Summer and Winter Songs
Maeve Hoglund, soprano.
Jean-Paul Bjorlin, piano, tenor.
Navona Records 6236
Total Time:  41:48
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Mira J. Spektor may be better known as the founder of the Aviva Players.  The group, begun in 1975, focuses on chamber music and songs by women composers from the 12^th to 21^st Centuries.  As a composer, she has written several chamber operas and even music for film and television.  In this release, listeners are introduced to her music through eighteen different songs featuring some of her own poetry as well as classic poetry and even some from her granddaughter, Lily Nussbaum.

Spektor’s music is a blend of art song and musical theater (“Have Song Will Travel” is a perfect early example of this approach).  The tonal language is a more expanded romantic style with nice turns of phrases.  The piano provides both gorgeous harmonic support while also connecting to the melodic line of the soloist.  The texts move us through a sense of nostalgia that connects to the over-arching seasonal sequencing of the texts and songs.  Listeners will be enthralled by the engaging melodic writing and the way the music shifts from a classical romanticism coupled with a theatrical, classic Broadway style that is further informed by fun jaunts into jazz harmonies and rhythms.  Spektor’s music has a way of moving effortlessly to connect with the many moods of her texts that can illustrate intimacy, as well as big exciting moments.  A sense of wit also can be heard where this is appropriate.  “Sunday Psalm” is a more religious departure textually with a hymn-like musical style for the borrowed text which then moves on in beautiful reflections to the poetry of Phyllis McGinley.  Spektor is equally at home with German or French texts that have as natural an approach as her English songs on this album.  “Il Neige Dans Mon Coeur” might have been a perfect song for say Edith Piaf.  The music might reference these other influential styles, but Spektor’s style makes these unique and one begins to get a sense of her approach to text setting by the time the disc reaches its conclusion.  It is always inventive and communicative.

Texts for each of the songs accompany this release.  It is helpful for those looking closer at the structure and the way Spektor’s text settings flow with the poems.  Hoglund’s gorgeous voice navigates the moods of these pieces and is a real pleasure to hear as she nuances the texts and changes mood from one to the next.  Her high range is quite exquisite and her middle range has a rich, full sound.  Bjorlin is a perfect partner in these works and the balance between the two is handled well in the sound picture.  In some ways, Spektor’s music has its foot in art song and popular song and that will make this release a wonderful discovery for those who appreciate contemporary vocal writing.

Wilson: Symphonies 3 & 4
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Rory MacDonald
Linn 616
Total Time:  73:20
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Though born in Colorado, the composer Thomas Wilson (1927-2001) is most considered a great Scottish composer, his family having returned to Scotland when he was quite young.  He would go on to become a major influence in the development of Scottish music throughout the 20^th Century serving as an inspiration to music in the country and gaining the epithet, the father of Scottish music.”  His style includes explorations of serial technique, expressionism and other atonal forms as well as flirtations with aleatoric writing.  Much of his early work was withdrawn with his primary compositions after the mid-1950s being the ones that garnered attention.  His work would be championed by Alexander Gibson, James Loughran, and Bryden Thomson though very little of it has been committed to disc as of yet.  Wilson would complete five symphonies.  The first, conducted by Colin Davis in 1957, was subsequently withdrawn such that the remaining four are thus his main essays in this genre.  The current release features performances of the third and fourth as well as a smaller orchestral work in a very generous program.

The Symphony No. 4 was commissioned by two local District Councils to commemorate the 500^th anniversary of the town of Paisley.  The work’s subtitle, “Passeleth Tapestry”, is taken from the 12^th-Century form of the name.  It marks the beginning of the Abbey’s founding there during the period when the Stewarts rose to power.  Each section explores the historical epochs and their defining characteristics.  There are four sections the first of which opens with a four-note motive derived from the town’s name.  They will serve as the unifying concept that flows through the work.  A carillon is referenced in an opening fanfare that then moves into a more reflective section with the Stewart fanfares eventually fading away.  The era of Protestant conflict comes into the foreground of the second movement which references the psalm tune “Martyrs”.  References to the earlier music also help provide a thread that moves through this section as well.  More propulsive rhythms move us into the “Machine Age” of the 19^th Century in the third section.  The work concludes with a section that pulls these threads together weaving them into a more positive finale looking into the future.  Wilson’s music is quite accessible within these more modal-like harmonies where dissonance is on the fringes of atonality.  The music certainly encapsulates a modernist style with the gestures being more in the Neo-Romantic realm.  Others will also certainly note an almost filmic narrative quality.  A little Bartok can be discerned as an integrated style with a Berg-like approach to the way more jagged lines are harmonized.  The piece is brilliantly orchestrated with an assured and full command of the way these ideas are transferred across the ensemble.  Some truly intense tremolo sections are one of many highlights.  The final bars include a stunningly beautiful flute idea before the opening fanfares return as we also reflect musically on what has occurred in the piece as ideas and textures are revisited.

Wilson’s Symphony No. 3 (1979) is a rather brief work cast in five continuous segments.  Its underlying program recalls a similar one undertaken in Sir Michael Tippett’s fourth symphony from 1977 in its exploration of life from birth through life’s struggles and a rebirth of sorts (whereas Tippett’s work far more experimental, explores birth to death themes).  Here, Wilson invites the audience to explore the materials as they are introduced and challenges the listener to hear how they move through various textures until they become fully formed at the end and a solo violin suggests this new birth is the beginning of the same process.  The ideas feel aleatoric and the sound more experimentally and contemporary as different threads float out of the orchestra.  It does indeed feel like an “awakening” of sorts.  There are closer dissonances and swirls that eventually move us into smaller repeated motives that help provide an aural connection.  Also notable here is that Wilson incorporates the piano as an integral instrument that presents material and interacts with the orchestra.  Not quite circular in terms of form, but certainly a work that asks the listener to join the journey Wilson takes here.  The music moves through this sort of ethereal beginning through moments of more lyrical beauty toward utter chaos.  The piece was commissioned by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra who performed it under Sir Alexander Gibson.

The Carillon (1990) is not quite the length of the symphonies, but is yet another substantial orchestral work.  This was another commission to write a work for the RSNO and its then music director, Bryden Thomson.  It was to celebrate the opening of their new concert hall.  The piece thus celebrates the city of Glasgow and connects this to the bells in the city that historically have been used to announce significant events.  As in the fourth symphony, Wilson uses pitches derived from the town’s name here to set up a four-note motive that will unify the work.  He explores the history of the city from its Victorian era, the depression of the 1930s, a beautiful nocturnal and quite magical moment, and the regeneration of the post-WWII era.  Here, as in the other pieces, one is struck by the sheer magnitude of the orchestral writing that really fully explores the large orchestra.  Wilson’s use of motivic development provides that important aural link in this work as well that helps maintain interest as his variations and swirls of texture and dramatic writing.

Wilson’s music is part of that line of great symphonic music from the United Kingdom.  There is a thread here that connects to Britten and Arnold and Tippett as well, but it is still unique which will be the most striking aspect for those coming to his music for the first time.  One can hope that other of his music will find its way to disc as well.  It is impressive music and the RSNO certainly understands this and provides detailed performances that are filled with a great energy.  The release comes highly recommended for anyone interested in late 20^th Century music.