When You Are Reminded By The Instruments
Desiree Glazier-Nazro, percussion. Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra/Petr Vronsky;
Elizabeth England, oboe/English horn. Rane Moore, clarinet/bass clarinet. Kevin Owen, horn. Julia Okrusko, violin. Peter Sulski, viola. Minghui Lin, cello. Tony D’Amico, contrabass/James Blachly;
Curtis Macomber, violin. Christopher Oldfather, piano.;
Andrew Steinberg, tenor saxophone.
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra/Joel Eric Suben;
Eric Moe, piano.;
C4: Choral Composer/Conductor Collective/Ben Arendsen;
Florilegium Chamber Choir/JoAnn Rice
Navona Records 6191
Total Time:  60:52
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

The music of American composer Hayes Biggs is featured in this new Navona release.  Biggs teaches at the Manhattan School of Music where he has been since 1992.  His work covers a wide variety of orchestral and chamber combinations.  The pieces on this release explore these different combinations and music for choir across a 28-year span.

The opening Pan-Fare (2007) is for orchestra and a series of percussion (steel pan, pedal bass drum, and tambourine).  With its somewhat jazzy syncopations and harmonies, the piece explodes with energy that has an almost improvisational quality.  The unique sounds and rhythmic complexity propel this brief work forward.  At times it feels like a mashup of Antheil and Stravinsky.

Some of this can be heard in the earlier work, When You Are Reminded by the Instruments (1997).  This is work for contemporary chamber orchestra.  Here you can discover some of the seeds that would appear in the first work on the album.  The sort of angular, visceral rhythmic accents, intriguing timbral explorations of the instruments, and sense of drama all work to create a piece that feels like an extension of modernism.  The overall emotional flow of the piece is what is most striking as the motivic ideas are shifted across the piece.  Sometimes a longer lyrical line may add a little something to help move the listener along (a la Ives, perhaps).  It is a rather fascinating work that allows for exploration by each of the lines.

There are three solo works on the album beginning with the most recent, Inquieto (2015).  This longer work for violin and piano is in two joined movements.  Here too are the angular and jazz-referenced lines and harmonies in the breezier opening which also has some blues-like turns in a more lyrical second section.  Clusters also appear more in this piece.  The violin is given a variety of technical responsibilities from double stops to altissimo harmonic playing.  More interesting is the way aspects of the piano’s arpeggiated chords and violin pizzicato create a rather fascinating sound.  It moves us into a more reflective section with ethereal writing.  Block chords move us back to the opening section with a more intense, almost angry insistence.  Yet, a sense of uneasy peace and tranquility does return suggesting the agitation has passed, for now.  This is followed by the amusingly-titled The Trill is Gone (2013) for tenor sax.  Here we get a chance to experience some of the wittiness of Biggs’ music with a piece that has a similar angular style that comes back to a trill as a unifying factor until that little wave is soon dispersed.  The exploration of the instrument’s register is one of the standout aspects of this brief work that features some tonguing percussive sounds and moments for lyrical as well as growling low register commentary.    A brief Fanfare for Brass and Percussion (1989) illustrates an early connection in Biggs’ music to Stravinsky and blends of polytonal modernism with touches of Hindemith.  The exploration of pianist Eric Moe is followed through a series of quotation, or suggestive musical ideas, of chant and hymnody.  Expressive writing and attention to performance details of articulation and phrasing abound in E.M. am Flugel (1992).

The album concludes with two works for voices.  First is the Wedding Motet (1998) which continues this exploration of earlier musics in this work that blends Latin and English texts.  The phrasing cadences feel like modern expansions of Medieval/Renaissance style.  Then comes the more substantial Ochila Laeil (1999) which was one of his first setting in Hebrew.  The blend of horn and organ add an interesting supportive sound with the former leading and the choral harmonies emerging from the keyboard chords.  Again, the exploration of color here coupled with a dramatic narrative in the music keeps the listener rapt.

Biggs’ music draws the listener in with its harmonic accessibility and streamlined voice writing that helps create clear textures.  There is always a great dramatic sense, often supported by a narrative r programmatic inspiration that adds some additional context.  Overall, there is good variety here to introduce his work to a broader audience.

Legends and Light
Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra/Petr Vronsky, Stanislav Vavrinek
Croatian Chamber Orchestra/Miran Vaupotic
Navona Records 6187
Total Time:  64:53
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Four composers are represented on this new release of contemporary orchestral music.  They represent a somewhat international collection of artists exploring the modern orchestra in multi-movement works.  The album features to chamber orchestra works that bookend two pieces for string orchestra.

First up is a work by Hans Bakker (b. 1945) from the Netherlands.  His Canzona III Hidden in Her Light is an abstract musical tone poem told through a mostly tonal language.  A series of chords open the piece and a falling motif begins to move us into the first portion of the work.  The idea is set up through repetition that is further colored by different instrumental groupings.  There is an overall tripartite form here can be explored by the three tracks provided to connect to the different tempo divisions.  The music has an almost fairy tale, filmic dramatic flair.  Its central section has a beautiful little melancholy waltz that further explores the motif of the opening.

Jan Jarvlepp’s (b. 1953) Suite for Strings (2010) is a four-movement work.  The Ottawa-based composer created the piece as a pedagogical tool for young string players.  Each movement explores various technical challenges to help grow the ability of the players.  These include learning to play in shifting meters (“Changing Times”), shifting hand/bow positions physically on the instrument (“Shifting Cargo”), controlling vibrato and phrasing in slow movements (“A Thoughtful Moment”), and exploring syncopation and making additional rhythmic sounds with hands and feet (“Dance of the Monkey Man”).  The music is a nice tonal work with a great sense of play and showcases the different sections well.  It certainly wears well, especially the opening movement.  The joy of musical creation is certainly evident and hopefully as contagious for the work’s younger players.

Redcliff Gardens is a five-movement suite for strings by English-born composer Clive Muncaster (b. 1936).  Some of these have been performed individually and two are orchestrations of pieces originally for violin and piano (“Stella” and “Girandole”).  The work consists of shorter works that the composer wrote while living in this part of the UK.  The opening “Petronella” is the most substantial movement.  A solo violin does indeed open the work.  The musical language here has that great full English chamber orchestra quality (inherited from the likes of Vaughan Williams and Warlock) that then moves into a beautifully written melodic idea.  The “Fuga Romantica” and final “”Girandole” have an almost Leroy Anderson-like wit.  Gorgeous melodic ideas abound throughout the suite giving us an opportunity to imagine a wonderful day in the English countryside.  The result is work which deserves a place in the repertoire.  The performance here is quite good and makes an excellent case for it.

(A brief moment of disclosure is needed for the final piece by Shirley Mier.  It was my privilege to be one of the performers in the orchestra for the premiere of this work.  I am delighted to see it receiving its premiere recording here.)

Shirley Mier lives in Wisconsin and teaches at Century Community College whose orchestra premiered her Of Lakes and Legends.  The piece is in the American tradition of descriptive music based on local history and lore.  In this case, it is the White Bear Lake, MN, region where the college is based.  A variety of solo opportunities are spread throughout the work adding to the colorful unfolding of its various tales.  The opening movement takes its inspiration from the “Legend of the White Bear (Manitou Island)” and musically follows a tragic tale of love between a Sioux woman and a Chippewa warrior which gives rise to the area’s name.  The melodic line helps set this tone well to begin this almost cinematic movement which is also the longest in the suite.  The second movement celebrates the arrival of the railroad to the town in 1868 which helped begin the town’s destination from Saint Paul as a resort destination. It is a delightful dance-like Americana movement.  “Parlor Recital” seeks to recreate a late 19^th-Century soiree at one of the mansions in the city (Fillebrown House) and is a wonderful little waltz.  The suite ends with an exciting “Regatta” depicting a water race and reminiscent of Mier’s fine band work, Maiden Voyage.

Each of the pieces here are all well worth the price of admission and have some truly wonderful discoveries for those who like to explore modern orchestral writing.  Here each composer’s voices create music that is accessible and descriptive.