Argentine composer
Mauricio Kagel has done wonderful things over the past five decades in creating avant-garde music for arcane kinds of instrumental ensembles. In Die Stücke der Windrose (The Pieces of the Compass Rose),
Kagel takes on the early twentieth century "tea time" ensemble of clarinet, strings, piano, harmonium, and percussion.
Kagel provides the percussionist with additional instruments native to the region represented in three movements ("compass points") selected from the work -- "Südwesten" (Southwest), "Norden" (North), and "Westen" (West). One will swear there are more winds employed than the mere clarinet listed in the credits, but apparently, this is not the case.
Die Stücke der Windrose is a very nicely packaged release from the German label Winter & Winter. The performance, on its own terms, is spectacular -- the Schönberg Ensemble under
Reinbert de Leeuw should be congratulated for delivering such a terrific rendering of this difficult music. The recording is also great -- instruments seem played practically behind one's head without any additional hookups or speakers. Die Stücke der Windrose, though, doesn't really get off the ground until the "Norden" movement, and from that point forward it "rocks." Some might say parts of "Norden" is reminiscent of television scoring from The Twilight Zone, and there is an obvious debt paid to ragtime and early jazz in the "Westen" movement, especially during its wild and riotous conclusion.
Kagel's music is highly dissonant and contains elements of collage, but is formally unconstrained, at least in any obvious sense.
There are moments where Die Stücke der Windrose is very exciting and adventurous, and others, particularly in the "Südwesten" section, that are dead in the water. In the days of long players, it was fun to play with one's phono cartridge using albums of avant-garde music -- find the wiggliest grooves on a side, drop the needle there and listen to all the chaos and craziness. It was a way to bypass the cerebral and sparsely scored sections that usually took up most of the record, and some may wish that they could do so here. Nonetheless, listeners already attuned to
Kagel will embrace and enjoy Die Stücke der Windrose wholeheartedly.