Andrew Clements 

Dusapin: Morning in Long Island; Reverso; Uncut CD review – strong but patchy

Reverso, and especially Uncut, with its thrilling opening volleys for six horns, make a more forceful individual impression here than in the whole cycle, writes Andrew Clements
  
  

Pascal Dusapin
Limited approach … Pascal Dusapin. Photograph: Jean-François Leclercq Photograph: © Jean-François Leclercq/PR

Reverso and Uncut are the final two works in a seven-part cycle of Solos for Orchestra that Pascal Dusapin assembled piecemeal between 1992 and 2009. There are musical connections between all the pieces, as well as an overarching shape to the sequence – the whole of it appeared on a Naive disc four years ago. But they are designed to be performed separately, too. Reverso, and especially Uncut with its thrilling opening volleys for six horns, make a much stronger individual impression in this context than they do as part of the whole cycle. Coming to terms with Dusapin’s recent music means accepting the fact that the rhythmic interest is often distinctly patchy, and that his orchestral music now builds by accretion, adding instrumental layer upon layer. The rather shapeless, half-hour-long Morning in Long Island from 2011 shows the limitations of his approach, relying on a spatially separated brass trio and, in the last of the five movements, a cosmetic application of Latin American percussion to provide the glitter.

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*