Michael Hersch's allegedly enigmatic character is evident in his chamber music, and he is well served by this subdued but satisfying Vanguard release.
Hersch opens with two austere piano pieces that he performs with sensitivity and clarity. In Recordatio, he employs soft, shifting clusters amid widely spaced pitches, and creates an air of mystery through the sparseness of his textures. Short episodes are separated by long silences, and the music's unhurried pace allows for easy absorption of the ideas. The Pieces (2) provide more violent contrasts, and the timing is more condensed. The mingling of tonal associations with the predominantly atonal language suggests a degree of postmodern instability and possibly a longing for the past. After Hölderlin's Hälfte des Lebens is darkly colored and filled with many silences, which emphasize the importance of each dramatic gesture. Matthew Hunter, viola, and David Riniker, cello, are precise and well blended; often, their resonant, double-stopped sonorities suggest a much larger ensemble.
Hersch's Octet seems a logical piece to follow, and its varied textures and layered dissonances fulfill the implications of the previous work. The string soloists of the
Berlin Philharmonic give a committed performance, and whether the music is disjointed or sustained, they are consistently intense throughout this work's 11 movements.