Lewis Carroll is to Del Tredici, Arthur Rimbaud is to Harold Blumenfeld. For the past fifteen years or so, the Seattle-born (1923) Blumenfeld has drawn almost exclusively on the short-lived (1854-91) French poet for both texts and inspiration. This CD offers four works (composed between 1981 and 1992) from his Rimbaud series, the culmination of which was probably reached in February, with the premiere in Cincinnati of his full-length opera Seasons in Hell. A composition student of Bernard Rogers and Hindemith, Blumenfeld's output is dominated by music for voice(s), and includes pre-Rimbaud settings of Hart Crane, Derek Walcott, Beaudelaire, Verlaine, Rilke, and Mandelstam.

La Face Cendreé (1981) is a setting for mezzo, cello, and piano of Aube and Being Beauteous. Dark-hued, and in a rather generic sounding mid-century academic/serialist vien, which veers into dense chromaticism in places, it is characterized by extremes in both pitch and dynamics.

In Carnet de Damné (1987) the serialism has been considerably toned down, some angularity and disjunct writing notwithstanding. Carnet benefits greatly from the added timbral variety provided by the eight-player ensemble. Part I's (the Adieu from Season in Hell) vocal line frequently recals Berg's Lulu, Berio, and Del Tredici at his wildest; and is an effective musical depiction of despair, desolation, and hallucinatory flashbacks. Ethereal and serene, Part II (L'Eternité) finds the soprano wrapped in an electronic cocoon, singing in lontano. In all, a striking opus.

A prose poem (Barbare) is at the core of the lyrical, compelling, fascinating Ange de Flamme et de la Glace (1990). Scored for baritone, flue, clarinet, viola, cello, guitar, percussion, and tape, Ange's tart, crystalline timbres inhabit the sonic world of George Crumb. The vocal line most closely resembles the antsier portions of Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortièges. Here, too, Blumenfeld deftly captures the strangeness, violence, and dislocation aspects of Rimbaud's writing, as well as its febrile atmosphere.

Illuminations (1992) is a two-part orchestral "reflection" on some of Rimbaud's Les Illumninations. Part I, titled Meadows of Emerald and Iron, ponders Mystique, while Part II, titled Diluvial, considers Apès le déluge, À une raison, and Soir historique. Medows meanders amiably, while the bombastic Diluvial "depicts the explosion and conflagration of the planet followed by a halting rebirth of life ..."

Both soloists give strong, dramatic performances, and the instrumental and orchestral forces are up to their tasks. Sound is a little on the dry side and less than ideally spacious. Percussion has been well recorded.

Benjamin Pernick

	Harold Blumenfeld http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~blumenf/
	Harold Blumenfeld's three operas, "Seasons in Hell", "Fourscore - an Opera of Opposites" and "Breakfast Waltzes" - all to libretti by collaborator Charles Kondek - are published, along with the composer's other works, by MMB Music Inc, 3526 Washington Ave., St. Louis MO 63103. FAX 314 531-8384. Blumenfeld is represented by Friedman/Goetz Associates, 11 Worth St, New York NY 10013, FAX 212 226-6788, e-mail FGASSOC@aol.com Materials may be secured from Friedman/Goetz, from MMB Music Inc, and may be consulted at the American Music Center, New York. All works © Copyright MMB Music, Inc.