Stravinsky Sings of Bassoons, and 2013 Answers

It's time again to visit Stravinsky's leaf oeuvre, as he left so many miniatures behind it would be entirely possible to make the whole first half of a concert from his leaves alone.  While he made a point to publish a few of them (such as the Double Canon), others were discovered among his papers after his death, such as the elusive Lied ohne Name.  

Written in 1917, at the height of his primitivist period (my favorite, BTW), the Lied ohne Name ("song without words", a form pioneered by Mendelssohn) went unpublished until the mid-60's when it was included in a bassoon technique book, and it didn't get its own edition until 1979.  Stravinsky certainly wasn't so famous and powerful in 1917 to get every stray note the publisher treatment, and bassoon duos aren't exactly a big-money market.  That hasn't stopped this charming piece from receiving a few recordings, mostly on all-Stravinsky albums like the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra's phenomenal 1996 Grammy winner Shadow Dances, one of my all-time favorite classical albums and a gold standard for Stravinsky interpretation.  Equally unstopped was the composition of an Avant-Garde deconstruction of the work for the festival crowd, though we had to wait until 2013 to experience it.

(Sorry about the poor quality)

Written for the Festival Ars Musica 2013, violinist/composer Paul Pankert's Variation ohne Name grows from the core notes of the Lied and stretches out into some very odd, atmospheric places.  Pankert swaps Stravinsky's amiable walking speed for static anticipation, the vast spaces allowing extended techniques to flow.  With rhythms as hard to count as these a less-than-literal touch can be either an asset or a poison, but in the case of the Variation the improvisational, bravura lines can wax and wane without the audience catching wise to any mistakes.  It might be a little silly to expect a profound examination of the Lied, and thankfully Pankert only sets out to have fun, getting as much cheeky elaboration as he can into 16 bars.  Obviously these two leaves demand to be performed together, so here's just such a performance (the premiere, of course).

~PNK