June 22, 2016

  • Gorgeous New Song Cycle by Dan Redfeld

     

    Redfeld: A Hopeful Place
    Kristi Holden, soprano.  Hollywood Studio Symphony/Dan Redfeld
    Navona Records 6045
    Total Time:  64:28
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    For film music lovers, Dan Redfeld’s name is more synonymous with a host of compilation releases from BSX Records of arrangements featuring a variety of contemporary film classics and surveys of popular television series.  However, with lyricists John Gabriel Koladziej and Christina Harding he had completed a musical version of Little Women.  A Hopeful Place is a rather lengthy song cycle for soprano and chamber orchestra.  Inspired by the soprano Kristi Holden, the composer worked on structuring a nine-movement work that would reflect the arc from life to death.  Some of the thematic threads introduced here provide links to specific themes in the texts.  The music has a rather fascinating blend of post-romantic writing that blends a bit of Horner, Menken, Williams, and a little Sondheim perhaps at times.  It makes the more serious music making in the work all the more inviting and accessible to listeners.  The piece was commissioned in 2009 by Ensemble Green and premiered the following year.

    First, the piece is not surprisingly beautifully orchestrated.  One almost wishes Redfeld could get a full string complement to lend the sound a bit more depth, but this is really a minor concern because the use of solo instruments, the addition of piano to help add some light along the way, all work to provide a perfect backdrop to Holden’s voice.  The descriptive writing perfectly helps heighten the tension of the text and we can feel these shifts from light to reflective darker moments.  All of this is set out in the opening movement with its “Ruminations” text.  “Childhood” is a delightful blend of playfulness, and perhaps a touch of wonder.  A bit more darkness descends in “Words They Never Say.”  That sense of Broadway ballad appears more in “No Longer A Child/Somehow”.  The central “Vocalise” is a moment for Redfeld’s thematic thread to shine more and is a nice break from the text setting.  It helps to give the audience a moment to reflect more in this often haunting a moving movement.  Some jazzy moments and sexy harmonic slides lend a unique touch to “Bacchanal” (a little Bernstein and Gershwin) with its sexual overtness and ecstasy.  The title movement shifts to a more reflective style (with a Barry-esque flute idea and harmonic shading) and becomes gradually darker and slightly more impassioned.  This darker sense follows into the more sinuous “Evensong” as more dissonance and fugal-like entries add to the complexity of the music.  The final movement helps wrap things up with references to melodic ideas and a return to the ideas of the opening movement.  We have come full circle.

    Admittedly, when presented with a modern song cycle of this length, the first thing that runs through the mind is how difficult this may be to get on a program.  But the accessibility of the musical language with its delightful orchestral writing that stands in a long line of orchestral song cycles, certainly makes this a truly delightful discovery.  The dramatic journey is filled with moments of romantic reflections that recall contemporary film music, but the music is often a bit deeper than that borrowing from the dramatic gestures of film and theater, recast into this interesting concert setting.  It is certainly a work informed by these musical genres and you can hear a number of stylistic footprints that Redfeld has morphed into his own musical language.  The vocal writing is equally accomplished and really draws in the listener with its melodic lines.  The text hovers as well between popular music lyrics and more poetic styles.  There is enough interesting music here that one will likely find this a piece they will return to enjoy repeatedly.  It is certainly a surprising release and one can only hope it can find a few more live performances.  Kristi Holden's voice is perfectly suited to these pieces and her interpretation is compelling.  The studio musicians, culled from many folks film score fans will notice from Hollywood studio work, respond well to the music as well.  It is probably one of the most enjoyable hours of contemporary music you will be lucky to enjoy again and again.  Personally, hitting the repeat button to hear the work again was very tempting in the midst of many reviews in the "to do" pile.