This album of
contemporary American orchestral works includes five relatively short pieces
that Cedille advertise as making their recording premieres. I must admit I
didn’t care overmuch for all of them, which may explain why nobody has ever
recorded them before, but I must also admit that there are parts of some of
them that are distinctly worth pursuing.
Things begin with a
kaleidoscope affair by composer Barbara Kolb; it’s a ten-minute morsel called All in Good Time (1994). Kolb says it
represents a rhythmic development of time, and it does indeed stop and start
quite a lot on its way to its end. Fortunately, there are a few cute surprises
along the way, and it makes for some fascinating listening, especially since
Maestro Clarlos Kalmar and the Grant Park Orchestra seem to find much joy in
it.
Following this
piece, however, we find two rather gloomy works, Aaron Jay Kernis’s Sarabanda in Memoriam (1997) and Michael
Hersch’s Ashes of Memory (1999). Call
me a barbarian (“You’re a bararian”), but I found little solace, comfort, joy,
or life in them; maybe, given their titles, the listener isn’t meant to. I know
the usual retort to such a criticism is to say that I simply didn’t understand
the music. Fair enough; I’ll accept that. I didn’t understand it, and I didn’t
much like it, either.
John Corigliano’s Midsummer Fanfare (2004) I did like, though, quite a lot. It’s an energetic
affair once it gets underway, and under Maestro Kalmar it’s most festive and
confident. The final piece on the program is the longest at twenty-two minutes
and perhaps the most conventional, John Harbison’s four-movement Partita for Orchestra (2000). A booklet
note explains that the word “partita” has come to mean different things through
the centuries, but that Harbison uses it in several ways: as a game, a playing
with the music, and as a dance suite. The piece alternates between sweet,
lyrical passages, playful ones, and moody ones, ending on a fairly spirited
note. It’s fun, and, as I say, I enjoyed it.
I have come to
expect good things from Cedille Records and anything engineered or
co-engineered by Bill Maylone, and he did not disappointed me. The audio is
exemplary. The orchestral sound is vivid, clear, vibrant, and open, with plenty
of dynamic range and impact. In fact, the sound is so good it made even the
downbeat Kernis and Hersch pieces more pleasurable to listen to.
To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:
JJP
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