![]() Bush’s pointless, money-wasting war with Iraq, surely one of the low points in American history. ![]() Once again, Yovziak conducts with a blithe spirit, quick tempi and lack of drama, but in this music such an approach is wholly appropriate.ĭel Tredici’s two-movement suite In Wartime was composed in 2003 as a reaction to President George W. This arrangement of his famous New England Triptych is very clever despite the upbeat mood of the music, it is very well written with several original touches. William Schuman is, in my view, one of the most overlooked and forgotten of all great American composers. Perhaps, with a conductor more sensitized to the work’s underlying drama (it was written in 1937-38, when Europe was on the brink of a World War), this arrangement would come off better. I also found Yovziak’s tempi too fast, which also contributes to the performance’s glibness. It comes across as a much more pleasant piece whereas the original was very emotionally powerful (both under Toscanini and Ormandy, be it noted). Whether due to the scoring, Yovziak’s conducting or the recorded sound, however, the strong dynamic contrasts in the original piece, which are what drew me to it in the first place, are “smoothed out” here. ![]() Joseph Levey’s band transcription, naturally, omits the deep string sound that originally opened the piece, replacing it, surprisingly enough, with clarinets playing in their low or chalumeau register rather than trombones, which I would have expected, as the use of low reeds takes the feeling of heaviness away from the music. I really liked it!īarber’s First Essay for Orchestra, premiered by Arturo Toscanini and first recorded by Eugene Ormandy, remains one of the composer’s finest works. In this revision for winds, Danielpour has done a remarkable job of focusing on instrumental color indeed, this aspect of the score is another of its glories. The various lines and counter-lines in the music keep moving like a kaleidoscope, which holds the listener’s interest, and the moto perpetuo rhythm put me in mind of some of George Antheil’s music. In the liner notes, he claims that, in his view, New York in the 1980s and early ‘90s was similar to Paris in the 1920s, a city at its most vibrant and optimistic-surely a result of the Reagan economic boom and the defeat of the USSR. I was surprised and delighted to hear such complexity from him at such an early point in his career. Richard Danielpour’s Toward the Splendid City, written in 1992 as a tribute to the New York Philharmonic, receives its world premiere recording on this disc.ĭanielpour’s work is the most chipper and tonal of the group, but is also marked by unusually complex polyphony. David Del Tredici’s In Wartime is the odd one out, as it was written for the Texas University Wind Band from the start. The title of this CD refers to the fact that three of these four works were revised for wind band either by the composers themselves or under the direction of the composer (the Samuel Barber Essay). DEL TREDICI: In Wartime / West Chester University Wind Ensemble Andrew Yovziak, cond / Mark Masters 52989-MCD SECOND THOUGHTS / DANIELPOUR: Toward the Splendid City. Haemihaemmerli on The Hausquartett Explores Exqu… Maurice Creuven on The Hausquartett Explores Exqu… The Art Music Lounge on The Hausquartett Explores Exqu… The ‘20s Green Singer Who Was No Plain Jane.The Hausquartett Explores Exquisite Cadavers!.A good introduction to Danielpour's work. ![]() Toward the Splendid City, one in a long line of musical evocations of New York, rings down the curtain effectively. Both these pieces receive their recorded premieres here, and it would be hard to think of a more effective interpreter than baritone Thomas Hampson. The Songs of Solitude were composed shortly after the terrorist attacks of 2001 in New York, when Yeats' World War I-influenced poems took on a new significance as it seemed that once again "things fall apart." Danielpour's eclectic approach is on display here, with the "Drinking Song" taking on a musical theater setting, but this does not diminish the seriousness of the work. The work was inspired by photos of the Iraq War dead. The War Songs, from 2008, come from around the same time as Margaret Garner and offer somewhat operatic settings of Walt Whitman's poetry. Both the cycles deal with war in some way. The Nashville Symphony and conductor Giancarlo Guerrero have shown a strong instinct for music that can connect with its audience, and they did well to seek out these orchestral songs by Danielpour for a set of concerts in 2015, recorded here. American composer Richard Danielpour has gained popularity since his opera Margaret Garner, with a libretto by Toni Morrison, found multiple performances around the U.S., including a run at the New York City Opera.
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