January 9, 2017

  • Splashes of Impresssionism: Music of Marty Regan

     Music of Marty Regan, Volume 1: Splash of Indigo
    Chloe Trevor, violin. Brendan Kinsella, piano.
    Trio Xia
    Julia Fox, soprano. Andrea Imhoff, piano.
    Apollo Chamber Players
    Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra/Petr Vronsky
    Navona Records 6064
    Total Time:  70:07
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Composer Marty Regan may be known to some for his translation of a text on Japanese instruments and orchestration.  His own music tends to combine a bit of Eastern sensibility with contemporary Western art music.  This can be heard in this new Navona collection that pulls together mostly chamber works from across the past couple of decades.  There are works here for piano, a duo with violin and piano, a trio, song-cycle, quartet, and even a brief orchestral work.

    First up is a beautiful work for piano, Riding Through Misty Clouds (2012).  Inspired by the composer’s own musings of flying through clouds, the piece has an almost impressionistic quality.  The opening features a variety of fast passage work and great energy as it moves forward.  This is interrupted by a more chordal reflective section before returning to the opening material.  The work is followed by an equally brief work for orchestra, Overdrive (2005).  A brilliant fanfare, the music has a post-minimalist John Adams quality with gorgeous harmonic writing and wonderful orchestration and color (think Short Ride in a Fast Machine).

    The remainder of the album focuses on chamber works.  Two Movements for Violin and Piano (2005) grew out of Regan’s need to artistically respond to the events of 9-11.  The opening movement focuses on two ideas that represent fate and innocence, according to the composer.  The latter of these is centered around a pentatonic theme which has an almost Asian melodic quality.  The former appears as the work moves to a dark march idea exploring the form of a passacaglia that sort of unravels.  The central portion is quite intense and the final bars have a jazz-like smoky quality harmonically against the high violin thematic expression.  The second movement is a hybrid of musical styles and genres that come together to lift up the many possible avenues to lift the human spirit and provide hope.  The music here returns with great forward momentum and excitement.

    Commissioned by Trio Xia, Runaway Train (2004) is the first of these more overtly influenced pieces inspired by Asian musical styles.  Here the composer notes his exposure to Balinese and Javanese gamelan music with the idea of two melodic ideas that interlock.  This is a sort of perpetual motion idea that parallels that heard earlier in the disc’s orchestral work.  The thematic threads are more traditional with the concept of how the gamelan form being applied to more contemporary compositional style.  The work would make for a fine encore number with excellent dialogue writing between flute and cello while the piano creates an ongoing forward thrust.

    The previous work sets the tone for a 2002 song cycle utilizing the poetry of Tanikawa Shuntaro, a beloved contemporary Japanese poet whose work is often intended for children.  The poems here explore themes of love, play, and nature.  Texts for each poem are included here in the ample booklet which is a welcome touch.  Most noticeable is the almost jazz like reflective style of the piano in the opening moments here, something hinted at in the earlier pieces on the album.  It has to do with these expansive harmonies that lend the music this quality.  The vocal line is a gorgeous florid and lyrical setting of the text, striking by the language itself for Western ears.  At 20 minutes, this is the most substantial work on the album, buoyed by the extensive first setting here, “Kiss.”

    Splash of Indigo (2014) closes off the album.  Performed by the Apollo Chamber Players, it brings the connections in Regan’s music of Asian, here Japanese, folk music, with the sort of Impressionist inflections heard at the start of the album and throughout.  Once again, a couple of thematic threads are used to provide continuity through the composition which tends to also feature these moving dreamscape lines and inflections of different Japanese musical styles.  It is a unique hybrid and makes for a fitting conclusion.

    Out of many of Navona’s releases, this collection of music sampling Marty Regan’s work really stands out.  The art work and design perfectly matches the sensibility of the composer’s aesthetic, while the excellent notes help guide the listener through each work.  Sound is balanced well and equalized so that one is not needing to adjust too much from one piece to the next, though the orchestra track feels as if it could come up just a bit.  Marty Regan’s music is quite accessible and, like other new music releases from Navona, the sequencing of the album helps to gradually move from the most accessible pieces to the more intense and back again.  With its blend of impressionism and Asian sensibility, this composition recital is worth checking out.