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Art Music Lounge

British composer Frederick Paul Naftel (b. 1956) is one of those independent artists whose music is played occasionally but remains outside the mainstream. As my readers know, there are several fine composers who fill that bill, including America’s John Carollo, but Naftel is luckier than most because he has an academic background (Manchester University, 1978 & Trinity College of Music, 1980) and thus has more contacts within the academic music community willing and able to play and record his pieces. This was my first exposure to him.

Pascal’s Victim, written for a tuba quartet(!), immediately strikes the ear as rhythmically energetic as well as using unusual underlying chord positions which constantly puts the harmony in flux. One cannot really call it atonal or bitonal, but with no root notes to the chords it just moves around, particularly in the first movement; the second movement begins, and revisits, C major, but again there are moments when the harmony shifts and continues to do so. I would thus put Naftel in the category of an individualistic loner, one who follows no particular modern trend in composition but who clearly enjoys music that at least tends towards tonality. Rhythmically, he is also his own man, not only in the first movement but also in the third, where the rhythm tends towards 4/4 but is not at all consistently in that time signature; his rhythmic accents keep the rhythm moving around, although it is always strong. And let me tell you, the group Tubalaté consists of some truly extraordinary virtuosi: this music is NOT easy to play, and in addition to their pyrotechnics they maintain an extraordinarily well-focused tone, both individually and as a quartet.

But if you think you have Naftel pegged from Pascal’s Victim, wait until you hear the extraordinary piano suite Aphoristic Impressions. Here, Naftel pushes the piano soloist into some absolutely incredible rhythmic passages in a bitonal setting, and American pianist Haley Myles, for whom it was written, is absolutely extraordinary as well in terms of both technique and an almost manic energy. Myles’ academic background is solid but extremely unusual for an American, having attended the Mozarteum in Austria, the Imola Piano Academy in Italy and the Trinity Laban Conservatory in England, along with some lessons from Paul Badura-Skoda, Cyprien Katsaris and Enrico Pace among others. But where she received her training isn’t half as important as what she does with it, and let me tell you, this one DYNAMIC performer!

In fact, the consistent intensity of every performance on this CD complements the music so well that one is convinced that Naftel is one of those rarities, a British composer with a fiery disposition. Even in the soft opening of his String Quartet No. 2, written in five sections played without a break, there is an underlying tension—again, partly due to the incredible commitment of the performers—consistent with everything else on this album. It’s hard to describe this movement except to say that there is an almost consistent drone by viola and cello on a low F while the two violins play slow but tense melodic figures over it. Eventually these figures begin sliding upward, like a cat awakening from a nightmare, as the volume slowly increases; the cello and viola then play individual fast, edgy figures as the violins hold the chord and the volume slowly increases. Naftel is clearly in his own little world as a composer; I really can’t think of any other living composer whose music his resembles. And yes, that’s a good thing! Naftel informs us that this piece was conceived during the Coronavirus pandemic, but in his case he did not create a drippy, maudlin piece, but one bristling with nervous energy even in its quiet passages. Hard to describe but east for the ear to grasp, this quartet contains sadness and regret as well as his willingness to fight through those emotions and emerge stronger as a result of them. As he put it in the liner notes,

The intervals of the major 7th and minor 2nd are a strong feature of the music, which contrasts intensely static passages, which are nevertheless uneasily tranquil, with furious and violent sections, often marked triple forte in certain passages.

Interestingly, Naftel also informs us that the final section includes a pre-recorded cello playing pizzicato pedal underneath the violins and viola playing a series of overlapping tonal triads. As I say, he really is in his own little world, and his music keeps you on the edge of your seat.

This is followed by his Song of Songs, a rhapsody for string orchestra and harp based on several Hebraic chants and melodies. Thus the music is more tonal albeit based on minor keys and modes consistent with such tunes, yet he still manages to maintain that tension which characterizes all of his work. The recorded sound on this piece, however, is a bit too distant and riddled with reverb, not a fault of the players but of the engineer. Once again, the level of the performance, both in terms of technique and emotional commitment, is exceptional. Although Naftel pretty much maintains a tonal bias in this piece, that doesn’t mean that it remains static, and as is his wont, there are strong, energetic passages interspersed with the lyrical. The Aubade, a brief “pastorale for strings,” is meant to describe a day in the English countryside. This is the most consistently tonal and melodic piece so far on this CD. Naftel calls this a tribute to the pastoral style of British music, particularly Vaughan Williams who is his favorite composer.

The short Folksong Suite was based on six British and Scottish folksongs. Again there is a stronger sense of tonality than in his opening pieces, but here the strong rhythmic attacks and intense emotion return. There is a cello theme that sounds more British than Spanish to me, but it fits in wonderfully well. In the “Lament” we hear Loch Lomond, for instance. The third section of this suite, “Country Dance,” returns us to the emotionally powerful feeling of the earlier pieces on this disc without returning us to the ambiguous tonality.

Villancico was influenced by Spanish music ranging from the Renaissance to that of Rodrigo, so tonality is again the key, but here Naftel seems to be having fun. Once again, the orchestra is recorded in an over-reverberant sound space, which makes it sound like a recording taken from 1960s television—I really do wish that the engineer, unidentified but apparently associated with the Pebble Mill Studios in Edgbaston, would either retune his ears or let someone else set up the microphone placement.

I don’t know if it was good programming to place all of the edgier music at the beginning of the CD and all the tonal pieces at the end, but I can see how at least some of Naftel’s music gets performed publicly since it fits into the British mold. Nonetheless, he is a very interesting and individualistic figure, one worth checking out.