Winter’s Warmth: Contemporary Works for Orchestra
Karel Martinkek, organ. Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra/Petr Vronsky
St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra/Vladimir Landa
Navona Records 6091
Total Time: 59:06
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Winter’s Warmth is a collection of recent orchestral music by five composers.  There are six pieces on the albu, with a larger one for organ and orchestra kicking things off.  is a organ concerto.  It in some respects serves as a companion to an early collection of orchestral miniatures on the label, Sparks.  Though here, the Moravian Philharmonic is the primary orchestra.

The album opens with the more substantial Falling Man/Dancing Man that incorporates an organ into the texture.  It is not a concerto as such, though the work is cast in three larger movements where the instrument does assert itself from time to time.  The organ tends to float often above the texture with fascinating colors paralleled in the orchestral writing.  Ideas are often transferred across the ensemble and soloist.  The piece deals with some rather serious subject matter.  Australian composer Andrew Schulz wanted to explore the reactions to war and was struck by a couple of photographs that would inspire the piece.  The first is the image of a falling man from the World Trade Center attacks.  This surreal image can be heard explored in the opening movement, and perhaps more emotionally in the central movement.  The other is a celebrating man at the end of WWII.  This forms the basis for some of the rapid passage work in the final movement, “The Laughing Man.”  There is a nice central lyrical section in this movement with delicate winds ideas fluttering about.  Overall, this is a very strong work which was originally commissioned for the new organ at the Melbourne Town Hall.  Listeners will be struck by its moments of lyrical, almost Copland-esque beauty.  The organ adds an extra semi-religious gravitas as needed, but also has plenty of interesting commentary along the way.  The overall shape makes this a nice addition to the literature for organ and orchestra.  The piece itself would recommend this album to fans of modern music in a more romantic idiom.  But there are four more works to explore.

At the center are two orchestral miniatures by American composer John A. Carollo.  The first is a more patriotic-style work, Let Freedom Ring.  It is rather fascinating as, while somewhat celebratory, it is set in a minor key.  There is an ongoing arpeggio (that seems like an extension of the work’s original guitar setting).  The motifs tend to move through the orchestra in blocks with different solo lines entering.  The music works toward some rather intense dissonance as it moves towards its climax gaining in intensity. The second provides a more descriptive program apparent from its title, The Transfiguration of Giovanni Baudino.  As one might expect then, the piece explores the transformation of material and is scored for piano and orchestra with the latter being more integrated into the orchestra.  Different threads are cast about the ensemble in this little ten-minute work that feels like it could be part of a larger triptych of pieces.  The musical language in both pieces tends to modernist style with slightly more dissonance.  There are some hard edits in the recording of the latter suggesting the piece is a bit more difficult than one might suspect at first.  The transitions from denser to lighter textures is rather interesting throughout though the ending sort of runs out of steam a bit (hence the thought of it needing to be part of a larger work).

Russian Winter is a brief movement from an earlier suite by R. Barry Ulrich.  The music is an interesting depiction of the landscape of the Russian steppes.  Ulrich was a middle and high school band director, and now retired to Oregon.  This is a really gorgeous work for strings that has an almost cinematic feel from its opening bars.

The final work on the album is a work for piano and orchestra by Iowa composer J. A. Kawarsky.  Episodes explores asymmetrical meters in the opening portion that recalls Prokofiev, or perhaps some Brubeck, with the second section being a more lyrical idea referencing a Jewish melody.  The shift there is quick and rather stunning with its Romantic-tinged piano solo.  The third episode picks up on the opening clarinet theme and also references a piece by Gerald Finzi.  This is really a rather fascinating piece that should hold up well with repeated hearing.

This is true really of all the works on this excellent album.  One would certainly hope that there are some conductors and ensembles out there listening to certainly consider these pieces in their programs.  If you are someone who enjoys discovery of new musical voices, this is certainly a must-have disc.  Each of the works here represent pieces that would fit well in any modern orchestral program.  Each also tend to find ways to show off different orchestral solos and sections which is certainly a help for consideration.  The recordings are all quite good with excellent sound and committed playing.

 Sparks: Miniature Works for Orchestra
Siberian State Symphony Orchestra/Vladimir Landa
Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra/Petr Vronsky
Richard Stoltzman, clarinet.  Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra/Kirk Trevor
The Wembley Players/Bruce Babcock
Navona Records 6050
Total Time: 48:53
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Navona Records tends to focus on highlighting modern music and in this release provides some space for a variety of composers to be exposed.  Sparks features 13 works for orchestra by an equal number of new composers (though there is one arrangement at the center of Gershwin’s “Summertime”).  As such, the listener has a chance to hear the state of orchestral writing in a postmodern world.  The music tends to be quite accessible and often very dramatic lending a more filmic quality and often tied to a single idea.  The recordings date mostly from the past couple of years, though one (Bruce Babcock’s Event Horizon) was made in 1984, and the Gershwin in 2005.  The album is sort of a modern compilation of pieces that parallels some of the “pops” like covers of popular pieces of previous periods.

Jay Anthony Gach’s Gangsta opens the selection.  It is entirely inspired by great 1940s crime and film noir styles and comes across like a long lost Rosza suite.  A touch of this, with some jazz-like suggestions with a nice inclusion of a vibraphone color, appears in the following work by Rain Worthington, Still Motion.  Marga Richter’s Fragments is a fascinating five-movement work exploring different orchestral color—it too has an almost film-like dramatic flow.  Motivic ideas are the binding factor here to move the music forward with fascinating textures.  Explorations of single dance forms are always a unique way for a composer to create a faster audience connection and Phillip Rhodes accomplishes this well in his A Tango Fantasy, a sort of deconstruction of the rhythms and musical phrasing of a tango.  At the center is a nice little arrangement of “Summertime” featuring clarinetist Richard Stoltzman whose central section allows for a variety of pyrotechnics and shift into suggestions of other Gershwin melodies in these riffs.  This is followed by a touching portrait for the late conductor of the Dayton Symphony, Charles-Wendelken-Wilson, Prelude for Charles.  Steven Winteregg's music here has a wonderful, romantic flow, exploring sections of the orchestra and following interesting musical gestures developed across the brief tribute.  In Memoriam continues this thematic sense of remembrance.  Douglas Anderson’s work though came out of a response to the 9-11 attacks and a personal sense of loss that might help heal and remember those lost.  The work opens with a chime and a cluster of sound that then opens into a warm string sound with delicate wind and brass lines floating through the texture in this moving work.  Film music fans will likely recognize the name Bruce Babcock.  He is an Emmy-winning composer who also has numerous orchestration credits over a career spanning some 40 years.  Event Horizon, recorded in 1984 with the Wembley Players, is his personal nod to the many film composers and teachers he has learned from and loves.  The work opens with unsettling and eerie string writing against brass.  It has a serial feel and is the most atonal of the pieces on the album (think some of Goldsmith’s Alien score).  Interestingly enough, the piece does reflect the sort of orchestral writing that was common in orchestral concert music at the time.  The final work is Stephen Lias’ Crown of the Continent.  The piece is an example of landscape-inspired orchestral music.  Here it is of Glacier National Park and the “old West” vistas of Montana.  The style is akin to that for the modern Western in scores like those by Bruce Boughton (Silverado).

The performances here feel as if they were rehearsed well and the result is that the music is quite engaging.  The sequencing also works to draw the listener into the modern styles and then begin to strip things away gradually.  It all works quite well.  Many, if not all, of these pieces, could fit very well in any number of symphony programs both serious and light connecting to a specific theme.  Composers tend to be forced into smaller forms to find space on modern symphony programs and perhaps pieces like these might open the door a little wider for those represented here to try their hand at larger scale pieces.  Certainly, Sparks is an important collection of new voices for any music lover wanting to support modern orchestral music.  Checking out the links at their website even lets you explore some of the scores.