Once and Again
Tony Arnold, soprano. Tara Helen O’Connor, flute. June Han, harp.
Charles Neidich, clarinet/bass clarinet. Daniel Phillips, violin. Marcy Rosen, cello.
Susan Narucki, soprano. Judith Mendenhall, flute/piccolo.
Morey Ritt, piano.
Brno Philharmonic Strings/Mikel Toms
New Focus FCR258
Total Time:  67:14
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Composer Edward Smaldone (b. 1956) explores a number of chamber music expressions in this new collection from New Focus.  From song cycles (Cantare di Amore; Letters From Home) to wind solos (Duke/Monk) and duets (Double Duo) to a concluding string Sinfonia that reveal the composer’s style and approaches in works written between 1986-2009.

The first work on the album is the song cycle Cantare di Amore (2009) and represents Smaldone’s most recent work.  The texts are borrowed from the fourth and sixth book of Madrigals by Monteverdi.  There are three settings, the first opening with an almost Asian-sounding inflection from the flute and harp.  The voice and flute tend to interweave and feed off one another with the harp providing flourishes to add harmonic signposts.  There are sometimes subtle shifts to more traditional harmony, though these are hints that quickly dissipate.  At the center is a darker love song exploring contemporary effects for the accompanying instruments and a freer rhythmic feel.  The final song has more of these free-flowing soprano lines.  The piece is a bit reminiscent of Dallapiccola (perhaps it is just the way the instruments are applied and the florid vocal writing).  The performance is quite exquisite.  The second song cycle is based on some letters the composer discovered in his home (hence the title, Letters from Home 2000/2007/2014).  The actual letters are interspersed with the composer’s own texts to add context to the material.  Here it is Susan Narucki’s performance that entrances the listener.

The song cycles are separated by a Double Duo (1987/2006) that pits two woodwind instruments (flute and clarinet) against two string instruments (violin and cello).  This earlier composition, here in a revised form, Smaldone cites as being influenced by George Perle.  It expresses that economy of material with opening ideas being the primary pitch and motivic ideas that form the basis of the tightly-constructed 8-minute work.  There is still a sense of improvisational approaches that allow each instrument to come to the foreground briefly.  An outward-reaching gesture helps further move things along as more angular, and jagged outlines add an additional intensity.  More careful listening helps discern that these ideas are placed within a sonata form.  The more rhythmic material opens the work with a slower, harmonically ambiguous, second idea providing contrast.  A development section further unpacks these ideas before a somewhat interesting recapitulation where these two ideas occur simultaneously.  The penultimate track is a two-movement work, originally for flute, that is performed on clarinet.  Duke/Monk (2011) reveals another of Smaldone’s “influences”, Duke Ellington and Thelonius Monk.  The musical material is derived form a work of each of these classic jazz musicians and composers.  The new transcription was made for its soloist here, Charles Niedich.  It piano allows Smaldone to stretch and manipulate jazz harmonies while the soloist has a more improvisational feel exploring the melodic lines of the quotations.

The final work here is an early piece for strings adapted from the composer’s 1986 second string quartet.  The Sinfonia (2010) features a beautiful viola opening with extended harmonic punctuations before shifting into a dancing scherzo.  The work encapsulates the composer’s exploration of small cells of material and repeated pitch constructions.  After a more reflective opening, the dance-like rhythms of Smaldone’s interests also align.

The music here is especially marked by some beautiful lyric writing, though couched often in more astringent harmony.  It is almost as if sometimes a line will follow a traditional harmonic arc but the accompaniment pulls into closer intervallic constructions towards dissonance.  That can be quite fascinating to hear and Smaldone is quite fortunate to have secured such fine performances of these pieces.

Dimensions: Works for Orchestra, Vol. 2
Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra/Jiri Petrdlik
Dimitris Kotronakis, guitar. Athens Philharmonia Orchestra/Michalis Economou
Lucie Silkenova, soprano.  Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra/Pavel Snajdr, Petr Vronsky
Navona Records 6251
Total Time:  56:45
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Dimensions is a collection of new orchestral music featuring four smaller works paired with a guitar concerto.  Each of the pieces here features fascinating orchestral colors and engaging music.

Erich Stem’s Portland is a rather colorful work depicting this Western city.  Stem’s piece is part of a series of musical postcards featuring American cities.  Here he has carefully merged elements of Native American chanting and drumming that informs some of the musical materials.  The piece is intended as much a discovery of explorers Lewis and Clark and has a rather filmic quality to its musical narrative.  Bill Whitley’s Bonzai Down opens with a burst of energy that also has Asian quality at first, but at its heart is also set in the Willamette Valley of Oregon and the Bonzai Trail in McDonald Forest.  A rondo-like structure allows for moments of serene beauty amid the excitement of this equally colorful orchestral piece.  Texts by Walt Whitman form the basis for A Letter From Camp.  Brian T. Field’s work for soprano and orchestra gives us the opportunity to reflect upon war through the experiences of a farm family faced with the devastation of the Civil War.  As such it opens with trumpet calls and a more dissonant blend of harmonies in a burst that gives way to first spoken text.  A reference to a Bach chorale also adds to the flavor of this piece with more Americana orchestrally writing that emerges to set the tone.  The work reaches for a more universal metaphor that causes pause for reflection.  The vocal line here is often stunning in its beauty but sometimes feels just a bit too recessed in the spoken dialogue sections.  The final work on the album is Jan Jarvlepp’s Street Music which brings us to an exciting conclusion with its driving percussion and brass writing that make this a rather fitting close with its lighter style perfect for a pops program.

The larger work on this program is Mark Francis’ Guitar Concerto No. 2, ”In Somnis Veritas”.  The subtitle provides a clue to the unfolding of the music to follow as a series of dreams across the three movements.  The opening movement invites us in gently to a quite dream state.  The music has an arch-like form here moving us back to where we began.  The second movement picks up motives from the first as the tempo also picks up.  The tripartite structure features a slower central section for solo guitar, a striking moment.  The final movement begins to veer a bit into bizarreness with interesting percussion effects and motives that begin to morph into stranger ways.  The speed also increases as adding to excitement as previous motives and themes come to the forefront before an exciting conclusion.  Soloist Dimitris Kotronakis provides a truly moving performance with gorgeous playing that moves well into the later technical demands.

The performances for these works seem to be among the finest of Navona’s catalogue to date.  The music may be one of the main reasons with its more accessible musical language and engaging musical colors.  The pieces seem to have slightly more energy from the players as well.  The music here comes out of a more tonal Romanticism that is very attractive to modern audiences and this collection features all strong pieces that should reveal more with repeated listening.  Highly recommended.