The music of John Williams is often noted for its grand orchestral sound so a collection of solo instruments and piano is going to strike some as a bit unusual at first.  However, there have been over the years a number of chamber music transcriptions of Williams’ film themes for solo wind or strings with piano, or string quartet.  These recordings often tend to highlight the sensitive melodic writing and occasionally can help hear some of the interesting harmonic support that Williams provides these often famous melodies.  BSX Records has now released a new collection of live performances of various familiar, and perhaps less so, arrangements in this often gorgeous new release.

Composer Dan Redfield has carefully culled together a number of interesting thematic ideas here in this new BSX release.  Many of them are published arrangements by Williams himself and were adapted from his Cinema Serenade releases with Itzhak Perlman.  A good number of the pieces here are performed with violinist Elizabeth Hedman.  She manages to coax an often very rich tone from her instrument which is on gorgeous display in the lower register.  Her performances of the three selections from Schindler’s List have a rather reflective and languid quality, sometimes feeling just a tad under tempo, but the playing is still quite gorgeous.  “The Chairman Waltz” (Memoirs of a Geisha) fares quite well in this setting as does the main theme from The Patriot, which are two of the highlights from her contribution here.  A slower tempo for the main theme from Sabrina sometimes zaps the music of its forward energy at times and higher registral notes are just a little flat at times.  The end credit music from Dracula tends to suffer from slow tempo as well.  A couple of additional curiosities are included here starting with Williams’ arrangement of “Por Una Cabeza” by Carlos Gardel (another of those which appeared on his pops violin releases) and a bit of music from Fiddler on the Roof.  The latter allows some great virtuosic display.  The relaxed tempos do show off the beautiful, lyrical tone of Hedman’s instrument.  The recording venue does not always seem to flatter the music the performances as well all the time.

The venue appears to have changed David Washburn’s trumpet solos in the music from JFK and Monsignor.  Both of these themes lay very well in these arrangements by Dan Redfield.  The latter is a particularly nice theme to revisit this underappreciated score and the former is a beautiful rendition.  A clarinet arrangement of “Viktor’s Tale” from The Terminal is featured after the Schindler’s List music and this playful quality of Donald T. Foster’s performance helps ease the emotional tension so well created by the opening three tracks.  The disc ends with a gorgeous performance of “Where Dreams Are Born” (A.I.)—the vocalise setting of what would be translated into “For Always”.  This arrangement works very well to show off this melody but there is not much for the piano to do other than noodle about underneath.

Fans of Williams’ music should enjoy this collection of themes as there are some unique choices.  Also very wise was allowing different instrumental, and vocal, solo settings to be incorporated into this release.  The result is a series of performances that really explore the emotional depth of these wonderful film themes with just a couple of upbeat moments to keep things from feeling to similar over the course of the presentation.

Gallagher: Symphony No. 2; Quiet Reflections
London Symphony Orchestra/JoAnn Falletta
Naxos 8.559768
Total Time: 75:08
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

An earlier release, reviewed here a few years ago, focused on a number of American composer Jack Gallagher’s shorter pieces.  It was an excellent overview and introduction to his music and style and featured this same great orchestra and conductor.  For this second disc, Naxos has moved into supporting a significant concert work and a brief “encore” of sorts to fill out this disc.  Gallagher’s second symphony, begun in 2010 and completed in 2013, is a massive symphonic work running just over an hour.  Its subtitle “Ascendant” provides a slight glimpse into the way thematic ideas and the triumph of the human spirit may aspire.  Its sheer length will certainly make some think of Mahler, Shostakovich, or Corigliano, though its musical language is a post-modern “romantic” harmony not without modern flashes making it an intriguing and interesting work that is easy to enter into and explore.

The symphony opens with a horn fanfare that immediately pushes into a fast-paced first section that continues to explore this upward-moving idea.  Ideas are tossed about the orchestra in clear lines of imitation between voices.  A more “exotic” oboe theme provides some lyrical contrast in this sonata-form opening movement.  The movement’s central section continues this rapid tossing about of motives across its 20-minute span.  There are times in this movement where one feels like the ghost of Petrushka is not far behind in the way certain orchestral colors come together, and even a veiled quote by trumpets.  But sometimes the string writing will also feel as if it is pulling from other grand traditions as all these elements strive upwards.  Thematic material will consistently be employed to help pull the piece together as the ideas are shared in brilliant instrumentation and orchestral color.  The second movement, marked “Playful”, is a delightful scherzo with a central section that feels almost minimalistic with its repeated small motives.  The overall form moves through five sections and then back out again connected by short ritornello sections and with the third idea not recurring later.  A few compositional “devices” that would be discovered upon looking closer at a score provide some fine touches.  The opening of the third, and slow movement, is a beautiful atmospheric piece with fluttering colors and murmuring strings.  It features some slightly more intense thematic design, more angular and into higher registral string writing.  Somewhat impressionistic in its style, the music gradually becomes a poignant and evocative meditation with many moments of beauty.   The finale is in five different tempo sections that reflects back on ideas heard earlier in the work beginning with a mysterious opening and leading to a chorale and exciting coda.  This is the movement that feels like a modern Shostakovich/Harris structure.

For a bit of contrast, the disc closes with a 1996 work, Quiet Reflections.  The piece is a slower meditative work flirting with a blend of Impressionistic writing with touches of Americana.  At times it feels as if it could be lifted from a dramatic film score by Elmer Bernstein, or Alex North, with touches of Copland.  The result is an often lyrical and beautifully-orchestrated tone poem of sorts.  The piece is another of those wonderful shorter orchestral pieces of accessible music that matches well with the earlier disc of Gallagher’s orchestral music.

Once again, JoAnn Falletta’s commitment to modern orchestral repertoire is exemplary.  It is beyond rare for a major symphony to tackle a new work of this magnitude and with the resulting level of excellence and interpretation one gets with the London Symphony Orchestra.  However, it is the sheer exuberant skill in the writing that makes the piece work.  It many respects it is as if the symphony pays homage to the great performances of the LSO that Gallagher appreciated as a student.  Suggestions of 20^th Century music are not as overt as pure quotation music, but seem to float through the textures.  In some respects, it is as if they are reflecting on some of the great cultural achievements of the past century that helped provide light and hope to the world.  All this said, there is a lot in the symphony that can be returned to pick up some of the greater detail and suggestive ideas.  But, the real reason is that it is simply an excellent modern work that sometimes seems to reflect a bit of Stravinsky’s modernism more than other elements, but with a beautifully evocative slow movement we come into an almost cinematic soundscape.  This is another great release in Naxos’ continuing support of modern American music and an accessible new symphony worth ones time.  Pick both this and the earlier one up if you still have not done so for a wonderful introduction to a great symphonic American voice.