Peter Kolkay (review)

This is the debut solo recording by Peter Kolkay, assistant professor of bassoon at University of South Carolina, and it features six twenty-first-century works by American composers, many of which were written for him. Kolkay tells the story of his journey to this recording in his liner notes, detailing how he explored the repertory of Western art music when he was growing up in Naperville, Illinois, by listening to classical LPs he checked out from the public library. He makes it clear that he listened his way to the realization that he was most fond of twentieth-century music—especially the Russians Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev. Hearing Samuel Barber’s Piano Concerto on the radio made him curious to hear more work by this American, so he returned to the library and eventually discovered many other intriguing works by American composers. Kolkay admits in his notes that one of his goals with this recording is “to demonstrate the great variety within American classical music as it exists today.” The opening track is the work that gives the disc its title, George Perle’s BassoonMusic (2004), which was Perle’s last completed composition. Kolkay writes about the challenges as well as the joys of playing this piece, revealing that he finds the silences most remarkable. Impishness is the spirit of this piece. Kolkay shares that of the three contrasting musical ideas comprising the work, which all appear in various shapes throughout, one is a riff on the opening of The Rite of Spring. It is tempting to imagine that Perle composed this as one last youthful frolic in the winter of his life. Kolkay infuses the work with an exploratory gusto to match Perle’s demands. Alexandra Nguyen, assistant professor of collaborative piano at the University of Colorado at Boulder, joins Kolkay for four of the five works following the Perle composition. The Carlos Surinach Fund of the BMI Foundation commissioned Judah Adashi’s The Dark Hours (2007) for Kolkay, and Kolkay shares in his notes that he and Nguyen premiered it at his alma mater Lawrence University on April 21, 2007. The Dark Hours takes its title and inspiration from an early poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, and Robert Bly’s English translation of the poem is included in the booklet. The piece opens with a piano motive in E minor, which shifts to C# minor before the bas-soon enters and takes the motive on a trip through other minor keys. This motive recurs throughout the work, functioning as a center from which the two voices may wander and to which they frequently return. Kolkay is correct in his assessment that this is no “bassoon solo with piano accompaniment,” as Nguyen is given a substantial role as a collaborative artist—getting to play inside the piano, for example. There are passages that border on Sturm und Drang parody when trying to evoke the solitude and anxiety Rilke refers to in his poem, especially in the second movement, but Kolkay and Nguyen manage to avoid wallowing in pathos via the nimbleness of their playing. Adashi picks up the pace in the third movement, which is played attacca after the second, giving Kolkay and Nguyen an opportunity to play their way out of the darkness while twisting and turning the main motive in a variety of shapes. In his notes, Kolkay asserts that this work is “a major contribution to the bassoon repertoire.” The century is yet young, making it too soon to weigh in on Kolkay’s claim, but this recording will certainly help it reach a wider audience. The mood lightens considerably with Paul Moravec’s Andy Warhol Sez: (2005), a work for bassoon and piano requiring the bassoonist to recite a short quote from Warhol before each of seven brief sketches. The quotes alternate between the comical and the ponderous, with the character of the music following suit. The bassoon parts in the comical sketches skirt the realm of cartoon music, which is already somewhat of a clichéd use of the instrument. Kolkay shares the varying responses he...