American Dreams

by Bill Heck

Duke Ellington: Night Creature (arr. David Berger); George Gershwin: An American in Paris (ed. M. Clauge); Leonard Bernstein: Symphonic Suite from “On the Waterfront”. Cincinnati Sympyhony Orchestra, cond. Louis Louis Langrée.  Fanfare Cincinnati. Available on most streaming platforms or for download from multiple sources.

Let me begin with a personal story: my wife and I lived in southwestern Ohio for about 10 years and during that period attended many Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra performances. This was during Paavo Jarvi’s tenure as Music Director, and we left the area a few years before Louis Langrée took over. However, we returned a few times each year, our visits often including trips with friends to attend CSO concerts. On one of these occasions, we were invited backstage after the concert and were privileged to meet with Maestro Langrée for a few moments of truly enjoyable and educational conversation. Give these experiences, not to mention the quality of  the many performances that we heard there over the years, I've always had warm, fuzzy feelings for the Cincinnati Symphony. So you have been warned: in reviewing the album, I'm a homer.

Duke Ellington

All three of the works here can be classified as "crossover" pieces, in the sense that they attempt to fuse popular musical approaches with the classical tradition. However, at least to my mind, that sort of language is, at best, hopelessly vague. The classical music tradition, or perhaps I should say the art music tradition, encompasses a huge range of styles and influences. Bringing jazz idioms, as in the case of the first two works, or traditions of musical theater, as in the case of the third, to classical music is just another milestone on a very long road. As Duke Ellington observed “There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.”

And speaking of Mr Ellington, the first piece in the collection here is his Night Creature. The work is deliberately symphonic, having been composed for the united forces of Ellington's big band plus a symphony orchestra. Although this is not generally regarded as one of Ellington's masterpieces, it sounds pretty appealing to me. (Hardly surprising, as it’s hard to believe that Ellington ever wrote really bad music.) We might also note that the “night creatures” are not the stock of horror films or cinema noir; instead they are fantasies, perhaps based on the people who inhabit the nighttime world in which musicians such as Ellington work and whom Ellington found fascinating.

George Gershwin

The booklet that accompanies the album is not explicit on where the "big band" musicians came from; some seem to be orchestra members, although the five saxophonists listed are referred to as "substitute musicians." Whatever the case. I'm old enough to have heard a couple of honest-to-goodness big bands: the playing here recalls the best of those, with solid timing and just a hint of the required swing without falling into the galumphing that too often was heard in the waning days of big band era (and is sometimes heard when classical musicians are trying just a little too hard to be jazzy). Langrée has everything moving along nicely and the balances allow us to hear into the heart of the arrangements.

Gershwin's An American in Paris is one of those pieces that you may have a hard time recalling until, upon hearing the first notes, you say "oh yeah, I know that!" The arrangement here for symphony orchestra has been around for a long time, but Langrée and the Cincinnatians make it sound like the piece was written just for them. The first word that occurred to me as I heard the opening bars was "lively" and I mean that in the best possible way: there's energy and crispness galore. Of course, tempos change as the music progresses and the moods vary, but the performance really is spot on throughout. The performance also is relaxed – and no, I'm not contradicting myself after saying that it's lively. I mean that it's relaxed in the sense that any professional makes their activity seem smooth and easy, regardless of how difficult it really might be at any moment.

Leonard Bernstein

The final work here, Bernstein's suite from On the Waterfront, is just what it sounds like: a collection of pieces from Bernstein’s score for the film of that name. (In the end, Bernstein was not happy with how his score was manipulated in the film; that’s presumably why he never wrote another movie score.) I've never been much of a fan of suites derived from film scores, as I generally miss the visual cues that help to make sense of the music; for me, this work is no exception. Still, although the piece in its entirety is not quite my cup of tea, I certainly can hear moments of appealing and interesting music, and the playing is more than up to par. If you're a Bernstein fan or more sympathetic than I to compositions of this sort, I think you'll be happy indeed. By now, it should go without saying that Langrée and the CSO make an excellent case for the work.

I can't close without remarking on the quality of the recording. The recording team of Dirk Sorbotka and Mark Donahue have done a masterful job indeed: balances are impeccable, the perspective is realistic, and there's just the right amount of hall sound to lend body without muddying up the presentation. Amazingly, these works were all recorded live; the audience must have been very healthy and quite enraptured, as there are no coughs, sneezes, or sounds of impatience. Indeed, the only indication that the audience was there at all is enthusiastic applause at the end of each work; frankly, I could have done without that bit – but my reaction is a minor quibble. A slightly more important quibble, although not a showstopper, is that the album notes available through streaming services and downloads give some interesting information about the history of the Cincinnati Symphony but lack any discussion of the music being played. However, detailed program notes are available through the CSO website, although it takes some digging to find them. (So that you don't need to do the digging, I've included a link right here.) Surely most listeners would be interested in these notes; it's a pity that a better arrangement for accessing them is not readily available.

You know, sometimes trying to review an album can be tiring (or even depressing if things are not so good). But sometimes, putting on a new album, and even listening a few times to really get into it, can be a delight. This album is one of the latter: it’s just flat out fun. If you were at all interested in the music, and you should be, have a listen!