Maslanka: The River of Time
John McMurtery, flute. Moises Molina, cello.
Western Illinois University Wind Ensemble/Mike Fansler
Navona Records 6261
Total Time: 77:02
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Navona introduces listeners to wind ensemble music in this new release featuring two pieces by composer David Maslanka (1943-2017).  Maslanka is most known for his extensive compositions in the wind band repertoire.  Two of his works are featured here and include his final symphony which was completed after his death by his son Matthew.

One of Maslanka’s talents was treating the wind ensemble like one would the symphony orchestra and that included the sort of works one might hear in that context.  The first work on the program, O Earth, O Stars (2010) is one such piece being a double concerto for flute and cello.  With a playing time around 40 minutes, the piece is indeed a substantial piece.  It is cast like a cantata with Bach chorales framing the four interior movements and another at its center.  The opening “Chorale” is a rather fascinating blend of textures and sounds that gradually introduced the Bach chorale.  When the cello enters, it really lifts the music to a symphonic quality, aided by the addition of harp to the ensemble and keyboards that can add additional sounds.  These swaths of sounds, using pitched percussion and contemporary techniques of piano sounds certainly aids the ethereal feel.  Motivic development has an almost minimalist feel as we move into “You Are the Image of the Unending World” which features an impassioned long cello and flute line against punctuated woodwinds that all bubble along.  Maslanka’s music is completely captivating taking its cues from symphonic literature and masterfully exploring the colors of the wind ensemble.  Engaging and moving melodic ideas waft across the undulating accompaniments to often beautiful effects.  It is in these subtler explorations of the ensemble which seem to run counter to one often thinks about with wind band music where Maslanka’s piece here really stands out.  The gentle and subtle musical materials invite one on a calm journey that might have a touch of folkish flair (which appears in the more exciting final part of the “Sanctus” with its virtuosic demands on the flute).  A bit more dissonance appears as things move quickly in the more exciting “Dragons and Devils of the Heart” a rather dramatic and descriptive musical scherzo.  While there are other moments that stretch the music tonally, this is for the most part a highly accessible musical work.  It is also well-shaped across the six movements and moves us through a variety of fascinating meditations.

Maslanka’s tenth symphony, The River of Time, was left mostly unfinished.  Maslanla had completed the first movement and half of the second with some sketches for the rest at the time of his death.  His son, Matthew, worked to pull this work together at the request of his father.  The piece appears to have been a sort of personal testament to his own family given the initial shape and narrative ideas David Maslanka had created.  Each of these movements has its own sort of musical working through of extreme death and loss beginning with its first movement, “Alison”, written while his wife was slowly dying of an immune disorder.  One gets a real sense of the disorientation and frustration that builds across this piece.   The central section has a Copland-esque pastoral feel with a touching melody.  The other movements were titled by Matthew.  “Mother and Boy Watching the River of Time” is another bittersweet reminiscence and is a reworking of a euphonium sonata David Malanka had written for his son.  It is a rather beautiful movement.  Using a tune marked in the sketches, Matthew Maslanka constructed the third movement, “David” with some special personal reminiscences to honor his father as well.  It adds a bit more rhythmic excitement and forward motion in a rather exhilarating flurry of sound.  The final movement, “One Breath in Peace” references Maslanka’s interest in Bach chorales, incorporating one of his favorites, “Jesu, Meine Seele”.  The resulting work is a massive essay for wind ensemble lasting some 40+ minutes creating an intriguing bookend to Maslanka’s output.  As with the earlier work, there is a real filmic sense to the narrative flow of the music with engaging thematic threads that help hold things together.  The ideas sometimes dissolve into intriguing textures and motivic development that further challenges the ensemble

As wind ensemble literature goes, this is certainly in the significant works category challenging the focus and musicianship of any ensemble.  It is a mark of great symphonic music as well and that is certainly coming through in this recording made earlier this year at Western Illinois University.  The players respond well here and Fansler also helps guide the shape of these melodies as the float across the textures.  It is a great testament to the program he is developing there and this release is certainly something for all to be proud of indeed.

Carollo: Symphony No. 3
Emma Tring, soprano.
London Symphony Orchestra/Miran Vaupotic
Navona Records 6250
Total Time: 27:57
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

The London Symphony enters the list of performers on Navona’s stable with this new release featuring the third symphony of John A. Carollo (b. 1954).  Carollo’s music has appeared on some earlier Navona releases introducing this Hawaiian-based composer who spent a majority of his life working as a mental health professional.  A blend of traditional harmony within a modernist style is perhaps the best way to describe Carollo’s music.  It is quite accessible work with a picturesque quality that is a bit more in the forefront of this more recent work.

The Symphony No. 3 (2017) is cast in four movements with evocative titles inspired by William Blake’s poetry.  The work itself is a rethinking of earlier song cycles.  “To Morning” provides a rather atmospheric start to the work that soon opens up into a rather pastoral quality.  The harmony has an impressionistic feel of slowly rising in beauty with the sun.  Musically, it the sound is somewhat evocative of a mid-century film score with touches of Delius.  That Hollywood feel somewhat appears in the second movement’s “Gestural Rituals” which focuses on a motivic idea that is repeated across some rather dense harmonic support.  There is a bit more interaction here and a rather fascinating driving section.  A piano plays more of a role in the fabric of the orchestra as well.  These ideas tend to repeat in a rather incessant way across the movement.  For the third movement, “In the Garden of Earthyly Delights”, Carollo adds a soprano line as another potential color in the orchestra.  It is an equally evocative work with solo wind and piano lines that give the opening an intimate quality.  The piece is certainly aided by the superb musicians who are highlighted in telling solo moments here.  But this particular movement feels a bit more like a chamber piece with the vocal line working more in tandem with the piano.  The final movement, “Let the Evening Stillness Arouse”, continues this intriguing blend of dark dissonance with evocative swaths of thematic solo lines.  The piece has a somewhat languid, and overall restrained quality.  There are certainly moments of great beauty in this work, but the movements feel somewhat disparate essays that feel often like brief sketches of a fleeting moment.

In addition to the CD of the piece itself, the release featuers a DVD featurette and a recording of the symphony in 5.1 surround stereo.  All this to help perhaps make up for the short playing time.  With this, Navona enters an opportunity to expand its audiophile interest while presenting new music with a major symphony orchestra.