Teldec thoughtfully reproduce photographs of the original Klee pictures, so you can check your own visual reactions against those of the composer. Andras Schiff and Denes Varjon leave no phrase open to question, and the Budapest Festival strings under Heinz Holliger play brilliantly – and lusciously – throughout. The second piece, “Fire Wind”, blows in like a hurricane, shivering or snapping to col legno strings and pizzicatos the third is an “Old Sound” that superficially resembles the slow movement of Rodrigo’s much-loved Concierto de Aranjuez (the soloists open with the principal melody and the strings plunge in with their passionate response at 1'37''), then there’s the dry weaving of “Below and Above”, the guitar-like strumming of “Stone Collection”, the textural richness of “Green on Green” and a lively “Little Blue Devil” to close. The first of the “Fantasies for two pianos and string orchestra” that comprise Sandor Veress’s 1951 Hommage a Paul Klee strikes a tone that could as well have been achieved within the last two or three years by, say, Rautavaara, Hovhaness or indeed Harrison. “Mark in Yellow” had me phoning round my musical friends with the good news of some accessible music that has real quality (not a daily happening, you will agree).
But then the fun really starts: the two pianos combine or converge, the ray of string tone finds some pizzicatos for company, and the chiming starts to sound like a page out of Lou Harrison.
Initial impressions are misleading: a comfortably crescendoing string chord followed by simple keyboard chiming, a bit like a fragment from a soap-opera soundtrack.