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 CD ECLIPSE: THE MUSIC OF BERNARD RANDS TMC RECORDINGS CD-1423 This CD features three relatively recent orchestral pieces by Pulitzer Prize winner and Harvard faculty member Bernard Rands. All are first rate listens, deserving of the widest possible exposure, lovingly presented. The single movement London Serenade (1988), unlike the London Symphonies of Vaughan Williams and Haydn, is not named for the English city. Rather, the work is a gift composed in honor of Rands’ friend Edwin London, a composer and conductor based in Cleveland. It’s a most wonderful tribute, too, a well scribed selection that liberally quotes material from other of Rands’ pieces and is built from juxtapositions of small sections alternatively turbulent and calm in mood. Wisely, the composer does not allow this pattern to result in a simple back-and-forth roller coaster ride; here, Rands tones down the agitated material in the central part of the work to produce a large scale ternary feel, letting the outer sections exhibit much wider emotional swings. It’s also a relatively tonal piece in relation to the rest of this composer’s oeuvre—many of the lovely calm sections are frankly triadic in sound. Like all this tonemeister’s work, London Serenade contains stunningly effective and colorful scoring, with especially ample opportunities presented here for solo wind players (particularly flute and clarinet). Madrigali (after Monteverdi/Berio) (1976) is the oldest of the items presented, an imaginative deconstruction of music by the aforementioned early Baroque master. The work’s parameters can be traced back in one way or another to elements from Monteverdi’s eighth book of madrigals, with references to Luciano Berio’s transcription of “Il Combattimento.” Despite being derived from music written in a functional harmony vein, the first four movements of the work find an inimitable world of verticals able to sound late 20th century sophisticated while felicitously accommodating the borrowed basis material. The last, containing a full quote of “Amor-Lamento della Ninfa,” employs chance operations which cloud the triadic material in a manner at once vaguely reminiscent of Copland style pandiatonicism yet very different from it. In short, this fine piece is very much Rands’ own, not a lazy arrangement. The three-part Canti trilogy may well be the best-known entity in this composer’s sizable portfolio. Presented here is the last of the three to be composed, Canti dell’Eclisse (1993) for bass singer soloist accompanied by either orchestra or chamber ensemble (the former version appears on this recording). Mirroring the uneasy relationship between sun and moon (the subjects of the first two cycles in the set) found in an eclipse, the sound world is anxiously expressionist while still finding much variety within this baseline approach. Despite being the latest of the works on this recording, it’s the most dissonant in sound. And the dark timbres do not end with the employment of a bass soloist; one prominently hears plenty such lower register material, with bass clarinet emerging as a particular presence. It’s a splendid listen, a worthy equal to the earlier settings of solar and lunar poetry. Singer Thomas Paul (for whom Canti dell’Eclisse was written) is excellent, featuring able diction and a voice both resonant and well focused. Despite occasional errors of pitch and ensemble (most of the former occurring because of an out of tune harp passage in London Serenade), the playing of the Kiev Camerata as led by Virko Baley is extremely good. One should especially cite the group’s wind and brass principals, who perform their exposed passages with security and flair. Sound is very good and production top-notch. Highly recommended. --David Cleary |