John Williams celebrated his 85^th birthday this past February and this has fortunately led to a number of releases celebrating the composer (including one from Sony earlier this year exploring his Spielberg scores).  This new Varese release is more a classically-conceived album that features Simone Pedroni performing some 78 minutes of music.  He was the Gold Medalist of the Ninth International Van Cliburn Piano Competition (1993) which, at the age of 24, launched his international career.  He more recently was the conductor for some of the Star Wars: A Musical Journey concerts in Italy.  In this new compilation he plays a blend of his own transcriptions and those by Williams as well.

Williams compiled two suites of his music for Lincoln and The Book Thief.  In this setting, stripped of its orchestral colors, the music for Lincoln falls in line with piano music that hovers between 19^th-Century period style and something more akin to Roy Harris.  Of course, for completists, it is worth noting that there is some music from both these suites that appears for the first time.  Some of these moments are given added virtuosic “expansions” by Pedroni.

At the center are several pieces one finds in piano collections of Williams’ published music.  This includes the beautiful theme from Sabrina, “Remembering Carolyn” (Presumed Innocent), and selections from the early Star Wars films: The Empire Strikes Back (“The Asteroid Field”, transcribed here by Pedroni) and Return of the Jedi (“Luke and Leia”).  The theme from Schindler’s List serves as a little encore for The Book Thief. 

The album is rounded off by selections from the Harry Potter films.  “Fluffy’s Harp” is perhaps the oddest of the choices from the first film.  “A Window to the Past” and “Aunt Marge’s Waltz” bring us back to some more familiar ground to wrap things up.  One is struck sometimes at the way Williams’ music manages to pull from the grand styles of 19^th-Century music with blends of modern harmony.  This stands out the most in some of these Harry Potter  moments.  Prokofiev is not far off either in the action music of “The Asteroid Field” or even in the aforementioned waltz.

Pedroni obviously loves this music and plays it with a great deal of passion, expressiveness, and perhaps a touch of reckless abandon in rapid passage work.  One needs to perhaps suspend their expectations that these are piano reductions of the scores themselves and more interpretations of some of these moments.  It makes this a rather unique album that is certainly filled with selections that are less recorded in their orchestral versions and that alone makes this an attractive release which is a limited edition of 1000 copies.

 Inventions
North Texas Wind Symphony/Eugene Migliaro Corporan
GIA 1004
Total Time:  74:31
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

The University of North Texas has one of the fines music programs in the Southern half of the country and over the years their wind symphony, under Eugene Migliaro Corporan, have produced some stellar recordings exploring band literature.  The present release features several new works for wind symphony that provides a cross section of music by composers noted for their film work, symphonic music and wind music all composed in the 21^st Century—all but one within the last decade.

John Williams fans will want to take note at first as the composer’s For the President’s Own (2013) begins the album.  Composed to celebrate “The President’s Own” US Marine Band, the work has all the hallmarks of Williams’ fanfare styles blended with some of the sounds of scores such as Catch Me If You Can, and A.I. with the brass writing listeners are familiar with from the action scores.  Some of the mallet percussion writing here is what will strike listeners at first.  The ensemble performs this impeccably.

Three Short Stories (2001) began life as a work for viola and bassoon.  The latter certainly has a great presence in this band transcription made by the composer, Gernot Wolfgang, in 2012.  The three-movement work explores dance and jazz rhythms in some quite engaging music.  The opening “Uncle Bebop” has a decided Bernstein feel with excellent syncopated rhythms that explore this classic style.  A more noir-ish central movement, “Rays of Light”, features a variety of solos to highlight different sections of the group and provides a great contrast.  The percussion section gets to have its day in the final “Latin Dance”.  Solos have a decidedly more improvisational quality as the energy is maintained throughout the movement bringing the work to an audience pleasing conclusion.  This is a work that really highlights the UNT soloists very well.  As a teaching piece, it introduces some important musical styles from jazz, rock, and Latin music as well as suggestions of big band music as well.  The music also gradually adds a bit more dissonance as the piece comes to its conclusions with suggestions of the opening movement bringing us back to a satisfying finale.

Filmic style returns a bit with Bruce Broughton’s In the World of the Spirits (2011).  The inspiration comes from a book on the Comanche people and the discussion there of different spirit worlds.  Broughton has crafted a couple of identifiable themes to help provide contrast in the work.  It is a very visually evocative piece that allows the listener to create a sort of dramatic story line of their own as it unfolds.  In the work, one could imagine how the music might fit against film images.  Having heard other of Broughton’s work for band, this one has some great soloistic opportunities here.  Fascinating textures are created with the addition of mallet percussion and flute and clarinet lines that float about the texture with brass harmonies and interjections.  The latter add a sort of nervous energy in fascinating ways in the second thematic portion of the work.  There are also a variety of interesting techniques added in the percussion section to create intriguing sounds.  Those familiar with Broughton’s film scores will find much here that parallels that work in this intriguing piece.

One of the more recent well-known composers of literature for wind band is John Mackey.  Chances are you have played his work if you have been a band student through college in the past 20 years.  Two works by the composer are included here.  The first offers a brief reprieve from the larger scale pieces on the album.  The Ringmaster’s March (pub. 2014) is the final movement of a larger suite.  As one would expect, this is a perfect updated circus march complete with the sort of musical gestures familiar with the genre.  The music has some delightful syncopated ideas as it grows in intensity and a variety of miniature climaxes.  It is filled with wit and brilliant writing across the ensemble.  The most substantial work on the album is the half-hour Wine-Dark Sea (2014).  Commissioned by UT-Austin’s music department in honor of their 100^th Anniversary of the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music, has as its underlying “story” the tale of Odysseus.  Using a description written by his wife, Abby, the music unfolds over three-movements and intends to depict some of the highlights of Homer’s classic story.  The first movement, “Hubris”, features a march-like idea that bookends an action-music section with asymmetrical meters lending the music a great sense of energy (it has a sort of The Incredibles meets Land of the Giants feel) leading up to the depiction of the shipwreck.  The addition of harp to the texture is a rather striking moment.  Things sort of dissolve as the movement comes to an end with depictions of waves lapping the shore.  The central movement is a love theme of sorts depicting the seven years Odysseus is nursed back to health by the nymph Kalypso.  It opens with a wonderful harp solo and moves into delicate wind ideas across the ensemble.  The lines and dissonance help suggest the troubled relationship as it unfolds and grows into some gorgeous lyrical music.  Odysseus returns on his journey to head home as we move into “The Attentions of Souls”.  The music begins with a lighter rollicking texture that moves us along with a variety of sounds that pop into the texture to suggest some of the difficulties and challenges faced in the journey.  The rhythmic syncopations help lend a cinematic quality this final movement that even tosses in a harpsichord for good measure.  A bit of the composer’s humor shines through here in the dialogue-like sections that appear in between the big climaxes and an exciting conclusion.

Winter Dreams (2015), is a reflective work by Michael Daugherty that allows for a bit of relaxation in this otherwise charged program.  The composer returned to his roots in Iowa in this piece that depicts the winter landscapes as depicted in a couple of black-and-white lithographs by Grant Wood.  The harmonic writing creates these intriguing backdrops upon which Daugherty has layered some beautiful oboe and clarinet solos.  Sleigh bells help create the sense of winter imagery being recalled in the music.  As the piece unfolds, it is as if we are traveling across the countryside taking in different aspects of the winter scenes.  Written in memory of his father, the piece has a decidedly reflective sensibility.   Often Daugherty’s music feels as if it is bringing the film world to the concert stage especially when the music is moving along with great excitement.  This is a rather unique work that gives us a view of a more personal, and deeply sensitive emotional side of the composer.  It will be a great discovery for those familiar with his work.    

GIA’s recording is a marvel.  The balance and overall imaging of the wind symphony is simply stellar.  Even in the huge climaxes of the Mackey work, the sound does not overpower or cause distortion.  Winspear Hall, where the recording was made at the UT campus, seems like the perfect place for this ensemble.  These are, of course, all college performers who no doubt will go to a variety of careers, but they will have these recordings as a testament to their personal achievements.  The program is quite engaging and should appeal to a wide range of listeners.