Her new disc, Viaggio in Italio, came as a welcome relief from the cataloguing efforts of so many other recent recordings wherein listening to a CD became not a pleasure but an academic exercise. So much of what is published these days involves exhausting the output of a given composer. These mass graves of artistic achievement tend not to glorify, but to make anonymous both artist and composer. In such pursuits the only one glorified is the publishing company who is lauded not for its quality, but its body count.
It was nice to see the artist looking out at me from the cover and inside a disc filled with Ms. Masters’ vast dynamic palette and gorgeous tone. Not one to get in the way of the composers, she brings a unique light to their work. Thus, the recording becomes a verdict on the quality of the composers.
To this end, the highlights of the disc are the three Scarlatti sonatas (K. 277, 208 and 178) and the composition by Simone Iannerelli, Variazioni – en Memoire de S. Rachmaninoff, which concludes the CD. Many have recorded K. 208 with its familiar, rising melody. What Ms. Masters does with the sonata, though, is wholely new. The ornamentation on the second pass through both sections enhances the music without getting in the way. For those looking for a new way to prepare a familiar staple, with just the right amount of spice, here you have it. Take dictation and put it in your competition program. (the program notes state that the edition is Barrueco’s – but the ornamentation is not). A listen to this recording could well put Scarlatti’s music, as played on the guitar, in a new light. Too often, one simply makes the repeat without ornamentation, a necessity on the quicker sonatas, but an absolute travesty on the slow movements. Ms. Masters shows that good taste and careful study can allow the performer to enhance a great composition and shine a new light on an old masterpiece.
Iannarelli’s composition after Rachmaninoff is the ‘find’ of the disc. A young composer (b. 1970) – read: reachable, commissionable – gives us a latter-day, Italianate Colletici Intim. A series of variations, the piece trades in sparkling harmonic language and its thematic material is at once rhapsodic and foreboding – particularly the repeated-note motive that ties the composition together. Ms. Masters opens the door to this pyrotechnic treasure and at well over ten minutes in length, the piece offers the type of long-term development that one hears in Asencio’s magnificent composition. A relief it is that pieces like this are still being written in an age where the humanism and intellectualism that it represents are assailed on all sides by both disinterest and disdain.
In sharp contrast to these works are pieces by Giuliani and Regondi. Fine performances and elevated personages do not always make for fulfilling listening. Masters plays the Rossiniana and the the two Regondi etudes with aplomb and vigor, but the compositions do not rise to the level of the others, above mentioned, on the disc. Apologists for both composers tell us of their greatness and necessity in our canon – but would anyone put them in the class with Scarlatti? Giuliani, who never wrote a good development section (if at all), pays little attention to the types of thematic and key relations that make for satisfying high-classical writing. He’s given us the musical equivalent of television – a somewhat diverting past-time we can dip in and out of without any need to establish context which provides the perfect accompaniment to cleaning house, working out or paying bills. Again, the apologists will state that this was the purpose of such salon music at the time – it was a diversion and no one had any illusions about its musical value. To which I say - Exactly!
Regondi’s etudes make a case for the greatness of Sor’s music if only because Sor had the good sense to be brief. Again, Regondi seems more concerned with passing time than making any great musical statement. Granted, these are etudes and one needn’t expect Chopin, but if that be the case, then brevity should be the rule. Simply because these composers were our only representatives at a time of great musical achievement does not mean we need pay undo attention to their mediocre accomplishments. Too often we laud mediocrity because it is all we have to praise. That is not our job. Finding the great works and amplifying them is.
Kudos to Ms. Masters for doing just that.
--Andrew Hull
