September 21, 2018

  • More Flare from the SOC

    Flare, vol. 32
    Jake Tilton, alto saxophone. Vaibhav Mohanty, piano.
    Chad Spears, piano;
    Charles Huang, oboe. Susan Cheng, piano;
    Mathew J. Jaskot, piano; Jonathan Graybill, piano;
    Valentina Verlan, soprano. Cristina Malancioiu, violin;
    Matt Hightower, tuba;
    Alison Brown Sincoff, flute., Rebecca Rischin, clarinet.
    Mathew James, saxophones. John Schlabach, trumpet.
    Chris Hayes, trombone. Jason Smith, tuba.
    Drew Hudgins, Kristin Agee, percussion.
    Andre Gribou, piano. Majorie Bagley, violin.
    Sara Guerrero, viola.  Shae Kole, cello.
    David Messina, bass/Steven Huang
    Navona Records 6177
    Total Time:  70:15
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    The Society of Composers is an organization that focuses on promotion, support, and understanding of new and contemporary music through a variety of activities, concerts, and conferences.  Each year they also put out a call for recordings that are then chosen to be highlighted on an annual release of new music.  The past seven have been released through Parma’s Navona Records label.  The 2017 selections are on this eighth release in this new partnership.  Eight (mostly) solo works are included here representing an equal number of composers and compositional approaches.

    The album opens with the Rhapsody No. 1 (2017) for alto sax and piano.  Vaibhav Mohanty’s work bursts with a very jazzy opening that then moves into a serene lyrical section for contrast.  The writing for the instrument is quite accomplished and the music itself is constructed with traditional harmonic exploration and references to Indian music along with its Western inspirations.  The engaging work should have good technical challenges with audience engagement that suggests a potential repertoire addition for the instrument.  Keith Kramer’s work for oboe and piano, L’etere del Tempo explores a couple of compositional techniques involving hexachord construction for melodic and harmonic material.  The work explores time and silence in its dramatic shape while utilizing expanded multiphonics and overtones from the oboe in this very avant-garde work.

    Three piano pieces are included in the program.  First up is Robert Anton Strobel’s Refugees provides a thematic image for the listener.  It is a rather intriguing blend of serial technique with a more virtuosic romantic piano style.  The dissonances become important harmonic signposts that move us into new thematic areas.  Originally part of a larger sonata, the piece works quite well on its own with good contrasting sections and dramatic unfolding.  Rejuvenated (2016), by Matthew J. Jaskit, is a set of theme and variations on a pentatonic melody.  In this exploration of variation technique, the rhythmic pulse is varied while also exploring different stylistic references.  Because of its tune, the music has a sort of post-Impressionist feel at first, but this becomes more modern as the piece progresses with more expanded, dissonant harmony.  Jonathan Graybill has embarked on a series of pieces collected as The Ancient Language of Birds.  The solo piano work Tsigili’i: Black Capped Chickadee takes Cherokee myth about the bird as its departure point for this first work in the composer’s ongoing series.  It integrates pre-recorded bird sounds that the piano than uses to move through its musical dialogue in a work that then manipulates these sounds and adds additional electronic sounds and effects.  An almost haunting quality often is the result with the piano providing reflective ideas and meditative interaction.

    Song of the Avadhut by Gabriel Malancioiu a soprano voice and violin create a rather intriguing blend of sounds in this lengthy song.  The purity of the vocal line lies in contrast to the variety of sliding and other string techniques used.  The violin line sometimes feels almost as if it weaves in and out of folk melody as it picks up tones from the voice in this avant-garde work.  Spoken and sung text creates additional contrast.  From the heights to the depths we move to a work for solo tuba by Jacob Thiede.  When all else fails (take your time) (2017) explores the instrument’s range against electronic tones and rhythms.  The piece makes for a nice bookend to the solo works recalling the rhapsodic opening works and a potential repertoire work for this rather maligned and neglected low brass instrument.

    The final work on the album is for a chamber orchestra.  Dreams Interrupted is cast in five movements.  Mark Phillips’ work was commissioned by an ensemble in Memphis and the many musical inspirations as well as the composer’s own are interwoven in the resulting piece.  What is rather interesting is that the ensemble has an almost classic early 20th Century sound that is enhanced by its jazz rhythms and blues harmonies even against the resulting dissonances.  The unisonal writing adds some additional dramatic assertions while the more contrapuntal ideas are quite clearly delineated.  The big cadences do fall into place in the opening movement with what one might find in old jazz recordings.  A variety of sounds and voices are also intermingled to add extra flavor of the city being honored.  These also include sampled recordings from Memphis locales.  The end result is a rather rich tapestry of sound that helps the listener wander about town.

    There is a great variety of styles here but the album is sequenced well to allow them to flow well from one to the next.  An opportunity to even compare the way singular inspiration might also create specific compositional styles and choices is equally on display.  The recordings made across a variety of locations are equalized well.  The Society has chosen a good representation here.