Mezzanine Seat
Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra/Petr Vronsky
Bruno Philipp, clarinet.  Croatian Chamber Orchestra/Miran Vaupotic
Navona Records 6186
Total Time:  74:16
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Last year, Navona released the complete (to date) string quartets of Michigan-born composer Michael G. Cunningham.  Now we have an opportunity to move from these more intimate compositions to those written on a larger scale in this new release featuring four orchestral pieces.

The album opens with the nine-movement Silhouettes, Op. 225 (a first version was completed in the late 1950s).  In these little movements, the composer takes us through a variety of musical suggestions and feels a bit like a contemporary pastiche.  He begins with touches of modernism which in the opening “Corps de Ballet” tend to occur with dissonances being created against long, lyrical lines.  The closer intervals help add this sense with bursts of energy.  “Basse Danse” adds to this intense dramatic style with an opening ostinato pattern with small motivic ideas repeated and expanded upon adding to the tension and quite dramatic sensibility of the music.  These abstract imaginations move through a variety of brief picturesque suggestions like a modern update to the Renaissance suite.  Cunningham’s catalogue is filled with explorations of musical styles which he likes to integrate into his own work.  This is delightfully added into the “Gerswhin Portrait” movement which is a modern exploration of traditional jazz and exciting syncopations in one of the more standout moments from this work.  He also explores the Classical Period in his “Mozart Metamorphosis”, though in a more abstract disassembling.  “March” moves us back to more accessible, off-kilter, harmonic interplay with a sort of post-Hindemith style.  A calmer “Triolet” adds an air of mystery as it unfolds and the piece concludes with a brilliant perpetual motion-like “Furioso”.  Overall, it is an interesting work with engaging writing and orchestral exploration that would prove compelling for performers as well as listeners.  A strong work that is a welcome addition to the discography of modern American music.

Bruno Philipp tackles the composer’s Clarinet Concerto, Op. 186.  Cast in three movements, Cunningham opens with a burst of nervous energy that then shifts into a rather virtuosic display by the soloist against the dark textures of the orchestra.  Hindemith feels very much in the background of this work as well with Cunningham’s tendency to use a similar harmonic approach that supports his long thematic ideas that build and build like extensions of a Baroque motif stretched to the breaking point.  “Lithe” moves us into a suave moment of relaxation in tempo but the undercurrent of the music still maintains a sort of sinister quality.  Hints at the musical motives of the first movement flit into the texture adding a sort of twittering unease.  “Charivari” means essentially a “bunch of noise” often in folk mock parades intended to either celebrate a marriage or make fun of an unpopular person.  The style here certainly suggests such an intent with the fast-paced four-note motif that opens the work (an almost Prokofievian approach) with the serenade qualities reflected in the lyrical second idea.  The first movement motif returns as the piece moves towards a gradual piled-up harmony, last statement by clarinet and final cadence.  An excellent concerto, though perhaps the darkest of its type for the instrument!

The three-movement Symphonette, Op, 200 (1999) is a little symphony (it would be Cunningham’s fourth).  Prokofiev’s orchestral style also seems to be an underlying cousin to this work.  The fast-paced ideas that march along underneath the sinuous, long thematic lines creates this sense in what is a rather intense opening “Con Spirito”, but the final bars seem to move us to a sense of hope.  “Calmato” brings us into a more reflective mode that begins with an intriguing horn solo as the string wind their way around their own idea.  A happier shift begins to appear in the final movement, “Giovale”, which has a big orchestral chord to bookend the development and appearance of jaunty thematic lines.  It is really a great work that deserves a wider audience and we can be appreciative for its appearance here.

In Bach Diadem, Cunningham’s interest in taking older musical models and “updating” them is on display in full force.  Here we have three works (“French Prelude”, “Toccata Prelude”, and “Brandenburg Allegro”) that pay tribute to the great Baroque composer rethinking things a bit in modern orchestral dress.  The result is a sort of aural orchestration exploration.

For those unfamiliar with Cunningham’s music, this would be an excellent place to begin as the pieces here are all quite engaging, excellently written works with enough diversity that they allow the listener to begin to hear his own musical voice, one definitely worth listening to for anyone interested in modern American music.

Music from the Ethereal Side of Paradise
Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra/Stanislave Vavrinek
Duo 46: Matt Gould, guitar. Beth Schneider, violin.
Darel Stark, violin.; Christian Saggese, guitar.
Composer’s Choir/Daniel Shaw
Lisa Cella, flute.
Navona Records 6148
Total Time: 57:36
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

John A. Carollo (b. 1954) has spent a majority of his life working in Hawaii as a mental health professional.  He had taken piano lessons throughout his life and decided to begin composition studies in the 1990s.  Since he has moved fully into composition and this new release provides a broad spectrum of his work from orchestral pieces to a collection of choral pieces and a variety of works for solo instruments.  The twelve pieces here have all appeared on earlier collections of Carollo’s music.  The earliest recordings here are from 2006 with the orchestral tracks being supervised in 2016.

The album is bookended by two works for string orchestra.  Awakenings opens the album.  It, like the final track Bright Stillness, are variations, or re-workings of a movement from the composer’s The Rhethoric and Mythos of Belief.  A falling motif opens Awakenings with a sort of tentativeness and dark, almost Gothic horror orchestral writing that might have come from the pen of film composer John Barry.  It is the stronger of the two versions.  Bright Stillness is a briefer version with the same sort of intensity, though more dominance given to solo violin.

Music for guitar figures prominently on the collection.  First is a suite, Romantica Passione for guitar and violin composed for Duo 46, who perform four of the nine movements here.  This is a little more modernistic in style from the “Romanzo!” movement that begins the exploration of this work.  The violin weaves about the guitar accompaniment here with some interesting transference between the two.  Additional percussive sounds and vocalizations are also included.  The guitar takes on a more melodic role in “Splendido Affare” as the violin doubles and expands slightly on this idea.  The music has moments where the ideas get twisted about as they become more passionate.  The dissonance is equally intense as this unfolds dramatically.  It continues in “La Tortura dell’ Amore”.

Carollo has composed a number of Metamorphosis for solo instruments.  One for violin (no. 3) and one for flute (no. 13) are included on this album.  The former continues this exploration of long, tortuous lines, and dramatic unfolding of abstract musical ideas.  The violinist must work across all registers to land on rich tonal pauses while interspersed are rapid passage ideas that might require some fast shifts across strings as the music gets more manic.  Daniel Stark manages all of this quite well.  The flute one features Lisa Cella who creates a warm tone here that explores the reaches of the instrument.  Her lower range is quite gorgeous and full here.  After a slow introduction, the music begins its journey of transformation and increased virtuoso turns amidst longer phrasing.  All done excellently here.

Guitarist Christian Saggese is featured on three solo pieces at the center of the album.  These all fall well within modern guitar writing with modernist tinges.  The Guitar Prelude No. 3-The Tai Chi Set features a fine reflective quality with subtle nods to Asian music references through the way the instrument is played and ideas are articulated.  Two brief etudes follow that are in line for interesting exercises for the instrument.

The four choral pieces here are the first explorations of choral writing by Carollo.  They are based on his own texts.  The style favors open and pure musical styles often in blocks with clean declaration in this performance.  It is almost like four-part homophonic chant writing with more mystical, but non-religious texts.  Each tend to be rather similar in their approach.

Carollo’s music is often quite compelling to listen to regardless of the forces.  There is an inner emotional quality that manages to come through in these performances quite well.  The orchestral works are the real highlights here with the performances of the solo works helping those shine.  Thus we have an excellent survey of Carollo’s music whose orchestral pieces linger in the mind far after they conclude.