I have never liked commercial “popular”
music, nor musicals or operetta. I do, however, like good folk music,
including “gypsy” music from Central Europe, klezmer music, some
traditional jazz, and much folk music from Kentucky and Tennessee,
with singers such as Gillian Welch. The highly talented Czech
violinist, Pavel Sporcl, has made something of a speciality of
the gypsy music of Central Europe, with his band the Gypsy Way. “Gypsy” here embraces much of the traditional folk
music emanating particularly from Hungary and Romania where folk,
klezmer and gypsy have all overlapped over the centuries.
On a new double CD set called Alla
Zingarese, Sporcl and his band go through their paces and the
result is exhilarating and highly addictive listening. To my ears, it
all sounds thoroughly “gypsy”. On the flip-side (as one used to
say) the second CD is given over to a Chicago group Civitas
Ensemble, headed by Yuan-Qing Yu from Shanghai, who is
also the deputy leader of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The group
features Ms Yu on the violin, a cellist, a clarinettist and a
pianist; they join the Gypsy Way on the first CD side. Their
six tracks are not really zingarese, but more music influenced
by Central European folk music, such as Liszt's C sharp minor
Hungarian Rhapsody played as a piano solo by Winston Choi, or an
effective arrangement of Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody No.1 by Cliff
Colinot. Most of the Civitas tracks feature mainly one solo
instrument (the talented Ms Yu opens the proceedings with a five
minute solo violin piece by Sylvie Bodorova). All enjoyable but, for
my taste, lacking the authentic gypsy zing of Sporcl and his
Gypsy Way group. I did not take to Lukas Sommer's Cigi-Civi,
but no one writes contemporary music to appeal to me, and the piece
only lasts for 3:47.
Most of the pieces on the Sporcl tracks
are arrangements; nothing wrong with that and even, in the
arrangement of Sarasate's evergreen Zigeunerweisen arranged by
Lukas Sommer, the small group accompanying Sporcl's fireworks is
probably more enjoyable and appropriate than the traditional piano or
orchestra accompaniment. The 88 minutes on these two CDs go past
quickly and gave me a great deal of enjoyment.
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