Music of Vaughan Williams, Kay, Bach, Barlow, Walker, and Haydn. JoAnn Falletta, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Beau Fleuve Records 605996-998579.
By John J. Puccio
JoAnn Falletta, the longtime (1999-present) Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic hardly needs an introduction, given the vast praise that audiences and critics around the world have heaped upon her. She has chosen to title the current album Light in a Time of Darkness, which she explains in a liner note:
“As we look back on the challenges of 2020 and 2021, we realize that our music kept us emotionally alive. The BPO musicians and I played throughout the pandemic, masked, socially distanced and in small groups, filming our concerts to share with our audiences. Those experiences for us were intense--learning music we had never played and communicating with each other in different ways. But it also was an astounding and beautiful time for us. The music seemed to take on a deeper dimension, to reach us on a profound spiritual level. Without question, music kept us together, healthy and grateful to be able to perform for the community we love.
In this CD, we have chosen six pieces that were high points of the season for us in terms of their emotional depth and spirituality. We hope that you will enjoy the extraordinary musicians of the Buffalo Philharmonic in this expression of our heartfelt thanks to you, our beloved family.”
There are half a dozen short pieces on the program, the first of which is the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). He wrote and premiered it in 1910 on a commission from the Three Choirs Festival, basing his theme on a tune by the sixteenth-century English composer Thomas Tallis. Ms. Falletta approaches it in a graceful, warmhearted manner, the orchestra sounding lush and velvety smooth.
Next up is Pieta by the neoclassicist American composer Ulysses Kay (1919-1995). The title derives from Latin, meaning “piety or compassion” and refers more specifically to depictions of the Virgin Mary grieving over the dead body of Christ. These first two selections seem appropriate to the dark days of the pandemic, but Ms. Falletta never lets them sink into pathos. In their own spiritual ways, they are quite moving and uplifting.
After that is a familiar work, the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 by Johann Sebastian Bach. I had to admit it had been a long time since I last heard a Brandenburg played by anything but a period-instrument band, Although Ms. Falletta and her players may not sound exactly the way Bach would have heard the piece, her well-disciplined direction would surely delight him. This is a comfortable Bach, cozy, relaxed, and refined.
Following the Brandenburg is are two short pieces, The Winter’s Passed by American composer Wayne Barlow (1912-1996) and Lyric for Strings--Lament by American composer and pianist George Walker. They add further notes of inspiration to the agenda, notwithstanding a touch of melancholy; and they are beautifully played by the orchestra and its director.
The program closes with the Symphony No. 44 in E minor, “Trauer,” by Austrian composer Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809). While Haydn may be known as the “father of the string quartet,” he is also known as the “father of the symphony,” having written over a hundred of them at a time when the genre was just getting off the ground. The nickname for Symphony No. 44, “Trauer,” means “grief or mourning,” and that may explain why an apocryphal story arose that Haydn wanted the slow movement played at his funeral (it wasn’t). Haydn wrote the work during his “Sturm und Drang” period (“storm, stress”), and even though there are a fair share of intensely severe moments in it, the slow Adagio movement is certainly not one of them. Because of the work’s emotional contrasts, some music scholars consider it an important forerunner of Romanticism.
Whatever, Ms. Falletta’s way with Haydn is much in the manner of the rest of the program. She handles it with great confidence in an easygoing, cultivated performance that is bigger on tenderness and compassion than it is on excitement or thrills. It makes a fine and fitting conclusion to an album that glows with affection.
Producer and engineer Bernd Gottinger recorded the music at Kleinhans Music Hall, Buffalo, New York in 2020 and 2021. The sound is plush, warm, and comfortable, about what you would hear from the audience’s perspective at a medium distance in a concert hall. There is a pleasant, ambient glow around the music that is most flattering.
JJP
To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click below:
By John J. Puccio
“As we look back on the challenges of 2020 and 2021, we realize that our music kept us emotionally alive. The BPO musicians and I played throughout the pandemic, masked, socially distanced and in small groups, filming our concerts to share with our audiences. Those experiences for us were intense--learning music we had never played and communicating with each other in different ways. But it also was an astounding and beautiful time for us. The music seemed to take on a deeper dimension, to reach us on a profound spiritual level. Without question, music kept us together, healthy and grateful to be able to perform for the community we love.
In this CD, we have chosen six pieces that were high points of the season for us in terms of their emotional depth and spirituality. We hope that you will enjoy the extraordinary musicians of the Buffalo Philharmonic in this expression of our heartfelt thanks to you, our beloved family.”
There are half a dozen short pieces on the program, the first of which is the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). He wrote and premiered it in 1910 on a commission from the Three Choirs Festival, basing his theme on a tune by the sixteenth-century English composer Thomas Tallis. Ms. Falletta approaches it in a graceful, warmhearted manner, the orchestra sounding lush and velvety smooth.
After that is a familiar work, the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 by Johann Sebastian Bach. I had to admit it had been a long time since I last heard a Brandenburg played by anything but a period-instrument band, Although Ms. Falletta and her players may not sound exactly the way Bach would have heard the piece, her well-disciplined direction would surely delight him. This is a comfortable Bach, cozy, relaxed, and refined.
Following the Brandenburg is are two short pieces, The Winter’s Passed by American composer Wayne Barlow (1912-1996) and Lyric for Strings--Lament by American composer and pianist George Walker. They add further notes of inspiration to the agenda, notwithstanding a touch of melancholy; and they are beautifully played by the orchestra and its director.
The program closes with the Symphony No. 44 in E minor, “Trauer,” by Austrian composer Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809). While Haydn may be known as the “father of the string quartet,” he is also known as the “father of the symphony,” having written over a hundred of them at a time when the genre was just getting off the ground. The nickname for Symphony No. 44, “Trauer,” means “grief or mourning,” and that may explain why an apocryphal story arose that Haydn wanted the slow movement played at his funeral (it wasn’t). Haydn wrote the work during his “Sturm und Drang” period (“storm, stress”), and even though there are a fair share of intensely severe moments in it, the slow Adagio movement is certainly not one of them. Because of the work’s emotional contrasts, some music scholars consider it an important forerunner of Romanticism.
Whatever, Ms. Falletta’s way with Haydn is much in the manner of the rest of the program. She handles it with great confidence in an easygoing, cultivated performance that is bigger on tenderness and compassion than it is on excitement or thrills. It makes a fine and fitting conclusion to an album that glows with affection.
Producer and engineer Bernd Gottinger recorded the music at Kleinhans Music Hall, Buffalo, New York in 2020 and 2021. The sound is plush, warm, and comfortable, about what you would hear from the audience’s perspective at a medium distance in a concert hall. There is a pleasant, ambient glow around the music that is most flattering.
JJP
To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click below:
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