Lydia Kavina, the grand-niece of Leon Theremin, is the theremin's leading virtuoso, and she has broadly expanded its repertoire with commissions from a variety of composers. In this, her second solo album, she plays three miniatures for multiple theremins, suites from two film scores, a suite from an opera, and one newly composed work. Most of the pieces recorded here are spooky sounding, as is much of the music written for the instrument, which accounts for its popularity in the scores of horror films of the 1940s and 1950s.
Miklós Rósza was the first composer to include the theremin in a movie score, and his "Spellbound" Concerto, derived from the 1945 film, uses the instrument's potential for sweet, sweeping romantic gestures as well as its scary sounds.
Howard Shore's Suite from "Ed Wood" is the most gratifying work on the album. The film's title character was a director of terrible, low-budget movies from the 1950s, and
Shore really camps it up, exploiting the musical clichés of the film scores of the era in really clever ways.
Olga Neuwirth's eclectic suite from her macabre opera Bählaams Fest is another substantial piece and is effectively creepy and demented sounding.
Percy Grainger called the theremin "the most perfect of tonal instruments." His Free Music 1 & 2 and Beatless Music feature ensembles of from four to six theremins and last from half a minute to a minute and a half. They are charming, but much too short, and leave you wishing there was more.
Christian Wolff's Exercise 28 pairs the theremin with a violin, double bass, and horn, all instruments easily capable of pitch bending. The modernist work is loosely composed and has the character of an improvisation;
Wolff creates some interesting sonorities, but doesn't give the theremin much to do that's particularly idiomatic.
Kavina's performance is thoroughly engaging and amazing in the most literal sense. She's accompanied beautifully by the New York-based Ensemble Sospeso, led by Charles Peltz. The sound is intensely present, due in part to the theremin's piercing timbre, and nicely atmospheric. The album is essential listening for anyone who loves the theremin.