Cellist Thomas Demenga offers up a colorful program of encores in Chonguri.
From the pizzicato tour de force of the title piece by Sulkhan
Tsintsadze, which imitates the selfsame four-stringed instrument of the
composer’s native Georgia, it’s clear we’re in for a lively and eclectic
treat. Pianist Thomas Larcher accompanies Demenga for most of the
program, which includes nods to the familiar and not so. Of the latter,
Catalonian composer Gaspar Cassadó’s Danse du diable vert is
among the more spirited pins in the album’s geographic and chronographic
spread. Two Chopin nocturnes give us a taste of home, in a manner of
speaking, with the c-sharp minor presented to us in one of the more
beautiful arrangements one is likely to find (though I’ll always be
partial to Bela Banfalvi’s). The balance here is superb. A dash of
Webern keeps us on our toes, his three Little Pieces sparkling
with a charm that is, I daresay, romantic. Of romance we get plenty more
in the three Fauré selections sprinkled throughout, of which Après un rêve is a highlight, and in Liszt’s evocative La lugubre gondola.
Four Bach chorales, in Demenga’s arrangements, for which he is joined
by accordionist Teodoro Anzellotti form the album’s roof.Sounding
somewhere between an organ and a hurdy-gurdy, the sheer depth of tone
from Demenga’s cello in these is inspiring.He also offers two pieces of his own, of which the programmatic New York Honk is a delightful end.
Demenga’s playing is such that one can feel the lineage that binds
all of this music together into a masterful patchwork as idiosyncratic
as it is (seemingly) inevitable. Such programming epitomizes the ECM New
Series spirit insofar as it charts the contemporary while paying due
respect to the antique in what amounts to one of Demenga’s finest
recordings to date and a label landmark. (ECM Reviews)
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