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Milton Babbitt, the composer, theorist, and Juilliard composition professor, is one of the most celebrated and controversial figures in music today. Anyone interested in contemporary electronic music cannot escape the significance of Babbitt's pioneering 1960s experiments with early synthesizers. But his superhumanly difficult works are seldom heard live in concert and recordings are relatively limited. So as Juilliard marks Babbitt's 90th birthday on March 27 with a concert of his works in Paul Recital Hall, it's worth exploring some of the best CDs on the market.
One key to appreciating Babbitt's music is to sample the wide range of media in which he has worked. His early works in total serialism—the method in which virtually every element of the music is tightly organized and controlled—include a pair of string quartets and his Three Compositions for Piano. But do yourself a favor and skip right to All Set, a 1957 piece for jazz group of saxophones, brass, piano, vibes, and percussion. Although it would hardly be mistaken for Miles Davis, it pulsates with a cool sense of playfulness and reflects Babbitt's childhood saxophone studies. The Contemporary Chamber Ensemble conducted by Arthur Weisberg made a pioneering recording of this work in 1992 that remains the standard-bearer (Nonesuch 79222).
Babbitt really came into his element when he began applying his serial-rooted virtuosity to the hulking RCA synthesizer and magnetic tapes during the late 1950s and '60s. The 1961 Vision and Prayer for soprano and tape is a prime example, sheathing a 12-stanza Dylan Thomas poem in a hauntingly beautiful cascade of electronic bleeps and jingles. Check out the classic recording by the Group for Contemporary Music, featuring Bethany Beardslee, a soprano who specialized in works by Babbitt and other contemporary composers (CRI 521, available used on Amazon.com). She appears again in Philomel, a now-classic piece for voice and tape, written in 1964, that still dazzles with its many shadings and contrasts (New World Records 80466).
Orchestras often face the biggest hurdles with Babbitt's music, which is hardly conducive to limited rehearsal time. One contemporary conductor who has risen to the challenge is James Levine, although his one Babbitt recording (of the Correspondences, with the Chicago Symphony) is currently out of print. Still available is Babbitt's 1965 Relata I for orchestra, a work of characteristically intimidating polyphonic complexity (it features as many as 48 individual lines taking place at once). The Juilliard Orchestra led by Paul Zukofsky performs it on a 1990 recording, released as part of the Juilliard American Music Recording Institute program (New World 80396-2). (Also on this CD are works by two other composers who were associated with the School: Vincent Persichetti and David Diamond.)
Finally it's worth noting that even the most treacherous chamber pieces also feature a healthy dose of tongue-in-cheek humor. The 1978 My Ends Are My Beginnings invokes Machaut's famous rondo Ma fin est mon commencement and it is regarded by many as one of most difficult-to-play works for a solo woodwind instrument. The piece's dedicatee, Allen Blustine, a longtime clarinetist for Speculum Musicae, gives a heroic reading of this 17-minute solo on an all-Babbitt recording by the Cygnus Ensemble (Bridge 9135). The disc also includes the 2003 Swan Song No. 1, written for Cygnus's unusual instrumentation of flute, oboe, mandolin, guitar, violin, and cello. The cheeky title suggests both a farewell and a continuation and indeed, one finds in the dance-like syncopations and kaleidoscopic textures that Babbitt remains as vital as ever.
Mention this column at the Juilliard Bookstore to receive a 5-percent discount on this month's featured recordings. (In-store purchases only.)Brian Wise is a producer at WNYC radio and writes about music for The New York Times, Time Out New York, Opera News, and other publications. |
