"Wallingford Riegger was an American composer who is completely ignored today. That’s a shame because Riegger was truly gifted. His Music for Brass Choir is one of the greatest modern brass pieces, and his Symphony No. 3, once heard on classical radio, was in the curriculum of music schools. Then came the great dumbing down in classical music programming on many radio stations. Riegger’s music, direct and whimsical, is also uncompromising and even violent, so look out! This disc, recorded in the 1950s, contains his Symphony No. 4. Try the second movement. Short motives, like mysterious clues in a Hitchcock film, morph into a galloping, oddly Spanish theme and then into strange motives again. The outer movements mix pleasant melodies with harsh climaxes. This is great music that you’ll never hear over local radio." - Sacramento News & Review

Includes work(s) by Toshiro Mayuzumi.

LUTOSLAWSKI / PENDERECKI / SKROWACZEWSKI / PANUFIK: Polski N

HINDEMITH: Kammermusik No. 2 / Concert Music for Viola / Pia

DELLO JOIO, N.: Homage to Haydn / The Triumph of St. Joan

HARRISON: Suite for Symphonic Strings / Strict Songs for Eig

Classical Music

The fact that I am going to move quickly over Kentucky Spring and the Fifth Symphony in order to discuss Roy Harris' Violin Concerto in some detail does not mean that these are in any way unworthy or inferior works. The former is a lovely pastoral sketch dating from exactly the same period as Copland's more famous Appalachian Spring and so forms an interesting contrast to that great work, while the symphony (written in 1942) is an impressively cogent wartime work with a powerful central funeral march surrounded by a vigorous opening and an emotionally ambivalent close that manages at last a typically emphatic final triumph. Both are well performed and recorded (Kentucky Spring in very clear mono, the Symphony in very good 1965 stereo).

But Harris' Violin Concerto (1949) is a genuine masterpiece that the composer didn't live to hear performed, which is why this 1985 premiere recording by Gregory Fulkerson (who also gave the first public rendering of the work in 1984) is so important. The reason the piece wasn't performed earlier is sad: it was commissioned for Cleveland Orchestra concertmaster Joseph Gingold, but when it came time for the premiere the parts were full of mistakes that could not be corrected in time, and so the performance was cancelled, and that was that--a sorry fate for such an impressive and truly individual piece that shows the composer working at the very top of his form. For my money, this is a far more impressive piece than, say, Barber's delightful and deservedly popular concerto, and it strikes me as standing an excellent chance of making a strong impression in concert.

Harris has a reputation today of being a somewhat "simplistic" composer, both in terms of his resolutely optimistic musical philosophy as well as his orchestral technique. It's very interesting to see how such a composer, known for his stentorian brass writing and heavy-duty percussion, adapts to the problem of accompanying a solo violin. The answer: He does it with extraordinary finesse. Harris structures his concerto in four linked sections, a sort of gigantic "theme and variations" lasting nearly half an hour. In the beginning, after a whirlwind opening, the violin spins out a seemingly endless melody, gently accompanied by the orchestra. A lengthy and vigorous allegro of markedly dance-like character follows, proceeding to an extended cadenza.

From this point on the music returns to its original slow tempo, but as the orchestra gathers the various melodic strands together the solo embroiders the texture with ever more elaborate and ornamental variations, reaching the sort of lyrical ecstasy typical of, say, Tippett's most complex string textures (as perhaps in the Corelli Variations or Second Symphony). It's difficult to describe the luminous orchestration and exalted tone that Harris achieves, without (I should add) any roof-raising brass or thudding bass drum volleys. There's really nothing like it in the entire modern violin repertoire, and for something similar you would have to go back in time to the wilder inspirations of Biber and the early German Baroque violin school.

Gregory Fulkerson plays every note as though he understands the music's greatness (the closing pages are especially stunning), and he's very well accompanied by Lawrence Leighton Smith and the Louisville Orchestra. The recording offers perfect balances between orchestra and solo, though much of the credit also belongs to the composer for fashioning such a sophisticated and apt accompaniment. The rating, then, applies to this work (though as I said the rest is very good too), and while it's always dangerous to give the highest accolades to a single performance of a work with no performance tradition, its importance is such that the music truly deserves the strongest possible advocacy. [6/28/2003]

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Includes work(s) by Karel Husa. Ensemble: Louisville Orchestra. Conductors: Jorge Mester, Akira Endo.

All tracks have been digitally mastered using 24-bit technology.

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Louisville Orchestra. Conductors: Robert Whitney, Jorge Mester.

BLACHER: Orchestral Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 2

This Alvin Singleton collection originally was released on Nonesuch in 1989. Singleton composes in more or less typical late-20th-century style that skirts the edges of tonality, with more emphasis on the music's physical sound than on its melodic content. Thus, there's great variety of texture and frequent timbral contrast if not confrontation among various orchestral sections. The brief After Fallen Crumbs (composed in memory of Martin Luther King Jr) is just such a study in dramatic effects, beginning with Corigliano-like brass eruptions and ending with agitated strings.

The mood shifts from frenzied activity to meditative stillness in Shadows, which is a sort of grand passacaglia based on a brief chorale-like theme vaguely reminiscent of Mussorgsky. The music proceeds through a series of minimalist (à la Reich) permutations as it builds to a powerful, sustained climax, after which the opening calm returns.

Despite its intriguing title, A Yellow Rose Petal is the least compelling of the three works. Yet another study in sonic contrast, the music's procession of tone clusters and provocative instrumental effects makes much of the work sound like cinematic background music. We've pretty much heard all this before--many times over. Still, this doesn't prevent the Atlanta Symphony players from giving their all and providing virtuoso performances, with Louis Lane conducting After Fallen Crumbs and A Yellow Rose Petal, while the late Robert Shaw takes the baton in Shadows. The recording is somewhat low-level, but cranking the volume reveals an impressively reproduced orchestral sound.

--Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com

TCHEREPNIN: Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 22 / Symphony No. 2, O