November 20, 2013

  • Musical Journeys By Richard Danielpour

     Danielpour: Darkness in the Ancient Valley; A Woan’s Life; Lacrimae Beati
    Angela Brown, Hila Plitmann, sopranos.  Nashville Symphony/Giancarlo Guerrero
    Naxos 8.559707
    Total Time:  79:56
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Richard Danielpour is a highly-regarded contemporary American composer.  Over the past three decades his works have been taken up by important performers and conductors while also receiving many critical awards as well.  His music served as an interesting contrast to the developments of post-minimalist styles in the 1980s and 1990s especially often discovering new ways to create fascinating orchestral textures that sometimes felt like new Impressionistic gestures.  Often his work feels like it bridges the types of music surfacing throughout the 20th Century building them into a distinct and accessible musical language.  This very generous new release from Naxos brings to disc three new works by the composer arranged from latest to oldest chronologically.

    The first work, Darkness in the Ancient Valley, was commissioned by the Nashville and Pittsburgh Symphonies and composed in 2011.  The final movement, “Consecration”, was written for Hila Plitmann who performs it here.   The piece is a personal testament of sorts.  Danielpour’s parents were both born in Iran and he spent a year there as a child in the 1960s.  Though he would become enamored with Western music and culture, he more recently has delved into his own heritage and has become struck by the way so many Middle East people are crying out to be heard in suppressive regimes.  The five-movement work bears movement titles that serve an almost liturgical purpose and draws upon Persian folk music and Sufi rhythms for its musical material though the music can be quite American sounding.  The appearance of the former is heard in the opening “Lamentation” while some may here more Bernstein-like orchestral jazz rhythms in the dance-like, and often intense, “Desecration.”  At the core of the work is the lengthier third movement, “Benediction.”  The music here certainly brings in a far more identifiable Middle Eastern sound in its lyrical lines.  Rich harmonies slowly appear for this material in an almost romantic way, yet there can be many contemporary musical gestures and flourishes that pit interesting dissonances against this material.  The overall effect is quite amazing with a climactic moment seeming to recall some of the intensity of the previous movement.  This reflective pause returns us to the energy and rhythmic thrust of the second movement with “Profanation” with huge brass accents and a scurrying Bernstein-like energy again.  The final movement shifts gears slightly and includes a text from a Rumi Poem.  It is about an abused woman who refuses to retaliate against her abuser.  The composer chose this text as a metaphor for the Iranian people who have undergone much under the present regime but continue to retaliate with nonviolent means.  While there is plenty of engaging music in the work, it feels somehow disconnected and does not feel to come together.  The final movement thus seems a bit like another work at times.  The overall structure feels as if the three central sections should be one continuous movement to pull those ideas together more.  The opening movement might be stretched out some as well to balance the final movement.  There is always menace waiting to interrupt some of the more beautiful moments in this work which becomes in its own way for the persistence of beauty in the face of oppression.  The result is an engaging work that should hold up well to more exploration and repeated listening.

    The central work on the album is a brief orchestral piece, Lacrimae Beati (2009).  The music here takes its inspiration from Mozart’s Requiem, specifically the “Lacrimosa” movement.  The composer’s accompanying note related a misadventure of sorts in visiting the gravesite of Mozart and a harrowing plane ride in a terrible storm which had this music in his mind’s ear.  The result is this interesting brief piece that combines the tension of Mozart trying to finish this great work along with a frightening plane ride in 2002.  Musically, the work tends to fall more within a post-Romantic expressionist style with quotation used as a filter for what is a more filmic approach in this somewhat narrative music.  Some of the string writing certainly sounds a bit like something one might find in a John Williams dramatic Americana score.  Different melodic lines ebb and flow through the orchestral texture.  The majority of the work feels a bit contemplative though more intense music begins to appear before a statement of Mozart’s theme appears towards the end of the work.

    Poet Maya Angelou’s work was featured in an earlier piece by Danielpour, Portraits(1998).  After hearing Angela Brown’s performances in his recent opera Margaret Garner, Danielpour was interested in composing a work specifically for her.  So he traveled to visit with the great poet and asked her to consider writing a series of poems that would explore a woman’s life from childhood to old age.  As related by the composer in his notes for the recording, Angelou proceeded to share eight poems she had already written relating to this topic and they became the texts for the present work that consists of seven of these poems.  As one might suspect, these little windows of orchestral music are in keeping with a more Americana tradition of text setting with some truly gorgeous writing.  The music has some inflection of folk musical lyricism and perhaps a tad touch of spiritual writing and one might say there is a little Broadway at the edges as well (a kind of Gerswhin-meets-Sondheim sound).  The result throughout is a rather engaging work that proves to be another highlight in the composer’s catalogue of work.  Texts are included which helps in appreciating the settings further.  This work tends to fall quite firmly in a more popular Romantic style with rich harmony and often jazz and blues inflections.  There is plenty of standard Americana gestures as well that place this work firmly in the realm of other American song cycles (perhaps Barber may be the closest relative here).

    The recording here is an interesting pairing of works that shifts from Danielpour’s Persian heritage but still creates a very American-sounding work.  The connection with women in the opening symphony makes for a great companion to the Angelou-based texts that complete this release.