Swiss cellist
Thomas Demenga here comes up with an unusual angle on the contemporary attempt to make the instrumental a personal statement rather than a mere demonstration of mastery: he plays a program of encores. Of course, many famed instrumental performers have released albums of encores, but there's never been one like this before.
Demenga explores the concept of the encore itself, positing it as the only segment of the traditional recital in which the performer could display his or her own personality -- in the words of the rather verbose notes of Anselm Cybinski, could "display the wandering minstrel who slumbers unacknowledged even in the most cerebral of musical exegetes." Thus
Demenga offers examples of various types of encores. There is the virtuoso exotic encore, often coming from a composer's own ethnic tradition; these are represented here by the title work by Georgian composer Sulkhan Tsintsadze and by the Danse du diable vert of
Gaspar Cassadò. There is the Romantic encore with a beautiful tune, exemplified here by works of
Chopin and Fauré. There are intellectual works (Webern, late Liszt), and Bach chorales, presented here in delightful arrangements with accordion by
Demenga himself. And there are pieces composed by the player -- which, as
Demenga points out, fell out of favor as modernism tightened its icy grip on music.
Demenga's own works are great crowd-pleasers. Start your sampling with his New York Honk, the last work on the program: the cello plays an energetic figure that seems to be interrupted by city traffic noises.
Having sorted out all these strands,
Demenga weaves them together once again in a program that makes sense harmonically and in terms of timing -- he even varies the lengths of the pauses between tracks as he manipulates its ebb and flow. What is intended, again in Cybinski's words, is "a 'composed' continuum in which seemingly heterogeneous items coalesce, almost nonchalantly exploding ancient misgivings against suites of miniatures." The music reminds you that it's fun when it seems to be getting too serious, and it tells you to think about it when it starts to seem lightweight. It all adds up to a virtuoso performance in the best sense of the word -- in the mind as well as the fingers -- and one that would surely attract audiences if offered in tour in support of the recording.