Edison Denisov: Crescendo e Diminuendo

Though “Crescendo e Diminuendo” is only partially improvised, you wouldn’t know by listening to it. This six-minute piece for string orchestra is sporadic, but the nonsense is constructed in such a strategic manner that it keeps the listener interested and on edge. The piece opens with a violin’s sustained non-vibrato F natural accompanied by intermittent intrinsic violin musings ranging from sixteenth notes that bound back and forth within an octave, to bow slapping, to rhythmic tremolo passages. All are seemingly random, but still make sense somehow. The random harpsichord activity makes the timbre of the piece all the more amusing with its sporadic and nonsensical solo. As we get deeper and deeper into “Crescendo e Diminuendo” the musicality becomes increasingly intense. And of course, Denisov remains true to the title he gave his work: the final minute-and-a-half of “Crescendo e Diminuendo” slowly drifts back to the sustained non-vibrato violin note with seemingly random orchestral musings.
Denisov has a pure talent for toeing the line between tasteful and unappealing, sanity and complete mayhem. He never crosses it, but he does come resplendently close.