FRANK MORANA
AmerOrganist 40/3

DIMITRI YANOV-YANOVSKY, BRUNO SCHWEYER, FELIX YANOV-YANOVSKY, ASHOT ZOGRABIAN, IVAN JEVTIC, 21e Siecle, D'Est en Ouest, Cinq pièces d'aujourd'hui pour grand-orgue (21st Century, From East to West, Five Contemporary Pieces for Organ). Editions du Chant du Monde (OR 4478), 31–33 rue Vandrezanne, 75013 Paris. €28.50. Here is the most recent collection of contemporary organ music commissioned and promoted by Les Editions du Chant du Monde, an estimable publisher with a clearly up-to-date and global perspective. Among living composers of organ music, nearly twenty have been represented to date. (For earlier reviews, see TAO, May 2002.) Facets, by Dimitri Yanov-Yanovsky (Uzbekistan), is a set of two contrasting pieces of modest technical and musical demands. The first piece is a slow evocation of cluster-like sonorities, the second, a quick scherzando in which repeated-note chords unfold in a slowly chromatic, but obviously humorous way. Ludes, by Bruno Schweyer (France), means "play," but also refers to the subtitle, Prélude, Interludes, et Postlude. These weave into one another seamlessly enough, and the whole work has an ambling, improvisatory character. The middle "interludes" (from mm. 54 and 75) feature some remarkable, incisive contrasts between foreground and background, melodically speaking. Idée Fixe, by Felix Yanov-Yanovsky (Uzbekistan), is based on a sort of dominant-ninth melodic idea, and is stylistically neo-expressionistic. But the pedal part falters, oblivious to the greater expressive potential that is possible (and expected) in this kind of writing; and the middle-section, which aspires to grand, recitative-like gestures, is spoiled by trite, common chords in the most critical places. Knots, by Ashot Zograbian (Armenia), is composed with a single affect in mind, but without much breathing space, and ironically, the rigorous atonalism often seems to settle upon an identifiable root. La Révélation de la Lumière, by Ivan Jevtic (Serbia), in contrast, is neo-romantic, structurally transparent (five sections plus coda), and the thematic ideas have a genuinely plaintive quality, though sometimes overly drawn-out. These pieces are offered with minimal registration suggestions, but only Ludes and Knots require third manual.