November 23, 2018

  • Music by Kawarsky and a Delightful Brahms-ian Turn

     

    Spoon Hanging From My Nose: The Music of J.A. Kawarsky
    Jonathan Helton, alto saxophone. Chicago Arts Orchestra/Javier Mendoza;
    Arizona Choir and Ensemble/Bruce Chamberlain;
    Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra/Petr Vronsky;
    St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra/Vladimir Landa
    Navona Records 6091
    Total Time: 71:39
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Composer J.A. Kawarsky (b. 1959) studied at Iowa State University and Northwestern University.  He currently teaches theory and composition at Rider University in New Jersey.  As a noted theater conductor, he conducted the 2007 tour of Peter Pan and worked on the second national tour of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.  In this new release, listeners have the opportunity to hear three orchestral works as well as an orchestration of the Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op. 52.  Kawarsky writes in a tonal language with some modern touches and also likes to place references, or quotes, of other music within the contexts of his work which is on display in the pieces featured here.

    The Chicago Arts Orchestra opens the program with Fastidious Notes (2006) which appeared as part of Prisma (Navona 6141).  The work is a piece of quotation music that incorporates folk tunes (“I Ride an Old Paint”) which leads to some further nods to Copland.  Within the fabric of the work Kawarsky also makes references to Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb.  Oriignally for wind ensemble, the piece has been reworked into this chamber orchestra version heard here.  The music is in a delightfully light, and rather airy style featuring traditional harmonic writing with crystal-clear orchestral textures that allow the solo saxophone to shine through.  Jonathan Helton, for whom the work was written, has a beautiful, warm tone that really soars across the orchestra here.  It seems just a little forward in the sound picture with the orchestra feeling a bit recessed.

    Brahms composed his choral Liebeslieder Waltzes between 1863 and 1871.  Some point to these love songs as a sort of redirection by Brahms of his love for Clara Schumann.  It is also quite likely that the composer had Schubert in mind, a sort of updating of that composer’s romantic Art Song approach with the advanced mid-century harmony.  The more popular of the two collections is Op. 52 which contains 18 little songs for choir and originally piano 4-hands.  These are all simply delightful pieces and over the years have had various adaptations.  Kawarsky’s work as a choral and musical theater conductor no doubt comes into play in his own orchestrations of these pieces.  He has found a wonderful balance between a woodwind quartet (with piccolo, English horn, and bass clarinet substitutions along the way), light percussion, harp, piano, and string trio (violin, cello, bass).  The instrumental additions are really marvelous as they intersect with the choral writing and all feel so natural one may wonder that they were not already there.  The style fits well with the music, perhaps adding an almost salon-like feel to these pieces with touches of operetta.  One might think of it more as an enhancement to Brahms’ choral writing and it works very well.  The Arizona Choir and instrumental ensemble provides an excellent performance of this repertoire piece which would make the album worth seeking out on its own.

    And We All Waited… (2013) was composed following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings.  A more introspective work, the piece opens quietly and then moves into a somewhat martial feel with a variety of different musical lines swirling about presenting different arguments only to be silenced.  As in the other works here, Kawarsky interweaves references to Nielsen, Reicha, and Shostakovich.  The musical ideas begin trying to discover a possible answer with the more militant interludes seeming to put an end to each possible solution.  A more serious work whose own searching makes the piece more episodic in nature, though no less compelling with its seemingly questioning conclusion.

    The final work on the album appeared on an earlier compilation called Winter’s Warmth (Navona 6091).  Episodes (2001) explores asymmetrical meters in the opening portion and, like the other pieces on the album, has moments that recall Prokofiev and Dave Brubeck.  A more lyrical section references a Jewish melody in a more romantic piano style.  The final section has a reference to Finzi.  It is an equally strong work that is good to have in this composer album.

    Kawarsky’s music is always engaging and delightfully orchestrated.  The music’s various quotations, often esoteric, are well woven into the fabric of his musical language and help invite the listener into his musical arguments and discussions.  The Brahms orchestrations here are really worth the price of admission, but the original compositions are as worth one’s time, if not more so revealing a composer whose music deserves wider recognition.