Paul Salerni: People, Places, & Pets
Bowers Fader Duo
Miranda Cuckson, violin.
Miles Salerni, percussion.
Bridge Records 9559
Total Time:  60:58
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Composer Paul Salerni has gained notice with several of his one-act operas, one released on the Naxos label in 2010 (The Life and Love of Joe Coogan).  Albany Records has also released some of his songs and chamber music.  The former are part of this new Bridge release featuring the Bowers Fader Duo which performs works for mezzo-soprano and guitar.

The album presents a wide variety of Salerni’s songs which feel a close kin to Bernstein musical theater pieces in their texts and jazz qualities.  There is a nice sense of wit in the musical settings for the texts that make them a lighter invitation into occasionally more serious themes.  You can get a sense of that in the titles as well right from the start with the opening “Golden Retrievals” from the cycle Bad Pets—three songs that serve as both bookends and a center pivot point on the album.  The four songs from City Scenes are also disbursed throughout the album and provide little windows on different cities.  There are three additional cycles here.  The slightly jazzier Something Permanent which focuses on texts that reflect Depression Era photography by Walker Evans.  Four poems by David Ferry comprise the cycle Finding One Self that focus on themes of identity.  The song “Repentance” is a reflection on a Vemeer painting by the poet Natasha Trethewey.  The final Ekphrastic Songs are also featuring poems by Ferry and connect to paintings by Watteau and Millet.

Each of these song texts in a way is “ekphrastic” in that they tend to connect to some other work of art.  Salerni uses these connections to inspire his musical accompaniments and often these are quite moving lyrical moments that move us in often understated ways.  The guitar makes for an interesting companion here and Salerni uses it both as harmonic accompaniment but also to play directly with the vocal line in unison.  There are some amusing effects that are also used to emphasize the text’s direction and implications.  It makes for a unique collection of songs.

The sound here is also quite good, though one does wish the guitar could come forward a bit more.  The program seems to be arranged to give an overall recital-like shape to the program.  But at its core, the album really highlights Salerni’s text-setting and musical style and those who have come to appreciate his larger-scale works will find the same sense of humor and winks alongside deeply-emotional pieces in this unusual collection.

Three releases from Navona bring a variety of new music for different chamber combinations from small ensembles to solo music.

The euphonium is an instrument that often gets relegated to the back of a wind or marching band and fills out the harmonic balance in the brass family.  It has a rich, mellow sound though that is fully explored in Sound and Light (Navona 6339) which features five new pieces for the instrument.  Noted euphonium performer and clinician Demondrae Thurman has commissioned the pieces included on this new release.  The album opens with Barbara York's "Child's Play" Sonata where references to French-Canadian folk song and American jazz come together with great wit to contemplate the joy of childrearing.  The central movement is quite lovely.  From here we move on to Doug Bristol's three-movement sonata (2013) which has some interesting interactions between soloist and piano in its opening movement and some fascinating improvisation-like segments before moving into an finale that has some angular writing and a funky second section.  There are some equally jazzy moments in the briefer Insinuacoes by Anne Victorino D'Almeida which would make for a fine finale in any program.  Patrick Schultz presents a number of technical challenges in his Roon Sonata which features some fun circus-like atmosphere and bluesy inflections in its opening music, a quirky waltz, and a reflective finale that shows off the versatility of the instrument well.  This work leads into a more impressionistic multimovement piece by Anthony Barfield, Mediations of Sound and Light.  Thurman is really a stunning performer whose lyrical playing makes so much of this music work and the technique is equally there to bring out the virtuoso moments with seeming ease.  This is a great demonstration of how this instrument needs more attention and a great collection of pieces to do so.  

If solo piano music is among your listening interests, then the latest volume of Sustain (Navona 6345) should also be on your radar.  This Spring release features twelve works mostly for solo piano performed primarily by Lucie Kaucka and Randall Hodgkinson and representing a host of different musical styles by quite diverse composers.  Many of these pieces could serve as brief openers or little encores.  For variety, the album includes a couple of brief pieces featuring violin and piano, and tenor sax and piano, and closes off with a brief piano trio.  Several of the composers featured here have released other music on the label and this is sort of a compilation of these various composers bringing a quick way to perhaps launch off to other releases of their music on the label.

The same can be said of the second volume of Fleeting Realms (Navona 6348) which pulls together six disparate works by as many composers.  Here is a way to whet one's appetite for contemporary music in this varied recital of pieces.  The are are string and wind trios, a brief one-movement string quartet, a duo for violin and cello, and even some vocal music with a seven-minute chamber opera, and a concluding song cycle on poetry of James Joyce.  It makes for a rather unusual set of pieces that will stretch the listener and provide exposure to different genres of chamber music along the way,