November 21, 2018

  • Exploring More American Music in Portland

     

    Aspects of America
    Oregon Symphony/Carlos Kalmar
    Pentatone Records 5186 727
    Total Time:  75:26
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Carlos Kalmar and the Oregon Symphony continue to provide explorations of familiar repertoire alongside their commitment to American music of the 20th Century.  In this new release, their fifth for Pentatone, they explore the rich tradition of modern American symphonic music.  The album is bookended by its youngest (Sean Shepherd) and oldest represented composer (Samuel Barber).

    Shepherd’s (b. 1979) Magiya was written originally for the inaugural season of the National Youth Orchestra of the US (2013) as it toured with Russian conductor Valery Gergiev.  It serves as an overture to the album with its postmodern splashes of color that bring distant memories of Stravinsky.  Along the way, there is great wit and an almost delightful sense of interplay between the orchestral sections that sometimes feel almost like a Carl Stalling miniature as its boisterous energy and repeated fragments move against an often interesting lyric line.  The seven-note rhythmic and harmonic idea helps create unity.  The work puts the orchestra through its paces.

    The world has a faster pace these days with little time for massive five-movement symphonies.  Enter composer Sebastian Currier (b. 1959) whose Microsymph (1997) aims to compress such a work into a ten-minute tour-de-force.  A flurry of sound opens us to some rather rich extended harmonies in the opening moments.  The pulse slows a bit for a waltz that seems to recall an earlier era while pulses move us incessantly forward with clockwork sounds.  A slower section allows for some of Currier’s most expressive music which allows for a moment of emotional repose and reflection before we are off to the brief almost schizophrenic Beethoven-like compressed “scherzo” and a finale that provides a sort of summary and review of the previous thematic ideas, thus referencing cyclic symphonic works.

    Composer Christopher Rouse (b. 1949) gained recognition through the 1980s and 1990s with its large-scale symphonic style exploring often darker and macabre themes that also tended to stretch the dynamic range to ear-shattering results.  The music was a sort of bombastic shout that modern American concert music was not going to succumb to academia.  Supplica (2013) was written at the time of the composer’s fourth symphony for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.  Unlike the music for which he is more widely known, this fourteen-minute work falls closer to the Spiritual Minimalists and will be a surprise to those familiar with the composer’s other work.  The piece features slowly unfolding harmonies that invite personal reflection and is scored for a reduced orchestra of brass, harp, and strings.  These subtle sifts of color and harmony parallel the work of Aho, Gorecki, or Laurindsen.  It is a stunning, and deeply moving work.

    The album concludes with two multi-movement works.  First up is Aspects of an Elephant by Portland composer Kenji Bunch (b. 1973) who plays viola in the orchestra.  Written for the Oregon Symphony who premiered it in their 2017 season, the piece is a modern concerto for orchestra exploring the techniques and abilities of the players.  A variety of unique percussion instruments add to its dramatic flair.  It uses the parable of The Blind Man and the Elephant as its narrative hook.  Bunch takes a version from Rumi’s The Masnavi with its story of men in a dark room trying to describe the beast they can barely see.  The work is set up as a set of theme and variations with each of the variations subsequently highlighting a different part of the orchestra.  They become the different threads of each vision that explode in the chaotic “The Argument”.

    A somewhat lighter work closes things off in Samuel Barber’s delightful transcription of his Souvenirs, Op. 28 (1952).  The pastiche work recalls the early days of the 20th Century at the Palm Court of the Plaza Hotel in New York.  George Balanchine asked the composer to orchestrate the original four-hand piano work for a new ballet.  The suite gives the listener a snapshot of popular music forms of the period: waltz, schottische, two-step, tango, and a gallop.  These each represent different rooms of the Plaza.  Its delightful Post-Romanticism with warm tuneful writing that has little Ravelian moments makes this just a wonderful way to end a fascinating collection of mostly new works that connect to this thread of American symphonic music with its interest in continuing and expanding the Romantic tradition.

    Aside from the Barber, these are all world premiere recordings.  The release is the sort of album that lovers of American symphonic music should be able to treasure for many years to come.  It I brilliantly performed here with the orchestra captured well in excellent, crystal clear sound.  With each release, the Oregon Symphony reclaims its place as one of America’s great regional orchestras.