Of the four scores Jerry Goldsmith tackled in 1989, Warlock is perhaps vying for third or fourth (depending on one’s view of Leviathan).  Director Steve Minor had come off some early cult movie successes with the second and third installments of the Friday the 13^th film series, and the guilty pleasure of House (1986).  Warlock was David Twohy’s second screenplay and so has some interest for fans of the writer/director.  The story line follows its title character, Julian Sands in a deliciously interesting performance from the 17^th century to the 20^th as he flees a witch-hunter.  The film tends to hold up mostly from its cast, and perhaps a bit of musical heft, even though New World essentially set this up as a low-budget thriller/fantasy film.

The opening “The Sentence” presents three primary ideas that will permeate the score.  A blend of electronics and orchestra, with sliding hits in spots, and a faux organ sound create some of the extra flavor here.  The thematic thread has a semi-folk feel as well as it moves slowly forward, a blend of marching time, and a sort of relentless underlying drive.  Also striking is the addition of xylophone ideas introducing an important rhythmic motif.  As always, it is fascinating to watch how Goldsmith layers these different ideas very clearly.  There is also a 6-note motif (that will recur in similar scores later) that recurs throughout the score.  The effects throughout are often quite fascinating, especially when put up against different string stingers.  In tracks like “Time Warp”, one can hear these unique instrumental colors.  The score does a great job of connecting the significant sinewy motif and the interest comes in hearing how this gets varied and accompanied throughout the music here.  The musical effects thus add a level of tension and eeriness along the way.  “The Trance” becomes one of the more interesting highlights of the score where the music plays out more dramatically with further unique sounds—and even has some subtle hints of musical quotation.  Perhaps that is too why this score is often underrated—the rather subdued quality of the music overall.  One must wait a very long time for the big climactic moment where things come to a head and the ideas can be unleashed, though even “Salt Water Attack” is a bit underwhelming by most Goldsmith action music standards.

In some ways, a lot of what is going on in Warlock will reach its height in similar techniques applied to Total Recall, but there are many Goldsmith stamps throughout this score that the composer used as important stock-in-trade approaches.  Here they are given some often fascinating electronic sounds and blended orchestral writing that sometimes seems almost like a throwback to an earlier period of television drama writing.   Intrada has filled out the score presentation from its original appearance by another 15-16 minutes and added a nice overview in the accompanying booklet.  Warlock is often a very fascinating score without some of the bigger action sequences, it tends to be a more personal exploration of character and story, relentless in its slow build and always fascinating orchestral writing.  The CD is available from www.intrada.com.

Hovhaness: Symphony No. 48; Prelude & Quadruple Fugue; Soprano Saxophone Concerto
Greg Banaszak, soprano saxophone.  Eastern Music Festival Orchestra/Gerard Schwarz
Naxos 8.559755
Total Time: 55:48
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Long before the Eastern spiritual minimalists began to assert their musical voices on the 20^th Century, there was Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000).  Hovhaness’ music, and there is a lot of it (!), tends to explore the more mystical and spiritual aspects of ethereal realms.  His Armenian heritage may play some small part in how his harmonic language and melodic contours take shape at times, but there is often far more to his music that lends it an often “exotic” flavor.  Mostly, it tends to be quite unlike any other American composition of the 20^th Century.  Often it favors long drones and slowly moving ideas that tended to be criticized by both those of the serialist and “American” musical heritage world (i.e. Copland and Thomson’s circles).  No doubt the Boston area intelligentsia of the time had trouble figuring out what this music “meant”.  Hovhaness  would spend much of his middle life exploring world music and incorporating some of these aesthetics into his own work, eventually he would move to the Seattle area in the 1970s.  He would eventually compose some 67 symphonies among them is the first to gain larger notice, Mysterious Mountain (the second, 1955).  And in 1970, another amazing work And God Created Whales would make use of taped whale song in fascinating ways.

The current collection of music is conducted by Gerard Schwarz who made several great Hovhaness recordings during his tenure with the Seattle Symphony for Delos.  In some respects, this is like a bittersweet return of the composer’s music to the East coast, albeit Greensboro, North Carolina, where the Eastern Music Festival occurs each year.  The selections include an older work, and two from the early 1980s designed like the perfect concert introduction to the composer’s music.  Even today, the music stands out as a unique and important musical voice in 20^th Century  America.

The Prelude and Quadruple Fugue, Op. 128 (1936, rev. 1954) is one of the earlier examples of contrapuntal writing that is an important part of Hovhaness’ musical language.  The present work grew out of a four-movement string quartet and would be premiered by Howard Hanson with the Eastman-Rochester Symphony at the Festival of American Music in 1955, the festival’s 25^th anniversary.  It is perhaps one of the composer’s finest works from the period and a highlight of his catalogue.  Lest people think his work can be amorphous and meandering, one need only sit back and hear how the intricate string lines unfold as the massive fugue unfolds and wind and brass begin to participate.  It is an emotionally invigorating work.

Concertos for saxophone tend to be few and far between and so this commission from the New England Conservatory of Music  in 1980 allowed for the opportunity to add to this repertoire.  The use of the work may have been for contests or auditions there at the conservatory, but it appears to have been performed later at Chattaqua by Harvey Pittel.  The soloist here, Greg Banaszak, previously recorded this back in 2006.  The concerto itself is cast in three movements exploring some of Hovhaness’ common musical language, though here it is decidedly more romantic in tone, and aesthetic approaches.  The opening movement includes a fugue and the final movement bears a title, “Let the Living and the Celestial Sing.”  The concerto strives to explore the full range of the soprano saxophone, with particular emphasis on its upper register.  The orchestral writing has these great swaths of harmonic string writing creating a rich support for the saxophones beautiful lyric statement.  The line allows the singing quality of the soloist to move over pulsing strings (but not in a way suggesting minimalism at all).  A little fugue helps close out the first movement and then moves us into the expressive second movement.  The music just continuously flows out in often beautiful, languid musical ideas with the solo always floating above the gorgeous harmonic writing.

The Symphony No. 48, Op. 355 bears the subtitle “Vision of Andromeda”.  The piece was composed for the Minnesota Orchestra and Leonard Slatkin for the New Music Festival of 1982 in Florida.  The premiere evidently was not well-received by the orchestra, though the second performance evidently went much better and included a brief opening introduction by the conductor suggesting some understanding of the piece was at hand.  However, the news of the initial response was still devastating to the composer.  His widow subsequently worked to get the piece recorded and it receives its world premiere recording here.  Those who are aware of the Minnesota Orchestra’s sound will marvel at the initial reaction because this piece really would show off their rich string section and exquisite wind playing along with an expansive percussion section.

The symphony is cast in a traditional four-movement structure, but not really following traditional form.  The opening “Andante” features this unique Hovhaness idea of “spirit murmur” and features Eastern musical influences with bells creating a Gamelan effect against this long lyric line. As the movement hits the middle, the oboe takes on this melody before a somewhat Middle Eastern-sounding section bursts forward with interesting melodic contours.  A beautiful flute setting of this line appears in the final third of the movement.  The second movement is a dance-like fugue that feels almost Celtic in nature with brilliant interplay through the strings as it begins and a fairly identifiable melodic idea.  The third movement shifts to another Oriental character with pizzicato strings and interesting flute and bassoon lines that float around this music.  The final movement enters into that more mystical astral realm revisiting some of the sounds explored in the symphony, including revisiting the fugue form, this time from a horn motif.  It is an amazing hymn to the universe that is unbelievably powerful as it unfolds.

This new Naxos release in some respects is presenting three Hovhaness masterpieces.  Each of the works here are excellent examples of his musical aesthetic.  The performances are simply amazing showing off the ensemble from the festival very well.  The symphony is indeed a work that deserves more attention and should bear up to repeated hearing.  Next to the later symphony inspired by the Mount Saint Helens eruption, it remains one of the composer’s finest later works.  Thus for those unfamiliar with Hovhaness’ music, this new release is a perfect introduction.