Dashing: Sounds of the Season
David Tanner, saxophone; Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra/Petr Vronsky
Stanberry Singers/Paul Stanberry
Salt Lake City Jazz Orchestra/Henry Wolking
Navona Records 6055
Total Time:  51:04
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Tis the season for a number of holiday favorites to grace the local radio stations.  This new Navona release is certainly worth seeking out for its unique blend of takes on traditional holiday music that pulls together music for orchestra, choir, and jazz ensemble.

The Moravian Philharmonic bookends the release with several selections of mostly new holiday music.  The one familiar work on the album is Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” which is a good run through of the piece.  Saxophonist David Tanner has created a wonderfully moving arrangement of Adam’s classic Cantique de Noel which is one of the highlights of this program.  He also composed the opening A Visit from St. Nicholas.  Kerry Stratton narrates the familiar tale and it opens the album with a variety of familiar carols forming the themes of the underscore here.  In essence, we get a perfect medley of tunes here with this familiar story.  Another surprise is a new work by Delvyn Case, Rocket Sleigh, which is a fine orchestral miniature worth considering for a change of pace from some of the more familiar sleigh ride pieces this time of year.  A Christmas Celebration brings the album to a close with an original composition by Timothy Lee Miller that provides some orchestral seasonal music without quoting familiar tunes.  The orchestral portion provides the gentle introduction into a more varied choral program at the center.

The Stanberry Singers are featured in unique arrangements by L. Peter Deutsch, James Shrader, Christopher Hoh, and Phillip Rhodes.  In each case these are familiar texts (“The Holly and the Ivy”, “In the Bleak Midwinter”) with entirely new musical settings.  They tend to suggest a Medieval/Renaissance feel in their harmonic structures and overall styles.  It makes the texts more interesting again, reinterpreting them.  Breaking up these works is a jazz arrangement by Henry Wolking who conducts the Salt Lake City Jazz Orchestra in “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”.  The primary tune provides the window upon which we then are taken on a ride where the music becomes more varied with subtle shadings along the way.  It is also a refreshing change from the choral styles placed in the center of those selections.

Dashing makes a perfect album for classical music fans tired of the same old rehashing of Christmas carols.  The new choral arrangements are often fascinating to hold attention once you get past the fact that the familiar tunes are not there.  The orchestral selections are also good additions to holiday repertoire.

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, Pathetique
Vienna Symphony/Philippe Jordan
Vienna Symphony 006
Total Time:  46:28
Recording:   (*)***/****
Performance: ***/****

There are a couple hundred recordings of Tchaikovsky’s 6^th symphony in the catalogue and that does not come close to those now OP that are considered classic.  Personally, my own favorite recorded performance is Pierre Montreux’s performance with the Boston Symphony.  Next up would be Carlo Mario Giulini’s LA Philharmonic recording made towards the end of his life for Deutsche Grammophon, and Andrew Litton’s take on Virgin Classics was an interesting modern approach.  Of course, there are many great performances (Gergiev comes to mind more recently of many of the work and so into this very crowded field comes this new live concert recording with the Vienna Symphony under their new music director, Philippe Jordan on their own label.  The release feels a bit more like a “marking” of a new era for the orchestra and an electric performance as the short playing time of the disc certainly left room for additional selections and will cause it to be overlooked.  The recording was made at his inaugural concert.  He comes to the podium with an orchestra that has itself logged some 280+ performances over its collective history since 1903 when they first played the work.  The recording launches at the beginning of Jordan’s tenure with the orchestra this 2014-15 season.

Overall, tempos feel about right with the second movement andante falling in the halfway mark (i.e., not as brisk as say Monteux).  The woodwind colors are articulated well and strings tend to be well-balanced against them.  Brass need a bit more crisp articulation at times though for the fanfares, part of this may be the hall itself which adds a bit more ambience.  This makes the sweeping lyrical melodies of the first movement come across quite well.  Jordan does not overtly add much affectation to these moments mostly just letting them play through with much ebb and flow.  Some may find that a bit distracting, others just a refreshing straight read of a familiar work.  Slight ensemble issues occur at times that would be cleaned up perhaps a bit more in a non-concert setting, but the result is a fairly faithful concert moment cemented in time with the sort of new excitement that goes along with it.  This affects the halfway point punch in the opening movement a bit where things seem to get a bit hectic and ensemble is trying to keep up just a bit.  The dramatic pauses feel less so, more like a regrouping before the next launch which suggests some formal shaping that is not occurring as well at times.  The cello line in the opening of the second movement is beautifully lyrical but the descending line needs more staccato to keep it from being too muddy.  Interpretively, there seems to be a shift here as the musicians and conductor settle into this somewhat Viennese movement.  The real issue though really lies in the lack of distinguishing articulation (the woodwinds seem to get it) enough (further clouded by the ambient hall).  The tempo seems to drag a bit in the center as well and needs to move forward just a bit more and it feels like it will collapse under its own weight.  The scherzo begins very promisingly with nice balance as motives are tossed about the ensemble.  Here the crisper wind articulation does help move things along (again the concert hall itself seems to be working against this).  The result overall though is that this becomes an overall good reading of this movement that creates a good sense of growing excitement as it progresses.  Unfortunately, low brass feel a bit muddier in the sound picture at times, though trumpets do sail over the top here well.  The opening lamenting theme is quite well shaped and seems to have a bit more emotional energy that feels adapted better to the hall as the nice slight echo manages to add to the drama.  Oddly, the ending feels a bit anticlimactic when all is said and done.

The recording will be a good benchmark should Jordan return to this piece again having had some time to shape the Vienna Symphony players to respond more to his own ideas and interpretations.  This feels a bit more cautious at times.  So with most of these issues in place, this becomes another middle-of-the-road release that will be of interest historically for supporters of the orchestra and those wanting to watch to see how Jordan’s tenure changes this ensemble.  There needs to be just a bit more romanticism in this piece that does not really cut through in this performance which feels at times a tad tired, the energy coming from the live setting more than the performance itself.  Mind you, it is hard to perform warhorses like this as everyone will have their favorite performance, live or recorded, that will always be their benchmark.  There are many better options though for this work historically and recently that would be a far better bang for your buck and have more consistent pathos, and most of those have many varied coupled repertoire as well.