Stucky, Steven

Average customer rating:

Warning: This CD Is Addictive
Well worth buying
Good variety of American Choral Music
Absolutely wonderful!!
Fabulous, but...

Our American Journey
Chanticleer
Manufacturer: Teldec
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Movie Soundtracks | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

More Titles at Least 20% Off | Classical Music Blowout | Stores | Music

All Classical Music Blowout | Classical Music Blowout | Stores | Music

Opera & Vocal | Classical Music Blowout | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Chanticleer: A Portrait
How Sweet the Sound: Spirituals & Traditional Gospel Music
Wondrous Love: A World Folk Song Collection
Where the Sun Will Never Go Down
Lost in the Stars

ASIN: B00006K11A
Release Date: 2002-11-12

Tracks:

Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
Credidi
Versa Est In Luctum
Jefferson - Chanticleer
David's Lamentation
Soar Away
Whispers
Voices Of Autumn
The Un-Covered Wagon
Fuggi, Fuggi, Dolor
Labbra Vermigile E Belle
Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair
Camptown Races
Love Walked In
Willow Weep For Me
Calling My Children Home
Wayfarin' Stranger
I'm A Pilgrim

Amazon.com

This is Chanticleer's 25th recording and also marks its 25th anniversary season. The title refers to the group's wide-ranging repertoire; this disc includes Mexican baroque, traditional American songs in various styles and music commissioned by Chanticleer itself. A program that tries to please everybody is bound to disappoint somebody; however, no one could be disappointed by the singing. The sound of these 12 unaccompanied male voices has an unearthly, celestial beauty and purity; their blend is perfect. Though the singers rarely use vibrato, their intonation is impeccable both together and in solos. Their expressive range and stylistic versatility are incredible: they can project tenderness, pleading, and bitter protest and are equally at home in plainchant, Latin hymns, blues, spirituals, shouts and crooning. Among the highlights are the three opening hymns, settings of two poems of Torquato Tasso by William Hawley, commissioned by Chanticleer, which combine 16th- and 20th-century styles, and the two final folksongs, the last with a stride-style piano accompaniment, making a rousing, exuberant ending. The booklet, in three languages, is well laid-out and informative. --Edith Eisler

Customer Reviews:

Warning: This CD Is Addictive.......2006-12-10

I purchased this CD after hearing this magnificent choral group sing "Calling My Children Home" in a recent concert. Written by Doyle Lawson (from the group "Quicksilver"), Charlie Waller and Robert Yates, the song is a standard bluegrass number I had known for years (Emmy Lou Harris for one has recorded it); but I had no idea it had found its way to San Francisco. Chanticleer has made this song their own. I cannot imagine anyone else's version coming close to theirs.

The group sings 17 other songs on this CD, most of them arranged by Joseph Jennings, Chanticleer's music director. Their version of William Billings' "David's Lamentation," a Sacred Harp work, will blow you away. Another favorite of mine is "Wayfaring' Stranger." There are also two Stephen Foster songs included, "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" and "Camptown Races" as well as Gershwin and other American composers.

There seems to be no kind of music that this group cannot sing better than most other groups. They remind us that there is no musical instrument more beautiful than the human voice.

This CD should be one for the time capsule.

Well worth buying.......2005-08-16

Chanticleer fans know what to expect in terms of vocal quality, and won't be disappointed. I agree with another reviewer that the Appalachian accent is a little over the top, but I thought the shape-note style was perfect: brilliant sound, but not that nasal.

I enjoyed the many styles of music in this CD, but since I tend to listen to CDs straight through as albums, I found it a little disconcerting to go so suddenly from one style to the next (e.g., Mexican Baroque to shape note).

That being said, everything is splendidly, sensitively performed. The renditions of "Whispers" and "The Un-Covered Wagon" are breathtaking. By all means, buy and enjoy this!

Good variety of American Choral Music.......2005-01-03

This album features a wonderful selection of "American" choral music. I'm not a big fan of the "stylized" singing of the shape-note pieces (with the nasal voices), but that is my only complaint. My favorite piece is Steven Stucky's "Whispers" which is an artfully crafted homage to Orlando Gibbons' "Drop, Drop, Slow Tears" and William Byrd's "Ave Verum Corpus." Joseph Jennings and Chanticleer effectively demonstrate that there is no "defining" American choral music and it is this rich panoply of variety which is so enchanting!

Absolutely wonderful!!.......2003-10-25

This album shows Chanticleer's great talent and it displays they're wonderful voices. I've seen them perform pieces from this album and they do it with such passion. It's wonderful. If you don't get this or any of their albums you truly are missing out!!

Fabulous, but..........2003-01-30

I have every one of Chanticleer's recordings and agree that the ensemble produces some of the finest vocal recordings and performances in the world. I'm a huge fan. Huge. I love both old standards and new choral compositions, from monophony to atonality. So why was I less than overwhelmed by this CD?

One of the things I noticed about this recording is that the characteristic blend of voices seems off. This isn't due to any particular error in performance or engineering, but perhaps just due to the voicing of the arrangements. The resulting prominence of the sopranos is a little jarring, even though I'm always impressed by a good countertenor. Maybe it's me, but this disc just seems to be somewhat of a departure from the seamless and shimmery quality Chanticleer is known for, such as in Magnificat and Colors of Love.

Also, the southern accent produced in certain selections borders on parody. Even folks in the Appalachian hills where I grew up would have noticed. If they had backed off just a hair, they would have gotten it right on the money.

Tracks:

The Consolations of Scholarship
Piano Concerto
King Harald's Saga

Product Description

The Scottish-born Judith Weir began her career as an oboist and took composition lessons with John Tavener and Robin Holloway. Her music is performed in Europe and the United States. Her works reflect her diverse interests in narrative, folklore and theatre, with British folk music a strong influence. This release is an excellent sampling for those unfamiliar with her work: The Consolations of Scholarship is a highly-compressed opera, based on 14th century Chinese Yuan plays, where all the characters are played by one multi-voiced singer. The Piano Concerto, where the soloist is partnered by nine solo string players, emulates the scale of the early Mozart concerti; King Harald's Saga, is a Â“Grand Opera in Three ActsÂ” for solo soprano voice, depicting the attempted invasion of England by Norway in 1066. Inspired by Emily Dickinson, Musicians Wrestle Everywhere is a one-movement concerto for ten instruments, reflecting the Â“street environmentÂ” of Weir's own urban neighborhood. You'll find Weir to be a highly original compositional voice.

Average customer rating:

Transcendent Vocalism
Beautifully delivered as always, but not my material.
Lives up to their reputation
One of the best I've picked up in ages
Fantastic recording of contemporary choral works

Colors of Love
Steven Stucky , John Tavener , Bernard Rands , Long Zhou , Chen Yi , Augusta Read Thomas , Steven Sametz , Marianne Kach , and Chanticleer
Manufacturer: Teldec
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Choruses | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

A Cappella | Folk | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Our American Journey
Chanticleer: Magnificat (A Capella Works by Josquin, Palestrina, Titov, Victoria, and Others)
Tavener: Lamentations & Praises
Matins for the Virgin of Guadeloupe
Wondrous Love: A World Folk Song Collection

ASIN: B00000IWR3
Release Date: 1999-05-18

Tracks:

Cradle Songs: Rouxinol do pico preto (Brazil)
Cradle Songs: Lilajze, Jezuniu (Poland)
Cradle Songs: Buy Baby Ribbon (Tobago)
Village Wedding
Canti d'Amor: 'Winds of May, that dance on the sea'
Canti d'Amor: 'O cool is the valley'
Canti d'Amor: 'This heart that flutters near my heart'
Canti d'Amor: 'Silently she's combing her long hair'
Canti d'Amor: 'Gentle lady, do not sing sad songs'
Canti d'Amor: 'Sleep now, O you unquiet heart'
Canti d'Amor: 'All day I hear the noise of waters'
Words of the Sun
Tang Poems: Written on a Rainy Night
Tang Poems: Wild Grass
The Rub of Love
in time of
Love Songs: 'Look out upon the stars, my love'
Love Songs: 'Love is a beautiful dream'
Love Songs: 'Alas, the love of women!'
Love Songs: 'For stony limits cannot hold love out'
Love Songs: 'All mankind love a lover'

Amazon.com

This compilation of modern-day madrigals, the latest in a fascinating series of discs from the San Francisco-based all-male vocal group Chanticleer, won the Grammy for Best Small Ensemble Performance of 1999. The selections range over a variety of styles and aesthetics, from the haunting, hypnotic sounds of Steven Stucky's Cradle Songs to the archaic, ethereal beauty and Eastern inflections of John Tavener's "Village Wedding." There are the soft (and somewhat affected) asperities of Bernard Rands' Canti d'Amor as well as the gentle, almost English pastoralism of Zhou Long's "Words of the Sun" (beautiful!) and the colorfully exotic Orientalism of Chen Yi's Tang Poems. Other examples of the wide range here are the self-conscious busywork of Augusta Read Thomas's Love Songs to the darkly lush, 12-part weave of Steven Sametz's "In Time Of," with its radiant climax and pulsating chordal sonorites like the tolling of bells. All of this Chanticleer sings with striking freshness and commitment, virtuosic to a fare-thee-well, always sensitive to the emotional cues of the texts. The recording, made at Skywalker Ranch in January of 1999, is vivid and warm, and so is much of the music. Truly a winning disc. --Ted Libbey

Customer Reviews:

Transcendent Vocalism.......2005-01-31

This compilation is essential listening, especially (but not exclusively) for those already introduced to the marvels of Chanticleer. It features a wide variety of contemporary madrigals all dedicated to the theme of love. Gorgeous polyphony, entrancing dissonance; the music is very difficult, but Chanticleer's vocalism is exemplary, as always. The whole feel of the album takes some getting used to for the uninitiated. After a few listenings, though, one can fully perceive its unique and sublime beauty.

Highlights abound. The first three tracks, all lullabies by Steven Stucky, are brilliantly executed, but it is track four, Village Wedding by John Taverner, that first knocked my socks off. It seems to represent the absolutely ideal match between composer and performer, between written and sung text. It consists of a wonderful poem by Greek poet Angelos Sikelianos, with a recurring excerpt from the Eastern Orthodox wedding ceremony interspersed throughout. Taverner is himself a member of the Eastern Orthodox church, and the song is as much a spiritual experience as a musical one.

Another fantastic piece is Words of the Sun, by Chinese composer Zhou Long. It is probably the most accessible song on the CD, with numerous lovely subtleties and nuances that can be fully appreciated after multiple exposures.

Lastly, I'd like to express my sincere conviction that In Time Of (by Steven Sametz, set to a poem by E.E. Cummings) is the single most gorgeous piece of music I have ever had the great fortune to hear. The sonority is perfectly balanced, each arching phrase better than the one before. Please, for the sake of pure unadulterated beauty, purchase this CD. You will not regret it.

Beautifully delivered as always, but not my material........2002-07-30

I came to this album as a fan of Chanticleer more than of contemporary art music, though I like to think I do have a certain ear for the stuff. I haven't been educated in it, but I've sung some in my time in choruses, and I learned to appreciate those pieces the way that I learned to appreciate the more classical stuff as a child--by feeling it and hearing it come out of my own body, the ways that it worked, what was exciting, ect. That said, there is a point where I don't get it, and I reached that point all over this album. I thought I'd pass it on because it is hard for most of us to pick this kind of music off the shelf--there will be pieces that skewer us and some that make us fidget. For my part, I am grateful to have the album for the sake of three (long) songs. The Tavner Wedding song itself is probably worth it. But the album will never be put on leisurely.

Lives up to their reputation.......2001-03-07

Just recently had the opportunity to hear Chanticleer in concert...this CD certainly gives a cross section of their range...especially liked the "Tang Poems" and "Words of the Sun", which they performed live...very esoteric mix of musical styles...well worth the purchase for Chanticleer lovers!

One of the best I've picked up in ages.......2000-11-25

First of all let me state that the 4 stars isn't for the performance...which is truly outstanding...it is for a few pieces that are a tad sub-par. I also want to mention that its not that the pieces are modern either, I happen to be extremely sympathetic to modern music.

I usually don't like to do reviews this way, but I'm going to make a few comments piece by piece:

1) CRADLE SONGS - The first two of this trio of lullabies are great...the ones from Brazil & Poland are hauntingly beautiful...I'm not so crazy about the one from Tobago. A fairly strong piece, its certainly interesting.

2) VILLAGE WEDDING - This is one of the best three pieces on the album, and probably the best. Hearing John Tavener's work next to his contemporaries is an easy indicator of why he is considered one of this century's greatest and certainly one of the greatest living composers. Simultaneously it is joyous, austere, reverent & spiritual. Simply beautiful & amazing.

3) CANTI D'AMOUR - This is an up & down work. I'm not sure what the composer had in mind, but I find the first part to be amusing. It reminds me of barbershop quartet. It has more somber moments too that are quite moving. Overall though, its okay.

4) WORDS OF THE SUN - After the Tavener piece, this is my favorite one. I would like to hear some of Zhou Long's other works. It is a very subtle piece. Very Chinese too, yet simultaneously western. This is one of my favorite pieces by eastern composers of western music. Lyrically, it is amazing. Its borrowed from a 20th century Chinese poem that is gorgeous in English, I'm sure its even more so in Chinese. Musically, it is very stirring.

5) TANG POEMS - This piece too is written by a Chinese composer (Chen Yi) and it is distinctly Chinese. I am intrigued at some of the techniques used by the composer. I am really pleased with the piece, although I'm sure some find it a little "too eastern." It is extremely pretty if one is accustomed to eastern melodies. The 2nd part is a bit sharper and probably less accessible than the first part.

6) THE RUB OF LOVE - One of the duller pieces on the album.

7) IN TIME OF - Sublime. The opening few bars are unearthly. Definately one of the three best pieces. They definately need to keep this one in their concert repetoire (along with the Tavener and the two pieces by Chinese composers.) This is one of those works you have to hear to believe.

8) LOVE SONGS - This is a quirky collection of tunes by Augusta Read Thomas. It runs the gamut of serious to extremely silly. There are some strong points here, but some of it is too silly to stand the test of time ("Alas, The Love of Women"). Eventhough it is extremely unconventional, the part entitled "For Stony Limits Cannot Hold Love Out" is powerful. It is piercing & strange, but it really works with the text.

There are times when I love everything on this CD, and times when some of it gets on my nerves. It is, however, never boring and the performances are superb. I highly congratulate Chanticleer for not sitting on their laurels. This is adventursome stuff and it works 90% of the time, which is more than I can say for 99% of the ensembles out there.

I highly recommend this disc for "Village Wedding," "Words of the Sun," "In Time of," and "Tang Poems."

Pick it up, be adventuresome. Enjoy.

Fantastic recording of contemporary choral works.......2000-09-21

Chanticleer is one of the USA's finest choral ensembles, and they have picked a marvelous and diverse program for this recording -- with something that would appeal to absolutely everybody. The inclusion of two "husband-wife" pairs in the choice of music also makes for a special connection to the theme of the disc. Of special note to this reviewer are the "delicious" sonorities of Bernard Rands's "Canti d'Amor" and Augusta Read Thomas's "Love Songs" -- Chanticleer is a group who is able to pull off this difficult music beautifully. This recording was absolutely deserving of the Grammy that is received -- one of the finest discs of modern choral music in the past few years.

In Shadow, In Light: Music of Steven Stucky

Average customer rating:

Chamber Music by Steven Stucky

In Shadow, In Light: Music of Steven Stucky

Manufacturer: Albany Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Classical | Indie Music | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Music for Wind Ensemble by Steven Stucky
Colors of Love
Morton Gould: Symphony No. 2 [Hybrid SACD]
Tristan Murail: Gondwana; Désintégrations; Time and Again
Joseph Schwantner: Sparrows; Music of Amber; Distant Runes and Incanations; Two Poems; Soaring

ASIN: B00022FWTU
Release Date: 2004-05-25

Tracks:

Nell'ombra, nella luce
Ad Parnassum
Boston Fancies
Partita-Pastorale, after J.S.B.
Sappho Fragments

Album Description

Steven Stucky has written commissioned works for many of the major American orchestras, including Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Philadelphia, St. Louis and the National Symphony. As a conductor, he appears frequently with the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group and Ensemble X, a contemporary music group he co-founded in 1997. Mr. Stucky's work with the Los Angeles Philharmonic comprises the longest composer residency of any American orchestra. First appointed composer in Residence by Andre Previn in 1988, he has worked closely with Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen since 1990. Since 1980, Mr. Stucky has taught at Cornell University, where he serves as Given Foundation Professor of Composition, and where he chaired the Music Department from 1992 to 1997. He was Visiting Professor of Composition at the Eastman School of Music in 2001-2, and Ernest Bloch Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2003.

Customer Reviews:

Chamber Music by Steven Stucky.......2004-06-20

Steven Stucky, a native of Kansas (yay!), has long been professor of composition at Cornell and his music has been performed by many different artists and groups. This compilation of chamber music illustrates his ability to convey, through a sort of musical impressionism, visual images, feelings, texts, ideas. His technique makes use of much of the usual twentieth-century composer's arsenal, including Bartókian counterpoint, twelve-tone rows (not manipulated serially), allusive orchestration, innovative forms and striking contrasts.

The title of 'Nell'ombra, nella luce' ('In Shadow, In Light'), played brilliantly here by the Cassatt String Quartet, illustrates one of Stucky's favorite formal gestures, the contrast of light and dark music, the former often by sparse and skittery upper-register material, the latter by slower, denser low-register passages. 'In Shadow, In Light' is a one-movement string quartet in all but name. Lasting 16+ minutes is traverses four main sections that serve as opening movement, adagio, scherzo with trio, and finale.

The rest of this disc is performed by Ensemble X, a chamber group co-founded by Stucky in 1997. In the last piece, 'Sappho Fragments,' they are joined by soprano Judith Kellock.

Many recent composers,including Sandor Veress, Tan Dun and Gunther Schuller, to name a few, have been inspired by the paintings of Paul Klee. Stucky's 'Ad Parnassum' was inspired by Klee's painting of that name. Klee had taken his title from J. J. Fux's monumental musical treatise, 'Gradus ad parnassum,' ('Onward and Upward to Parnassus'); Debussy had used the same title for the opening section of his 'Children's Corner Suite' in which he satirized five-finger exercises that were and are the bane of every beginning piano student. Stucky resists that too-easy structural procedure and, rather, attempts to put into sound his response to Klee's painting. It might have been helpful to have had the painting reproduced on the cover of the booklet, but that would have meant that the striking painting on the cover, 'Concerto for Orchestra by Steven Stucky,' by Nancy Mooslin, would have had to be scrapped. It's just as well. Klee's masterpiece is easily available on the Internet if any are interested in looking at it while listening to this work. For those who have not seen it, it is a parti-colored mosaic-like quasi-architectural picture which Klee himself labeled a 'polyphonic composition.' Stucky successfully illustrated musically the conflict of areas of tension and relaxation inherent in Klee's painting.

'Boston Fancies,' a 15-minute set of seven miniatures played without pause, consists of quick-tempo ritornelli alternating with slower 'fancies.' 'Ritornello' is a misnomer, actually, since none of the material is 'returned' literally in each succeeding ritornello as it would have been in the Baroque era; rather their basic materials are re-composed. Instrumentation includes flute (doubling on alto flute), clarinet (doubling with bass clarinet), percussion (various instruments), piano, violin, viola and cello.

'Partita-Pastorale, after J.S.B.' is a seven-minute recomposition (and re-orchestration) of Bach's B flat harpsichord partita, but with a dreamlike character that allows for reminiscences of numerous other Bach pieces (e.g. two of the Goldberg Variations - Nos. 6 and the 'Black Pearl,' No. 25 as well as bits of a French suite and the A minor prelude from WTC II). I adored it! But then I'm a goner for this kind of thing [e.g. see my Amazon reviews of Uri Caine's recomposition of the entire Goldbergs and Robin Holloway's two-piano set of pieces based on each of them].

Finally, there is the 12-minute set of vocal settings of all of Sappho's extant poetry, brief as they are. They are sung expertly, dramatically, effectively by Judith Kellock, accompanied by Ensemble X under Stucky's direction.

If you like modestly advanced neo-classic American chamber music (although that characterization falls short of any signficant explication of Stucky's style), this one's a keeper.

TT=61:40

Tracks:

Dreadnought - University Of Minnesota Symphonic Wind Ens/Craig Kirchhoff
Blue Dawn Into White Heat - University Of Minnesota Symphonic Wind Ens/Craig Kirchhoff
Aerie - Julia Bogorad/Linda Chatterton/Adam Kuenzel/Jennifer Sepeda/Katherine Teitler/Katherine Vogele
Qnt No.2: Movt I - Bergen Woodwind Qnt
Qnt No.2: Movt II - Bergen Woodwind Qnt
Qnt No.2: Movt III - Bergen Woodwind Qnt
Reflections - Kathryn Anderson/Sarah Fish/Rebecca Hagen/John Miller/Anna Urang/Norbert Nielubowski
Music For The Funeral Of Queen Mary - University Of Minnesota Symphonic Wind Ens/Craig Kirchhoff

Tracks:

Four Sketches: Allegro - David Baldwin/Gary Bordner/Herbert Winslow/Thomas Ashworth/Ross Tolbert
Four Sketches: Allegro Vivace - David Baldwin/Gary Bordner/Herbert Winslow/Thomas Ashworth/Ross Tolbert
Four Sketches: Andante - David Baldwin/Gary Bordner/Herbert Winslow/Thomas Ashworth/Ross Tolbert
Four Sketches: Allegro - David Baldwin/Gary Bordner/Herbert Winslow/Thomas Ashworth/Ross Tolbert
Urban Requiem - Brian Handley/Christopher Thompson/Robert Schrepel/Jeffery Fulton
Chiaroscuro: Zebra Vars - University Of Minnesota Symphonic Wind Ens/Craig Kirchhoff
Hats Off To Thee - University Of Minnesota Symphonic Wind Ens/Craig Kirchhoff

Customer Reviews:

INCREDIBLE.......1999-05-23

As good as the contemporary wind band can get. Craig Kirchhoff works his magic again by compiling a collection of new music which the entire instrumental music community can take part. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

Music for Wind Ensemble by Steven Stucky

Average customer rating:

Music for Wind Ensemble by Steven Stucky

Manufacturer: Albany Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Arias | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Marches | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

Classic Big Band | Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

In Shadow, In Light: Music of Steven Stucky
Colors of Love
Morton Gould: Symphony No. 2 [Hybrid SACD]

ASIN: B0000049RC
Release Date: 1997-09-16

Tracks:

Music For The Funeral Of Queen Mary
Threnos
Fanfares And Arias
Voyages For Cello And Wind Ensemble

Morton Gould: Symphony No. 2 [Hybrid SACD]

Average customer rating:

A Gould Symphony and Three Other Composers' Works

Morton Gould: Symphony No. 2 [Hybrid SACD]

Manufacturer: Albany Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Robert Kurka Symphony No.2 .Albany Symphony
In Shadow, In Light: Music of Steven Stucky
Music for Wind Ensemble by Steven Stucky
Camargo Guarnieri: Piano Concertos Nos. 1, 2 and 3
Colors of Love

ASIN: B0001DMUB8
Release Date: 2004-02-24

Customer Reviews:

A Gould Symphony and Three Other Composers' Works.......2004-05-31

The draw here, I suppose, is the Second Symphony of Morton Gould (1913-1996) and it is part of a series of his works being recorded by the wonderful Albany Symphony under David Allan Miller. They've already given us an account of his more serious Third Symphony. The Second, subtitled 'On Marching Tunes,' was a war-time symphony commissioned by the YMCA (!) and premièred by Vladimir Golschmann and the New York Philharmonic in June 1944. Those of you familiar with Gould's 'American Salute' ( based on 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again') will feel right at home here. The four movements are 'Variations,' 'Bivouac,' 'Quickstep,' and 'Memorial.' In the latter, rather than taking a optimistically jingoistic approach to this symphony that was undoubtedly written at least partly out of patriotic impulses, Gould has the symphony end quietly and thoughtfully. The whole thing is given a wonderful workout by Miller and his Albany Symphony who, it must be said, have been doing a fantastic service by recording so much music, in fine performances and wonderful sound [the ambience of their Troy Savings Bank auditorium helps a lot with that], of American composers. In this respect, Albany Records should be celebrated from coast to coast for their efforts in this direction. They may have gotten on the map, so to speak, with their large series of recordings of British composer, George Lloyd, but they've more than eclipsed that now with all these American works.

Three generations of American composers are represented on this disc. And indeed, played straight through, this CD makes for a wonderful 77-minute concert. It opens with 'Son et lumière' by Stephen Stucky (b. 1949, and, I'm proud to say, a fellow Kansan long a composition professor at Cornell), a 10-minute 'impressionistic portrait of light in sound.' I can do no better than to quote the uncredited booklet writer who says, 'the piece is given over to flashes, flickerings and explosions of radiance.' Brilliantly orchestrated and superbly played here, it makes an effective curtain opener.

The baby of this group of composers is Gabriel Ian Gould (b. 1974 and, as far as I can determine, no relation to Morton Gould) whose 'Watercolors' is also impressionistic, but more in an updated Debussyan sense. It is in essence a four-movement English horn concerto played without pause and lasting 12 minutes. The movements are connected by English horn cadenzas that give the soloist, Albany Symphony principal Robert Sheena, a chance to display his virtuosity.

David Finckel is a cellist I have long known and admired; he is the cellist in the Emerson Quartet and has also made a number of solo discs, including a very fine traversal of the Beethoven cello sonatas with his wife, the sensitive pianist Wu Han. On this CD he plays the Cello Concerto (1993) by one of our finest composers, John Harbison (b. 1938). It was written for and premièred by Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony under Seiji Ozawa, and as far as I know this is its first recording. There are a number of effects derived from Asian music (a tribute to Ma and Ozawa?) that include Asian percussion effects, gamelan-like sounds, pentatonic melodies. The cello soloist is given ample opportunity to display his virtuosity through a number of cadenzas as well as in lyrical moments and high-energy tutti passages. This 24-minute work describes an arc that, in Harbison's own words, 'rises from the East, eventually to descend, refracted, in the West.' The final movement bursts on the scene with a quintessentially American-sounding energy but manages to combine some of the earlier Asian sounds with brass-and-percussion rhythmic brashness.

Recommended.

Tracks:

Allegro
March. Grave
Anthem. Poco Piu Mosso
Canzona. Moderato - Tempo I
March
Marsch 1. Allegro
Marsch 2. Allegro
Marsch 3. Vivace
Marsch 4. Vivace
Huldigungsmarsch, WWV 97
Marsch 5. Moderato - Allegro - Tempo I (Moderato)
Marsch 6. Allegretto - Piu Mosso
Marsch 7. Andantino
Marsch 8. Vivace - Meno Mosso
Andante Maestoso - Coda
Marsch 9. Wie Ein Kondukt. Marcia Funebre
Marsch 10. Allegro
March - Trio In A Flat Major - March
Berlin Im Licht
Marsch, Oder 'Die Versuchung' - Trio - Marsch
Erster Versuch
Zweiter Versuch
Dritter Versuch
Vierter Versuch
Funfter Versuch
Letzter Versuch

Average customer rating:

Songs, Hymns & Portraits

Manufacturer: Albany Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Compilations | Classical | Styles | Music

Marches | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

Classic Big Band | Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00005NF2V
Release Date: 2001-07-31

Tracks:

Music for Brass and Woodwind
American Song
American Hymn
Alcotts (Third Movement from Second Piano Sonata, Concord, Mass.)
Funeral Music for Queen Mary
Variations on a Shaker Melody
Down a Country Lane
Lincoln Portrait
Preamble for a Solemn Occasion

Music Composers:

Music Composers

Music Composers