Lou Harrison - Violin Concerto

The Guardian 80

Fain/Boriskin/PostClassical Ensemble/Gil-Ordóñez
(Naxos)

Lou Harrison had a pioneer’s imagination, not least regarding what might be walloped in the name of music – his Violin Concerto calls for flowerpots, plumber’s pipes and clock coils in the percussion. What’s more striking in this performance by Tim Fain, the PostClassical Ensemble and conductor Angel Gil-Ordóñez is the brilliance of his writing for violin, a collision between itchy dance rhythms and soaring lyricism. Dating mostly from 1940 but completed in 1959, this piece could have been written yesterday. The half-hour Grand Duo, for which Fain is teamed with pianist Michael Boriskin, is also inspired, although Harrison’s trademark application of the eastern scales used in gamelan to a western form works better in some of its five movements than others: where the first sounds ruminative, even mesmerising, the second seems stuck, whirling around frantically on itself. Double Music, the percussion mash-up Harrison wrote together with John Cage, finishes off a very enjoyable disc.