Uncompromising in his life as he was in his music, Korean composer Isang
Yun (1917–95) held fast to his dream of a united Korea, even as he was
unjustly accused of espionage for North Korea and sentenced to
imprisonment and death. From a life of unimaginable oppression and
torture emerges music of raw emotional power, heard on
ISANG YUN: Sunrise Falling, a centennial commemoration of Yun’s life and music from
the PENTATONE Oxingale Series. Maestro Dennis Russell Davies, a
longtime collaborator and advocate for Yun, curates the program and
conducts the Bruckner Orchestra Linz. A cellist himself, Yun’s
fascinating, highly autobiographical Concerto for Violoncello and
Orchestra (1975/76) anchors the album. In a live performance, cellist
Matt Haimovitz tackles the controlled chaos of Yun’s score, bursting
with passion, despair, and new timbral textures, such as the use of a
plectrum to emulate the Korean zither, the kŏmun’go. Yun’s Concerto for
Violin and Orchestra No. 1 (1981) features violinist Yumi
Hwang-Williams, who reflects upon her own emotional return to Korea in
2015, where she performed the work at a Festival in honor of Yun. The
double album also includes the orchestral Fanfare & Memorial, and
additional illuminating solo works by Yun performed by pianist Maki
Namekawa, Hwang-Williams, and Haimovitz. 100 years after Isang Yun’s
birth, the two Koreas still teeter on a razor’s edge, with ever more
global ramifications. His music opens the gate to a lost, united land,
with Yun’s own heart bleeding but ever hopeful.
This recording of Philip Glass' opera Kepler comes from the world-premiere production at the Landestheater Linz in 2009. Veteran Glass associate Dennis Russell Davies leads soloists and the chorus of the theater and the Bruckner Orchester Linz
in the performance. Kepler, a treatment of the life and thought of the
17th century German astronomer, returns to the epic themes of the trio
of great biographical operas that initiated Glass' career as an opera composer, Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha, and Akhnaten, and the libretto in German and Latin by Martina Winkel
has some echoes of the non-linear aspect of those works. The music
reflects more recent developments in the composer's style, particularly a
use of denser, thicker orchestral textures, more like those of The
Voyage, which Davies
recorded with the Linz forces after its 2002 European premiere. The
music doesn't break any new ground (except for perhaps the increased
prominence Glass
gives to the large percussion section) and lacks the variety that made
works like Einstein and Satyagraha so striking. Particularly in the
first of the two acts, the music has a relentlessly anguished, roiling
quality. The second act is more musically successful, with greater
textural and tonal variety. For the most part, the higher voices, among
both the soloists and the chorus, sound taxed and strained by Glass' demands for so much singing in the upper register. In the title role, baritone Martin Achrainer
sings with warmth and security, and gives focus to a production that is
not otherwise especially vocally gratifying. Kepler may not rank among Glass'
most memorable operas, which include his first three and later works
like La Belle et la Bête and Orphée, but it should be of interest to the
composer's fans, and it's always valuable to have a recording of a
major composer's large-scale works. (Stephen Eddins)
