RECORD REVIEWS MUSIC
I. .-.\.
ll
I liole: live rough This (Getien) “Someday you will ache like I ache, ' sighs Courtney wearily on ‘Doll Parts‘. I hope not. Here’s a slice of life from the fishbowl of stardom. filled with a mix of frenetic angst and dull- eyed apathy. Hole‘s second album grabs you by the nasal hair and kicks you in the head until you wave a white flag. Courtney's voice drags from the husky depths of ‘Asking For lt’ to the in- your-face screams of ‘Violet'. Eric Elandson’s guitar squeals in a sub- grunge mess whilst Patty Schemel’s drumming drives each track like she’s got a terminal case of white line fever. Buy it
and live through it. ifyou | Dibdin)
can. (Jonathan Trew) I The Ecstacy at Saint Theresa: Free-D (Free)
Moving forward from the .
naive, guitar-driven ambience of last summer‘s F luirltrance Centauri EP. Prague's The Ecstacy of Saint Theresa have expanded the ambience. curtailed the naive guitar and produced a corker. Where others twiddle mindlessly with directionless motifs. TEOST's four members - with assorted guests — have created a trippy symphony of aural delight. From the lugubrious opening of ‘Vacuum Blow‘. with lrna Libowitz' ethereal vocals drifting across circling walls of bass noise. through the spaced-out Hawaiian guitar of ‘Her Eyes Have lt’ and polyrhythmic complexity of ‘lnterstellar Overdose‘ (careful with that reference. Eugene!) until Free-D finally subsides into ‘Trance (Between The Star)’. this is a subtly melded whole. Music for
i another space. (Thom
i I Unrest: Fuck Pussy Galore (And All Her Friends) (Matador/Teen Beat) For those of us who discovered the recently- split Unrest too late — with their frequently sublime sides for 4A1) offshoot Guernica — this lot] compilation covering the years 1985—89 is a small revelation. Unrest were open to experimentation from the start. even on the early. speaker-shredding wig-outs. and there is no ‘typical' track; the
A percussion piece that
closes side one is as tnuch
them as the tnore straightforwardly ! approachable songs.
These unfinished- sounding but purposeful tracks are nothing like the final incarnation of Unrest. but at the same time Fuck Pussy Galore
| truly is an embryonic version of the band they
became. There‘s even a surprisingly effective version of ‘21st Century Schizoid Man' on here. Why? If you've got to
5 ask. perhaps this isn’t for 3 you. (Alastair Mabbott)
man]
I Peter Maxwell Davies: Stratliclyde Concertos lo 7 and 8 (Collins) The recordings coincide with the performances of this ten-concerto cycle for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Given the time scale. the works have achieved an impressively high standard of both quality and consistency. and these two are no exception. Both explore solo instruments from the depths of the sonority range, with Duncan McTier in virtuoso form on No 7 for double bass. and Ursula Leveaux on bassoon in No 8. The disc is completed by a second work premiered in the same concert as No 8. A Spell for Green Corn: The MacDonald Dances. with SCO leader James Clark in a featured role. Recommended. I Debussy: Preludes (DB) Krystian Zimerman proves himself to be a highly capable, no- nonsense interpreter of Debussy‘s two books of Preludes for piano. He clearly believes in a direct approach to the works. dissecting structure with precision rather than lingering over-much on the more familiar impressionistic and atmospheric efiects associated with the music. His emphasis may sound clinical to some ears. but his playing is immensely poised and. in the faster pieces. often dazzling. Joanna MacGregor includes six of the same
composer’s Etudes on her latest release, along with some sparkling Bartok and Ravel (Collins).
I Henri liutilleux: Musique tie Chambre
(EratoySyrnphony lo 2 (Philips) More French
music, this time from one of the most absorbing composers to emerge in the wake of the Impressionists. Dutilleux’s work is still under-recorded. and it is good to see that changing. The two-CD chamber set contains seven works. and features the composer as pianist in two of them. while the orchestral disc under the Paris-based Russian conductor Semyon Bychkov leads with his important Symphony No 2. alongside the Van Gogh-inspired 77mbres, Espace. Mouvement and Metaboles. All are fine examples of his highly individual fascination with manipulating orchestral colour and timbre.
I Contemporary American Chamber Music A glut of discs for those with more experimental tendencies. The abstraction of German exile Stephan Wolpe's music may be off-putting. but is superbly played on a collection of larger scale 'premieres (Bridge). and a new disc by the Group for Contemporary Music (Koch International). The Group are also heard in the uncompromising music of Roger Sessions (Koch international). and turn up again on two strong but demanding
discs devoted to one of their founders. Charles Wourinen: Music of Two Decor/es, Vols l and 2 (Music & Arts). Finally. have fun with Just West Coast: Ml(’r()l()lllll music for guitar and harp
(Bridge). which is
nowhere near as
forbidding as it sounds.
(Kenny Mathieson)
I Mozart: Le Hozze Iii Figaro (Sony)/Mozart: La Clemenza Di Tito (Teldec): Under the baton of Zubin
Mehta. the Orchestra del
Maggio Musicale
1 Fiorentino bounce along to the farcical elements of
Mozart‘s F igaro rather than leaning towards the
darker deceits of the plot.
The singers inject a fair amount of spirit into their characters. fleshing out
i the music and achieving
the perfect balance
' between the pompous
weight of the men and the bright knowingness of the women. Even the recitatives sparkle with life and refuse to get bogged down in plot
, exposition. Early music
expert Nikolaus Hamoncourt brings out
the somewhat backward- looking baroque style of ; Tito. relishing the grand
‘ flavours of Zurich Opera
Orchestra‘s percussion and brass sections in the
. marches that pepper the
an'as. Sadly. this splendid recording was the last operatic production featuring the late Czech soprano Lucia Popp. whose Vitellia exemplifies the confused jealousies and desires at the heart of the intrigue. (Alan Morrison)
i i..- THE QUEEN’S HALL
CLERK STREET EDINBURGH EH8 9J6 TELEPHONE 031 668 3456
SCOTLAND'S BUSIEST CONCERT HALL
MAY
Candy Dulfer Chumbawamba
Orea
The King's Consort Workshop The King’s Consort
Friends of Scottish Opera Jubilo
Oh What a Lovely War
Oh What a Lovely War Colin Taylor
Wine Tasting
Imogen Cooper
Le Sage Coppey Duo Edinburgh Concert Band Meadows Chamber Orchestra Chamber Group of Scotland Blur
BT Scottish Ensemble McCoy Tyner Big Band Edinburgh Academy
The New York Metropolitan Opera Singers
Altai Kusainov
Tam White
Guy Barker Quintet Abdullah Ibrahim
Wed 4 Thur5 Fri 6 Sat 7 Sat 7 Sun 8 Sun 8 Mon 9 Tue 10 Wed 11 Wed 11 Thur12 Fri 13 Sat 14 Sun15 Mon 16 Tue 17 Thur19 Fri 20 Sun 22 Tue 24
Wed 25 Fri 27 Sat 28 Sun 29
For details of our programme, free mailing list or concert saver card please call our box office on 031 668 2019
CREDIT CARD HOTLINE 031 667 7776
The List 22 Apn'l-S May I994 43