Daniel Ahlert
Les Productions D’Oz: 4 pages
This German – born composer /performer has here produced two serious and sometimes disturbing pieces that are quite short and only total 47 bars in total.
Notturno is, I assume, dedicated to Ahlert’s duet partner Birgit Schwab and is an Andante Ma Non Molto that has a very dark character full of momentary dissonances that move around the melody and its other harmonies and is certainly spooky from the outset, with its continuous crotchet bass, over which the melody meanders, often climbing in pitch as it increases in volume in a most ominous way.
The very short but moving Requiem (for Emma) is a Larghetto that could almost be a folk song in its style and character. It is very sparsely harmonized and is only one melodic idea played twice through, with some variation in its second time round. Whereas this deeply felt piece no doubt has a reason to be so short, I felt it was perhaps a little too short, touchingly written though it was.
So in essence these are two sad, disturbing, and very short pieces that, although gripping to play seemed to need something else, maybe another couple of movements, or a longer version of the Requiem perhaps. Nevertheless there is some fine writing and melodic invention here.
Chris Dumigan
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