Pies Upiru [The Vampires' Ball]. (CD Review).

Nederlands Blazers Ensemble: Iva Bittova, Leos Janacek

The album Pies Upiru [The Vampires Ball], originally released by the Dutch Group Nederlands Blazers Ensemble and now taken over by Indies, has reached us after a two-year time lag. The album is a recording of a joint concert given by the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble and the Czech singer, violinist and composer Iva Bittova. Until now listeners have been accustomed to hearing Bittova in smaller groups of chamber type (apart from exceptions on the Classic album), and a fifteen member ensemble of wind instruments with percussion certainly represents quite a massive sound. So large a number of musicians cannot play very freely, and so the roles are divided. The vocals and violin operate freely and playfully (as is usual with Bittova) while the ensemble mainly offers ostinato accompaniments and interludes. The arrangements were created by Stevan Kovacs Tickmayer, a Hungarian composer living in France. They are undoubtedly highly professional (it is clear from the striking rhythms that Tickmayer studied composition w ith Louis Andriessen), but one always has the sense that the pieces were originally created for a different kind of performance and sound rather heavy-handed in their new form. The choice of pieces represents a cross-section through Iva Bittova's discography from the album Divna slecinka [Strange Little Miss] to the second most recent title Classic, and also gets up to the album Bile inferno [White Inferno]. The piece Winds was composed specially for the NBE 

Apart from music by Iva Bittova herself, the album also includes pieces by Leos Janacek, a composer to whom the singer has a strong affinity. Here we can find her version of the composer's Cekam Te [I Wait for You] for voice and saxophone and three parts of the Cycle Po zarostlem chodnicku [Along an Overgown Path] (nos. 7, 1 and 11), arranged for the ensemble by the bassoonist Ronald Karten. These arrangements also sound good, although perhaps too melodious and idyllic, which is not quite in tune with the temperament of the rest of the album. Janacek's music on the one hand almost cries out for orchestral arrangement, but on the other there is a danger that his unique melodic ideas will vanish behind orchestral play with colour. Teodoro Anzellotti album (see the following review) offers an interesting comparison.

The Vampires Ball is an interesting and generally agreeable attempt to present well-known pieces by Iva Bittova in a new sound context, but it does not look as if this is a road that leads much further, For that we shall probably have to wait for the next studio title.