Hearth (CD Review)

by Karl Nehring 

In Dulci Jubilo (Original: Traditional German carol, 14^th century], arr. Clarice Assad;  The First Noël (Original: Traditional English carol, first published 1823), arr. Kevin Puts; Jingle Bells (Original: (James Lord Pierpont [1857]), arr. Michi Wiancko; I Wonder as I Wander (Original: Appalachian folk song, adapted by John Jacob Niles [1933]), arr. Reena Esmail; Deck the Halls (Original: Traditional Welsh tune [“Nos Galan”]), arr. Karl Mitze; Ma’oz Tzur (Rock of Ages) (Original: Traditional Hebrew hymn [lyrics from 13th century; melody from 17th-century German sources), arr. Sam Lipman; In the Bleak Midwinter (Original: Poem by Christina Rossetti [1872]), music by Gustav Holst [1906]),arr. Alex Berko; Mother’s Lullaby (based on then English Coventry Carol [16^th Century]), arr. Anna Clyne ;Wexford Carol [Carúl Loch Garman] (Original: Traditional Irish carol [possibly 12th century]), arr. Jeff Scott; halfspent (lo, how a rose…) (Based on: “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” [Traditional German carol, 16th century], harmonized by Michael Praetorius [1609]), composer/arranger: Gabriel Kahane; O Come, All Ye Faithful (Original: Attributed to John Francis Wade [18th century]), arr. Michael Begay; Dejlig er Den Himmel Blå (Oh How Beautiful the Sky) (Original: Lyrics by N.F.S. Grundtvig [1810], melody by Jacob Gerhard Meidell [1842]), arr. Paola Prestini; We Three (Based on: “We Three Kings” by John Henry Hopkins Jr. [1857]), arr. Derrick Skye; Silent Night (Original: Franz Xaver Gruber [music], Joseph Mohr [lyrics], {1818]), arr. Joel Love; Songs of Christmas Past: Original composition by Hyong-ki Joo. Miró Quartet (Daniel Ching, violin; William Fedkenheuer, violin; John Largess, viola; Joshua Gindele, cello) Pentatone 5187 495

I’d be willing to wager the contents of my Christmas stocking – well, maybe not ALL the chocolate – that if I were to ask random reader of Classical Candor to describe what the sound of Christmas music is like, I would not hear anything about the sound of a string quartet. Many of us enjoy Christmas music at this time of ear (although hearing it over and over and over again at the grocery store, gym, bakery, hardware store, mall, etc. can begin to be a bit much), music that has been recorded by choirs, orchestras, singers, organists, pianists, dance bands, chipmunks – heck, one of my favorite Christmas albums is for Hawaiian slack key guitar – but never before have I encountered a Christmas album of music arranged for string quartet. Fortunately, however, the Miró Quartet has not just thrown together some slapdash arrangements of familiar Christmas tunes to give us some bland renditions of no particular distinction. Instead, they have pulled together arrangements of Christmas music – plus an original composition – by contemporary composers.

Violist John Largess explains in the liner notes that for the album, “we asked each of our composer friends to set any holiday tune that they wanted. In any way they chose that would work for string quartet, and share a personal memory with us through the music. And what a delightful assortment of musical presents we received! The tunes range from medieval and renaissance melodies to ‘Jingle Bells,’ and the styles range from Texas fiddle and West African rhythms to the most contemporary composing styles you might hear on the concert stage today.”

The final product is a program of Christmas music that is familiar enough to feel like Christmas, yet at the same time different enough to merit serious as well as casual listening during the holiday season. For example, Keven Puts’s version of The First Noel leaves no doubt about the familiar melody, but as the tune progresses, it takes on a more serious, introspective quality that reminds the listener of the spiritual message of the hymn. Interestingly enough, one of the invited composers, Gabriel Kahane, is Jewish, but his experience as a high school chorister caused him to fall in love with the carol Lo, how a Rose E’er Blooming, which he was delighted to arrange for his friends in the Miró Quartet when they invited him to participate in this project. The CD closes with the one original composition of the set, British-Korean composer Hyung-Ki Joo’s Songs of Christmas Past, an energetic romp that mixes the sacred and secular, a crazy salad of Christmas melodies that even features some vocal contributions from the quartet acting as a choir.

With excellent engineering, notes on the music from all the composers, and a sturdy, attractive physical package, this is a first-class production in every respect. A great stocking stuffer! 

 

From A to Z: 21st Century Concertos (CD review)

Music by Assad, Bolcom, Daugherty, and Zwilich. Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, New Century Chamber Orchestra. NSS Music.

Founded in 1992, the New Century Chamber Orchestra is a small chamber ensemble dedicated to presenting classical music in a fresh and unique manner. Besides performing classic works from the chamber orchestra repertoire, New Century commissions new pieces, such as those we hear on the disc under review, concertos written expressly for the group's current Music Director and violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg.

The New Century Chamber Orchestra makes its home in the San Francisco Bay Area, and it has been my privilege to hear the group play on a number of occasions. They have never failed to impress me with their musicianship, their impeccable taste, and their immense talent. Each of the twenty-odd members of the ensemble is a virtuoso player in his or her own right, and together they perform as one precision instrument. The accuracy, exactness, meticulousness, and rigor of their playing are remarkable, as exemplified by the four new works on the present album.

First up is a single-movement concerto, Dreamscapes, by Brazilian-born classical and jazz composer, arranger, pianist, and vocalist Clarice Assad (b. 1978). Dreamscapes is well named: It's a series of images from one of the composer's dreams, presented in the style of a dream with numerous shifting and conflicting moods. The NCCO offers up a vivid picture of the dream process, the composer further noting that much of it may be negative. Whatever, it provides some excellent opportunities for the various members of the orchestra, especially Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg, to shine--to show off their skills, so to speak. It's not necessarily comfortable listening--dreams often aren't--but it is always fascinating and worth the experience.

Next is a three-movement concerto, Romanza, by award-winning American composer and pianist William Bolcom (b. 1938). Bolcom's music sounds a bit more traditional than Assad's, "shamelessly Romantic" as Bolcom puts it. Just don't expect Schubert, Schumann, or Mendelssohn as you know them because Bolcom filters Romantic ideas through a twenty-first century sensibility. The lyricism and passion are there, just not the melodies we might expect of a true Romantic composer. Nevertheless, the piece follows a conventional concerto form of fast-slow-fast movements and leads us through a series of sometimes dance-like, sometimes mysterious passages, concluding with a playful ragtime tune. As always, the NCCO handles it with finesse, refinement, and utter perfection of ensemble playing.

After that we find a four-movement concerto, Fallingwater, by American composer, pianist, and teacher Michael Daugherty (b. 1954). The composer calls Fallingwater a "musical tribute to the visionary American architect Frank Lloyd Wright." The music is more descriptive than the previous selections on the disc and offers up a diverse variety of moods and visual impressions. The NCCO seems entirely attuned to its nuances and supply the rich tapestry of colors the score demands.

The program concludes with the four-movement concerto Commedia Dell-Arte by American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b. 1939), the first female composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Here, the music portrays three different characters from Renaissance theater. It's the liveliest and most seemingly spontaneous music on the album and, for me at least, the most entertaining, particularly in its use of percussion. So, the New Century Chamber Orchestra goes out on a bang, so to speak. It's fun stuff from a really skilled group of musicians.

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg executive produced and David v.R. Bowles produced, engineered, edited, and mastered the recording for Swineshead Productions and NSS Music, the orchestra recording it live in 2012. The sound is very dynamic, with a huge range from softest whispers to extra-large outbursts. The midrange is clear, if a tad hard; the bass is adequate; and the treble well extended. The string tone can be a mite edgy at times but often adds to the atmosphere of the music. Because they recorded live, one is always aware of the audience's presence throughout the program, and the engineers (or the producer or the orchestra) chose to retain the audience applause at the end of each piece. I found that the only unfortunate element of the proceedings, but that's a personal quirk on my part.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

Interchange: Concertos by Rodrigo and Assad (CD review)

Rodrigo: Concierto Andaluz; Assad: Interchange. Los Angeles Guitar Quartet; David Amado, Delaware Symphony Orchestra. Telarc TEL-31754-02.


This CD from Telarc is a "first" of several kinds: It's the first recording of a concerto by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet; it includes the world-première recording of Sergio Assad's Interchange for Guitar Quartet and Orchestra; and it's the compact disc debut of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra. Oh, and there's also Joaquin Rodrigo's celebrated Concierto Andaluz at the center of things.  Not a bad deal.

The program begins with Rodrigo's Concierto Andaluz, a work the composer wrote in 1965 expressly for the Romeros, the first family of guitar virtuosos. Naturally, I used their old Mercury (1967) and Philips (1978) recordings of the Concierto as comparisons and did not find the LAGQ's version lacking. The LAGQ are, if anything, even more intense than the Romeros in the opening movement, marked Tempo de Bolero. Although the tempo seems at first a little too fast paced, it quickly grows on you. Then the LAGQ attend to the charming Adagio that follows, lovingly molding and caressing it in a way that would make any of their mentors among the Romeros proud. Finally, they launch into the closing Allegretto with enthusiastic vivacity, again taking the music at a healthy clip.

After Rodrigo's Concierto, we get Brazilian composer Sergio Assad's Interchange, which he wrote expressly for the LAGQ and whose content exactly matches the composition's title; namely, it's about the casual meeting of people on a four-level L.A. freeway interchange, the movements themselves referring to various roads and driving. The piece interweaves different musical styles from Brazilian to Spanish to Asian and Jewish, from Hollywood to jazz and blues, all of it tailored to the individual members of the Quartet.

Interchange gets off to a rousing start with "Sephardic Passage," a movement that reminds one of something by Rodrigo with a kind of Hebrew overlay. Frankly, I was afraid that the new work was going to be one of those contemporary, atonal, cacophonous, avant-garde things, but it isn't. It falls squarely into the traditional classical framework and should be highly accessible to most modern listeners.

I loved the flamenco and percussion elements of the second movement, "Gypsy Slopes," suggesting, perhaps, the ebb and flow of traffic. The quiet central movement, "Pacific Overlook," brings a note of tranquility to the proceedings with a pleasantly lilting melody; and that's followed by an even more leisurely jazz-inflected segment, "Forroblues Detour," that picks up steam as it goes along with an infectiously pulsating beat. Interchange concludes with a brief, colorful finale, "Crossings," that combines thematic threads from the four preceding movements.

As I say, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet along with Maestro David Amado and his Delaware Symphony Orchestra play the music as affectionately as one could want, combining commitment with fluency, grace, and high good spirits. And Telarc's audio engineers do their part in bringing the affair to disc with sound that is at once warm and smooth yet rich and acceptably detailed. While the stereo spread unfolds widely between the speakers, the four guitars appear nicely integrated into the whole without being unduly forward or engulfed by the orchestra. Still, as sweet as the sonics are, I kept wishing the Telarc disc possessed the kind of transparency and air displayed by the old Mercury recording of the Romeros. Ah, well, we trade ultimate definition for a realistically ambient bloom. Fair enough.

JJP