The American Project (CD review)

The American Project. Michael Tilson Thomas: Do You Come Here Often?; Teddy Abrams: Piano Concerto. (Yuja Wang, piano; Teddy Abrams, Louisville Symphony). Deutsche Grammophon 4864478

Teddy Abrams, the composer of the piano concerto that is the main work on this album, was a classmate of pianist Yuja Wang at the Curtis Institute; their relationship led to this album. Abrams was trained as a pianist and has performed in that capacity, but mostly has built a career in conducting, currently serving as the music director of the Louisville Symphony. Moreover, he has established a second career in composition, with something like sixteen published works. Wang, meanwhile, has made her name as a concert pianist. As near as I can figure, she has twenty-one albums to her credit, and has a reputation for formidable technical virtuosity - which takes us back to that composer / pianist relationship.

According to the all too brief liner notes, Abrams wrote the Concerto with Wang in mind. He was originally thinking of a piece along the lines of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, but the composition grew into this nearly 40-minute full concerto. Although the composition outgrew the original idea, it retains the use of jazz styles, now augmented with a broader range of idioms, still mostly identifiably American.

While Abrams’s Concerto is the main work here, the album opens with brief work for solo piano by Michael Tilson Thomas: Do You Come Here Often?

Both Bill and Karl reviewed this one. We didn't discuss the album until our respective reviews were complete, so let's see how our respective opinions line up!

Bill’s Take

I'll get one concern out of the way immediately: this CD is nowhere near “full”, containing just over 42 minutes of music. I listened via streaming, so for me that’s no big deal. But I can imagine a CD buyer feeling rather deprived.

Upon checking out the album, one might get a sense of what’s going on by reading the six page CD brochure. (Why do we still call them liner notes anyway?) The first page, the cover, is a photo of Ms Wang. On page 2, we have a half page photo of Wang; the other half shows her name in large font along with the album title, composer names, and orchestra name in smaller type. Page 3 shows a half page track listing, with the other half devoted to another photo of Wang. Page 4 is a half page graphic of a cityscape and a half page of notes mostly devoted to effusive praise of Wang's virtuosity. Page 5 continues the notes on a half page with – you knew this was coming – yet another photo of Wang on the other half. Finally, page six has a half page of credits with the other half containing a photo of Abrams and Wang together. Well, this is hardly the first time that a record label has devoted considerable space to promoting its artist, but a little more information about the composers and the compositions would have been nice.

So what about the Piano Concerto itself? Things start off with a nice groove in which the orchestra, augmented by a full drum kit, functions as a very large big band, and initially they swing pretty well. Subsequent movements run through several related styles, but retain a “jazzy American” feel. Indeed, the first time through the entire work, I found it enjoyable, although my attention did wander a bit. With repeated listening, though, my good mood gradually evaporated. Throughout the work, Wang's energy and technical abilities were apparent, with runs and leaps across the keyboard. But the orchestra too often was reduced to playing repeated short riffs over and over, gradually rising to a crescendo, usually to introduce yet another display of piano fireworks. Too often, solos from both the orchestra and the piano sounded like what we used to call noodling around; they had, as that supreme American musician Chuck Berry sang, no particular place to go.

Perhaps it’s just my inability to understand or appreciate the structure here; perhaps others will find the Concerto a work of great value. But in the end, for me, it simply seemed to be a vehicle for showing off technical chops rather than being music with the depth that I would have hoped for.

Ironically, the four-minute piece by Tilson Thomas,  Do You Come Here Often?, which even the liner notes seem to dismiss as a lightweight throwaway, was something that I found to be quite clever and interesting. Essentially a conversation between two hands on the piano, it called for just the kind of dexterity that Wang possesses. I heard the two melodic lines as sort of minimalist pieces, with each line repeating phrases that slide into new forms, sometimes gradually and sometimes suddenly. It stood up well to repeated hearings, and I would be eager to hear more of Tilson Thomas’s work from Wang, or from anyone else for that matter.

Karl’s Take

This is one of those release that I wanted to like, tried hard to like, listened to a number of times in several different settings to see whether that would help, but in the end, I could just never quite work up too much enthusiasm. But that does not mean that I found it without merit, as I shall attempt to explain. The program leads off with a brief piece for solo piano titled Do You Come Here Often? by the esteemed American conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. I’m not sure why the producer thought to open the program with this piece, as it seems to fit the bill better as an encore, but be that as it may, it is actually quite an interesting composition, rambunctious and playful, giving Ms. Wang a chance to display her dexterity with both hands without ever devolving into mere splashiness. When I first auditioned the album. I found the piece something of a distraction – something to be endured while waiting to get to the main program (like an ad before a YouTube video), but as I started to listen more seriously, I discovered that the more I listened, the more I found to appreciate and enjoy. With the Abrams Concerto, however, I never did quite reach that same point of appreciation and enjoyment. The work just struck me as unconvincing. It is hard to make a symphony orchestra truly swing, and Abrams, although he tries hard, does not quite bring it off. Wang digs deeply into her piano part, jazzing things up, giving us a little boogie-woogie, some ragtime – but overall, despite the virtuosity of the orchestra and soloist, the end product is ultimately unconvincing. In Abrams’s defense, though, I must point that a convincing marriage of jazz and orchestral music is extremely difficult to achieve. The composer who has come the closest is the late Russian, Nikolai Kapustin (a Kapustin concerto is reviewed here).