RENÉ GRUSS & NEWKLASSICAL

Sunday, December 12, 1999

I would like to introduce to everyone Mr. René Gruss. He's in his early forties, lives in London and composes classical music.

My first encounter with Mr. Gruss occurred about two years back, right here on the Internet, on a message board somewhere about classical music. The topics on this board ranged from the usual inquiries about this or that having to do with one of the huge number of well known composers of classical music or about performers, ensembles, performances, news etc. to the threads that led in more of a controversial or speculative direction.

These topics often concerned threads about more controversial modern composers, their music or the future of classical music itself as a viable art form. Of course I was far more interested in these and apparently so too was Mr. Gruss, and probably more to the point we discovered that we often agreed, specifically that there simply wasn't much point to a "music", call it classical or otherwise, which is so unmusical that you literally can't even enjoy it, on any level. Oh of course there were any number of people who claimed they did enjoy it on some exalted intellectual level, or that this music was good for us like some bad tasting medicine.

Mr. Gruss and I both came in for our share of abuse from those opposed to our objections to the artistic viability of certain kinds of modern, so called classical, music or the works of some of its composers. I do not know whether Mr. Gruss was nearly as motivated as I was in my contributions to that forum, with an attitude that if someone out here would dare say that the Emperor had no clothes, or that the wool had to be pulled out from in front of everyone's eyes, then that person might just as well be me. I argued, and was as often as not seconded by Mr. Gruss, that if the international audience for classical music and even its performers concurred in finding some, no a lot, of modern music not worth their serious consideration, then that the cause was not to be found in the audiences, but rather to be found squarely in the music, and therefore a new approach and return to tonality was required in order to bring the development of classical music back on track.

RENÉ GRUSS: BELLATRIX

* * * *

The other CD contains a set of four piano studies called Notes in Motion. These are wonderfully played by Nicholas Walker. It is a very great honor for a modern classical composer to have another musician play your music, especially something like these four piano studies.

I subject a lot of new music to continuous play and see what happens. My first reaction to these four piano studies was that I began to visualize them choreographed as modern dance pieces. These are complex pieces and yet completely accessible. Study 1 is in F minor, a jaunty andante. Study 2 is in A flat minor, and sounds as if it's in part a Tango. Study 3 is in F minor again and sounds a bit jazz or blues influenced, but there's much else going on in it. Some of it would make an excellent spy movie score, especially the sort of enigmatic "night stalker" like theme. Study 4 is in A minor and is to my ear more directly influenced by Gruss' Greek and Romanian native idioms.

Of course these pieces wouldn't come off half as well without the perceptive performance given them by Nicholas Walker, who has clearly and correctly perceived these studies to be the gems they are and taken them seriously as real classical music. The Tango like theme in Study 2 is played with complete fluidity of accent, steadiness of tempo and the restraint deserving of fine art. What I have called the "night stalker" theme in Study 3 followed by more demanding chordal and rhythmic episodes, is another well played section.

The result is really quite rewarding. This is music that sort of grows on you and before long you begin to hear snippits of it in your mind and you ask yourself, "where did that come from?" and before you know it, you're reminded of its composer and it's none other than from René Gruss.

As for NewKlassical and all it might entail, I'll await more information from Mr. Gruss and post it here.