Sonneck Society for American Music
Bulletin, Volume XXIV, no. 2 (Summer 1998)
Reviews of Recorded Material
Edited by Orly Leah Krasner, Boston University
The Typewriter: Leroy Anderson Favorites
Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin, Conductor. BMG Classics, RCA Victor Red Seal,
09026-68048-2, 1995. One compact disc.
American Legacy
Charles Pizer; Mitch Hampton; Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vladimer Valek, Conductor. Ira-Paul
Schwartz; Seth Sladek; William Thomas McKinley; Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Robert Stankowsky,
Conductor. MMC Recordings, MMC 2032, 1997. One compact disc.
The genre of light orchestral music is a rich field with a fascinating social and cultural history
that is largely dismissed by serious academics and musicians. Enthusiastically endorsed by
unpretentious audences, this repertory (except for the ocassional Gershwin work) is consigned today
primarily to pops concerts. Sadly, contemporary pops concerts are shadows of what they used to be, now comprising
medleys of Broadway hits or songs from the big band era, rather than showcasing new--or old--works
in the genre. American composers in particular have excelled at writing orchestral works of
a popular nature. These two discs excellently represent this genre's appeal and show how
some contemporary composers are embracing its ideals.
Although the works of Leroy Anderson (1908-1975) seemed to fall out of favor, they certainly are
worthy of serious study. Anderson's works range in length from just under two minutes to less than four
(in keeping with the length of popular songs and timed to fit on one side of a 78); each is as much
a miniature masterpiece as any Strauss waltz. Each piece is exquisitely crafted, a joy to hear with its
original instrumentation. Evocative of their subject matter, they reveal Anderson's genius at
orchestration, his clarity and succinctness of thought, his gift as a memorable tunesmith, and his
playful sense of humor. Who knows, perhaps Anderson will single-handedly keep the notion of a typewriter
alive when subsequent generations explain to their children the significance of that pinging sound!
Recordings of Anderson's music have recently been coming out more frequently, both reissues with the
composer or his champion, Arthur Fiedler, conducting and newly-recorded interpretations such as this one.
Too often, recordings of popular orchestral music are issued by lesser performers, reinforcing their
image as music not worthy of a second hearing. A sympathetic conductor and a first-rate orchestra--Leonard
Slatkin and his Saint Louis Symphony--ensure that this music can be heard at its best. The production
values of this recording (using a special holographic cover for a 3D effect) are also outstanding.
American Legacy comes emblazoned with a thirteen-starred U.S. flag over a watermarked reprint of the
Constitution on its cover. Another telling sign of our times: the performers are the Czech and Slovak
Radio Symphony Orchestras conducted by Vladimir Valek and Robert Stankovsky.
There are points in Charles Pizer's Manhattan Impressions: Homage to Gershwin (1993) where
the listener could swear that they are listening to some long-lost Gershwin material possibly cut from
Porgy and Bess. The orchestration and harmonies of the middle sections, in particular, seem to come
directly off the pages of Gershwin and Grofe. For anyone who wishes that Gershwin had
composed more, this is not necessarily a bad thing. The "heavy hand" of Gershwin also lies on Mitch
Hampton's Concerto for Jazz Piano and Orchestra (1994). Not willing to be handcuffed
to anyone in particular, Hampton's work embraces greater and lesser parts of Fats Waller, Harold
Arlen, Clara Ward, Ives, Bach, Jobim, James P. Johnson, Bill Evans, and John Coltrane. The resulting
conflation of styles works in some parts but not in others. Ira-Paul Schwarz's tribute to Rosa Parks,
Rosa's Rhapsody (1993), owes more to Howard Hanson than it does to Gershwin. It is a
well constructed, if ultimately forgettable, work. Even less overtly Gershwinesque is Seth Sladek's
Chroma (1993) for guitar and orchestra. It, too, is a pleasant work. The other composer
represented on this disc is William Thomas McKinley, who happens to be the guiding force behind
MMC Rcordings (and one ofboth Sladek's and Hampton's teachers). His Patriotic Variations (1994), an
Ivesian pastiche of "It's a Grand Old Flag," "Yankee Doodle," "Stars and Stripes," and "Strike Up
the Band," would no doubt be a crowd-pleaser at a Fourth of July pops concert. The composer notes
that "even a good high school orchestra can play" this piece, and unfortunately, that is what the Czech
RSO sounds like in spots. American Legacy shows that writing well-crafted, light orchestral music is
not a dead art, nor consigned only to Hollywood. Many will no doubt find it encouraging that
some contemporary composers still value the ability to write memorable tunes. The works on both
discs have harmonic and melodic facets of jazz, popular song, and blues -- original American
vernacular elements stewed together within the more formal framework of "classical" orchestral
music. Anderson carried on the tradition from radio composers of the 1930s, and, fortunately,
composers such as Pizer and Hampton seek to carry foward the banner.
--Jim Farrington
Eastman School of Music
Libby Larsen: Water Music; Parachute Dancing; Lyric Symphony; Ring of Fire
London Symphony Orchestra; Joel Rvzen, conductor. Koch International Classics, 3-7370-2-H1, 1997.
One compact disc.
Orchestral works by Libby Larsen comprise this entire CD. It chronicles her vitally rhythmic,
texturally united compositional style of the eighties and her
more chromatically energized works of the nineties. Larsen calls the first movement of the
opening work, Symphony: Water Music (1984), "a deliberate homage to Handel." However,
in the opening movements of the work, the winds perform a four-note motive that brings to mind
Debussy's La Mer. Nevertheless, the work is very characteristic of Larsen's style which
provides unity within a composition by means of texture and gesture.
Overture: Parachute Dancing (1983) demonstrates further the dominance of rhythm and texture over
melody found in Larsen's works. Scoring for percussion and piano create a distinctly "American"
rhythmic energy.
Symphony No. Three: Lyric (1995) is equally rhythmic in character. The listener also experiences an
exploration of American tunes exhibiting a chromatic energy that seems to be more prevalent in Larsen's
recent works. Spectres of Schoenberg and Berg hover over an otherwise jazz-oriented and folk-like
thematic scheme.
Ring of Fire, published in 1997, dramatically exhibits Larsen's use of chromatic techniques.
The work is a tone poem that expresses the image of fire, inspired by the line "We only live, we only suspire
consumed by either fire or fire" from T.S. Eliot's poem "Litte Gidding." In this spirit, the music seems
to generate a feeling of being out of control in the manner of a fire. Rising and descending melodic
and rhythmic motives by the various instrumental timbres overlap, suggesting the visual shape and
irregular occurence of flames in a fire. Each aural "flame" is thus interrupted or consumed by
another.
The calibre of the performances on this CD is high, as would be expected from the London Symphony; the
execution of complext woodwind and violin parts is especially virtuosic. The accompanying liner
notes are well written. Its biographical information, cogent analysis of musical elements, and
direct quotes from Larsen's commentary about her music provide insight into Larsen's
compositional style.
--Janet Polvino
Darton College
William Thomas McKinley: Symphony No. 4; Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3; Three
Poems for Pablo Neruda
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra; Robert Black and Robert Stankovsky, conductors; Isabelle Ganz,
mezzo-soprano; Marjorie Mitchell, piano. MMC Recordings, MMC 2034 1997. One compact disc.
William Walton: Viola Concerto; William Thomas McKinley: Viola Concerto No. 3
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra; Selesian Philharmonic Orchestra; Karen Dreyfus, viola; Jerry
Swoboda, conductor. MMC Recordings, MMC 2047, 1997. One compact disc.
William Thomas McKinley (b. 1938) studied with Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, Gunther Schuller, and Mel
Powell, and has enjoyed a successful career as a composer, jazz pianist, and teacher. McKinley
has received numerous awards for his cmpositional activity, including a Guggenheim Fellowship,
a Naumberg Foundation grant, and many NEA grants. He has received commissions from, among
others, the Seattle Symphony and Gerard Schwarz, the Los Angeles Chamber and Pasadena Symphony
Orchestras and Jorge Mester, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Tashi, and the Bella Lewitzky
Dance Troupe. As a jazz pianist, he has recorded with artists such as Dexter Gordon, Stan
Getz, and Gary Burton. His teaching career included positions at the University of Chicago and
at the New England Conservatory of Music.
McKinley, with a catalog of over 240 works, composes in a style that includes a plethora of diverse
elements. After exploring serialism and atonality, he returned to a "neo-tonal" musical style in
1981. In this new idiom, he found it possible ot further hsi interest in minimalism and to continue
his earlier integration of jazz and classical elements. The resulting eclecticism characterizes McKinley's
music, and each of the four works currently under review renders a different aspect of his musical
personality. Each work is conceived on a large scale, but is substantially different in terms of
musical process.
Three Poems of Pablo Neruda (1992) for mezzo-soprano and orchestra sets three of Neruda's
poems about birds: "Jote" (Black Vulture), "Perdiz" (Chilean Tinamou), and "La Octubrina" (Octobrine).
In his expressionist settings, McKinley requires the singer to explore a wide range of vocal
techniques, form recitative and lyricism to sustained high notes, falsetto, and chest voice. Mezzo-soprano
Isabelle Ganz gives convincing and engaging performances of the songs.
McKinley's background as a jazz pianist is reflected in his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3
(1994). Various jazz styles, including improvisation, are prominent and used idiomatically throughout the
score. The concerto's four movements, "Blues," "Ragtime," "Slow Blues March," and "Struttin'," are
played without pause. McKinley's integrated compositional technique clearly defines both jazz
and classical styles and soloist Marjorie Mitchell captures the essence of his synthesis.
Symphony No. 4 (1985) is a three-movement work scored for full orchestra, without trombones. The movements
have programmatic titles: "Dawn Blues," "Sunrays," and "Night Fancies." Organic growth of successive
motives, shifting orchestral textures, and dramatic repetition characterize the work's musical style.
Karen Dreyfus is a champion of contemporary music for viola. The present disc includes two
immensely different works: Walton's Viola Concerto (1929), full of Englishness, and McKinley's Viola
Concerto No. 3 (1992), an extroverted work written in collaboration with Dreyfus. McKinley's virtuoso
concerto is filled with Romantic passion; it is an ambition work in terms of both form and content. The three
movements, "Lamento," "Largo ironico," and "Prestissimo e diabolico," all contain expansive gestures and
bravura. Dreyfus's performance is exhilarating. She captures the dramatic entergy and maintains the
intensity of McKinley's twenty-two minute score.
In addition to the variety of musical styles present in these four works, McKinley's keen abilities
as an orchestrator are also evident. The range of sounds heard in the Three Poems of Pablo
Neruda and the symphony attest to the versatility of McKinley's timbral
palette. In the concertos, the large orchestras do not function merely in
an accompanying role, but are integral to the overall conception of the works.
McKinley is a champion and advocate of modern composers. He founded and directed
the Masters Musicians Collective, a group which records new music for another of
McKinley's projects, MMC Recordings. It is on this label that the two
realeases of McKinley's music appear.
--William A. Everett
University of Missouri, Kansas City
Futurpiano
Arthur Vincent Laurie: Syntheses op. 16, Formes en l'air (a Pablo Picasso);
Leo Orenstein: Suicide in an Airplane, Three Moods, A la Chinoise; George
Antheil: Death of Machines Sonata No. 3), Preludi da La Femme 100 tetes -- after
Max Ernst. Daniele Lombardi, piano. Icarus, ERA 7240, 1995. One compact disc.
The Compact disc Futurpiano contains a generous sampling of interesting,
difficult-to-find, early twentieth-century piano music. According to the current
Schwann Opus Guide, much of the music here is in its only recording, and nothing on this
disc is on more than one other available recording.
These three composers all spent significant years in Europe, but only Arthur
Lourie is unlikely to be included on many American composer lists. He moved to the
United States in 1941, spent his last 25 years here and became an American citizen, but his
compositions on this disc come from 1914 and 1915, before he left his native Russia.
Especially valuable additions to the recorded literature of American music are the Antheil
entries. I would describe The Death of Machines (Sonata III) as
portraying a state of exhaustion. The first movement, "Langour," features
a variety of episodes on the motif of repeated clusters. The music builds
apparently only to fall back into ennui. The second movment, "Nocturnal," continues
the last sound of the previous movement in a stunning extension of elemental material.
Low, soft repeated chords with fragmentary melodic material invoke an ominous
atmosphere redolent of the quiet ostinati in the last two dances of Stravinsky's
Le Sacre. The third movement contains a ;minute of the more frenetic passages
of "Sacrificial Dance," merged with the distinctive abruptness of Ballet
mecanique. But even with all this surface energy, fatique quickly sets
in, and the sonata ends with an adagio.
Unlike the quick changes of the Antheil composition, Ornstein's Suicide in an
Airplane consists of one sustained mood, begun immediately with a quickly
reiterated dissonant bass. Interest is maintained by well-timed additions to the
stream of sound. Three Moods, also by Ornstein, is a set of modernistic
character pieces. "Anger" is ferociously defined with loud, erratic, frustrated
rhythms. "Grief" is also clearly expressed. "Joy" is somewhat conflicted -- perhaps
it is a manic, impulsive, mad joy.
There are several things about this recording that I wish were a little better
than they are. The pianist, who is also a composer, plays well, but sufferes occasional
lapses in the music's requirments for billiance and finesse. The pianos were not kept in
tune for the duration of the recording sesssions; the change of pianos for the
Antheil half of the recording is particularly unfortunate. The two pages of
English notes in the booklet seem poorly translated, and perhaps were presented
confusingly in the original Italian. All the same, I am glad to have this disc,
and to hear credible performances of this neglected style of piano music.
--Louis Goldstein
Wake Forest University
Notes in Passing
Harry Hewitt: Mileto Plays Hewitt
Stefano Mileto, guitar. Penn Sounds Recordings, BHH101, 1997. One compact disc.
Harry Hewitt is a prolific composer. His oeuvre contains more than
2500 pieces, primarily of chamber music; over 600 are works for solo piano. This CD
samples Hewitt's ample repertory for solo guitar. It opens with eight excerpts from
"50 Preludes for Solo Guitar," (Opus 344 (1950-82). These brief, introspective
pieces each explore a short motive. "No. 49," the most substantial, is a brooding
ternary form bounded by a five-note ostinato. The "Fantasy Etude," Opus 488, no. 1
(1987-93), at just over six minutes, is the most expansive piece on the CD. It has the widest
emotional range and the occasional flash of technical brilliance. The five
excerpts from Gleanings, Opus 487 (1993-94) are similar to the preludes
in scope and design; "No. 15" stands out for its charming, dance-like character.
The disc also includes Meditations, Opus 483, No. 2 (1993), and "Suite," Opus
467, No. 2 (1981-83). These works, all recorded here for the first time, suggest that
Hewitt is happiest as a miniaturist. There are no surprises here; his small-scale,
non-developmental structures complement an essentially tonal harmonic vocabulary.
The guitarist, Stefano Mileto, gives technically assured performances and the overall
engineering is good. Unfortunately, there are no liner notes except for brief biographies
of composer and performer.
When the Galop Was the Rage
Helen Beedle, piano; Jonathan Beedle, guitar and vocals. 1997. One compact disc.
The fifteen numbers presented on this CD, primarily piano works but a few songs
as well, explore mid-nineteenth century music-making. Using Louis Moreau Gottschalk
as its departure, this carefully constructed program includes works typical of both
concert hall and parlor. Helen Beedle, the pianist, wisely avoides Gottschalk's
flashiest works in favor of the more sentimental "The Dying Poet" and "The Dying
Swan." Her performance of "The Banjo" could use more dash and abandon, although the
concluding paraphrase of "Camptown Races" does achieve the appropriate textural shimmer.
A contemporary diary reference to Gottschalk's "The Tournament Galop" prompted the
title of this disc. Two arrangements by Sigismond Thalberg complement the Gottschalk
selections, an excerpt from "The Last Rose of Summer" and "Home Sweet Home." What the
virtuoso scale work in the latter lack in sparkle is made up for in attention to
the cantabile melodic line.
The strength of this CD is its evocation of music in the home. A variety of songs
are performed with combinations of piano, guitar, and voice. Jonathan Beedle,
the guitarist, also has a pleasant tenor voice that makes it easy to image a
family gathered in the parlor to enjoy J.P. Webster's "Lorena" or George F. Root's
"The Vacant Chair." This CD also includes two dances by women composers:
Ellen Morant's "The Wheatland Polka" and Jane Sloman's "The Ericsson Schottisch."
The admirable and succinct liner notes by the pianist establish a historical
context amplified by explanations of each piece. The cover photo and sound quality
suggest that a period piano was used to make this recording, but no other
indication is given. For further information, please contact The Galop, 102 Cedar
Road, Hellertown, PA 18055, Tel: (610) 838-8350, Fax (610) 838-1022.
--Orly Leah Krasner
Boston University
Updated 8/31/98