CONTENTSCONGRATULATIONS
TO . . ., 3 LIVE EVENTS Veddy British Music
(Kraft) <> Going Into 'Understated Drive' (Kroll), 6 DOTTED NOTES from … Kraft, Kroll, Greenfest, Hickey, BLC, 16 SPEAKING OUT! Thoughts on the Pulitzer Prize, 17 AN INTERVIEW WITH … David Holzman, 19 THE PRINTED WORD Berger's Reflections (Kraft), 20 THE SCOREBOARD Sperry's Encores (Drogin), 21 RECORDINGSMini but Not Mousy
(Cleary) <> Bell's Echoes of Bela (Cleary) <> Just a Few Will Do (Cleary),
22 RECENT RELEASES, 24 THE PUZZLE CORNER, 25 COMPOSER INDEX, 27 BULLETIN BOARD, 27
WEB SUPPLEMENTA John Adams biography and an interview LIVE EVENTS Boston
Modern Orchestra Project CD REVIEWS Angel
Shadows: Laurel Ann Maurer |
Review of CDANGEL SHADOWS: LAUREL ANN MAURER Thom Ritter George: *Six American Folk Songs for Flute and Piano, CN341 (1990); Meyer Kupferman: *Arcana I for Solo Flute (1989); Lowell Liebermann: Sonata for Flute and Piano, Op. 23 (1987); Dana Paul Perna: *Fantasy-Sonata for Unaccompanied Flute, Op. 45 (1979); Walter Piston: Sonata for Flute and Piano (1930); Augusta Read Thomas: *Angel Shadows for Solo Alto Flute (1993) (*world premiere recording) Laurel Ann Maurer—flute, Mark Neiwirth, Joanne Pearce Martin—piano 4TAY INC., 4TAY-CD-4006 This release is evenly divided between flute/piano duos and selections for solo flute (or alto flute in one case), and it’s the latter triumvirate that provides the most consistently pleasing auditory experience. Meyer Kupferman’s Arcana I for Solo Flute (1989) fruitfully explores the dichotomy between its two primary ideas, one bouncy and cellular, the other warm and long breathed. But these materials possess sufficient similarity of detail that they interact and mesh well together, culminating in a nicely spoken amalgam by work’s end. The title track (1993), an alto flute solo by Augusta Read Thomas, essentially inverts the procedure Kupferman employs, splitting its attractive opening phrase in two and proceeding to imbue each with recognizable personality while playing them off each other. Thomas’s utilization of a readily perceivable repetition of the opening measures transposed up an octave serves as recapitulation and helps ground this excellent work structurally. Fantasy-Sonata for Unaccompanied Flute, Op. 45 (1979) by Dana Paul Perna is a brief, effective three-movement composition that finds a convincing middle ground between the two title genres. Sonata boundaries are present, if loosely established, providing a viable skeleton for Perna’s rhapsodic melodic outpourings. While the duos presented here can be characterized as Neoclassic Americana in spirit, only Walter Piston’s Sonata for Flute and Piano (1930) is the real deal, being written during the heyday of this ethos. It’s a clear, well-made composition that puts forth its traditional structures with confidence and imagination. And for a work of this ilk, it’s surprisingly brooding and dissonant. All in all, fine stuff. Both the Sonata for Flute and Piano Op. 23 (1987) by Lowell Liebermann and Six American Folk Songs for Flute and Piano CN341 (1990) by Thom Ritter George look back to this historical era and to varying degrees veer perilously close to being style studies. That being said, the two-movement Liebermann sonata is by far the stronger selection of these. Like the Piston, the mood encountered is highly charged, not fleecy, featuring a well built first movement that alternates nervously hushed and vigorously explosive music and a drivingly kinetic perpetual motion finale. Despite suffering in a few places from overwritten piano accompaniments that swamp the flautist, there’s much worthwhile listening here. George’s piece can be cited positively for being fantasias, not slavish statements, of the folk songs mentioned in movement subtitles. But regrettably, the effect here is often sentimental, even corny at times—ultimately the modern equivalent of what one used to call “parlor music” a century ago. Flautist Laurel Ann Maurer performs well here, exhibiting a strong, full tone quality and good control in slow passages as well as able finger technique in most fast segments. The only exception to this occurs in the first of George’s Folk Songs, where Maurer scrambles at times to keep up with her fleet footed accompanist. Both Mark Neiwirth and Joanne Pearce Martin provide rock steady piano backing. Sound quality varies a good bit on this disc, at its best in the Perna and Thomas selections, a bit stuffy and distant in the George, Kupferman, Liebermann (first movement only), and Piston, and weak in the Liebermann finale, where crackling background noise is audible. Production is generally good. --David Cleary |