UNITED STATES ARMY BRASS BAND: Firestorm

Encore!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

UNITED STATES AIR FORCE BAND AND SINGING SERGEANTS: Christma

The re-launch of a really impressive modern Hanson symphonic cycle.

Naxos have stood shoulder to shoulder with Hanson’s music. They have recorded his piano music, a miscellany of his non-symphonic orchestral music two sets of the opera Merry Mount (Serafin; Schwarz) and even started an earlier Nashville cycle of the symphonies with one disc. The latter fell by the wayside when conductor Kenneth Schermerhorn died. Now Naxos picks up the guttering torch through licensing recordings issued originally by Delos. They have done the same thing with Diamond, Schumann and Piston. It is clear that these discs are not going to be crammed to the CD limit. Even so this series will breathe new life into the cycle and at bargain price. Nor is this an also-ran. Schwarz finds the vital spark to ignite these works to make them glow and flame. The Symphony No. 1 is effulgently passionate and lives up to its name though without quite as many Sibelian touches as its reputation would suggest. Still, this is out-and-out romantic music and instantly enjoyable. Hanson’s own Eastman/Mercury recordings are vied with though their super-virile close-up grainy analogue impact compares ever so slightly unfavourably as against these refined yet full-blooded fresh recordings. That said they are now verging on a quarter century old. The second movement of No. 1 is the epitome of tenderness in Schwarz’s hands as is the second in the Romantic complete with its pre-echoes of the Born Free theme. The Second Symphony under Schwarz also has the prescribed electricity and lusty euphoria though he still falls just short of the ecstatic abandon conveyed by Charles Gerhardt in his 1967 Chesky recording with the National Philharmonic. The high fast trilling strings of the finale and the rampant horns are gloriously confident. The Second was recycled into the Seventh Symphony in much the same way that Elgar re-ran material from earlier works in his The Music Makers. Schwarz delivers an estimably atmospheric, stern and driven Lament for Beowulf where the voice he might have been attending was that of Holst – listen to the parallels with The Hymn of Jesus (1917). The words are legibly reproduced in the admirable booklet. Lux Aeterna, a tone poem for viola and orchestra dates form the year after the Nordic. Its plangently sounded and undulating smooth contours and peppery dialogue with the viola and solo woodwind show the influence of his teacher Respighi. The grand orchestral scores of Respighi afflatus is very much in evidence and a real pleasure it is too. The Hanson of the later 1920s is also more than hinted at. Mosaics is a much later score written for Szell and Cleveland. It’s attractive and varied but lacks the intensity of the works of the 1920s and 1930s.

We are still much in need of premiere recordings of the symphonic poems Before the Dawn (1920) and Exaltation (with piano) (1920); North and West with chorus (1923); Heroic Elegy for wordless chorus and orchestra (1927); Streams in the Desert for chorus, orchestra (1969) and New Land, New Covenant, oratorio (1976). When Naxos have reissued the complete Delos-originated cycle I hope they will look for opportunities to present these works to us. Perhaps Schwarz would be interested in doing the honours or maybe John McLaughlin Williams.

Meantime if you are curious about Hanson and or are seeking a really impressive modern cycle of the Hanson symphonies look no further.

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

UNITED STATES ARMY FIELD BAND AND CHORUS: Sound the Bells (A

Caroling is a tradition that goes back hundreds of years as a joyful part of the winter holiday season. Since the Eisenhower administration, the Singing Sergeants have been caroling at the White House each December for guests from around the country and throughout the world. In the spirit of that tradition, this album contains some of the band's favorites, including songs that tell the Christmas story, celebrate the Hannukah tradition, and inspire hope, peace and joy. All of the songs are performed in the a cappella tradition. Caroling, directed by Captain Chad A. Steffey, is dedicated to all of the men and women of the United States Air Force who are away from home during the holiday season.

The United States Army Field Band proudly presents the second in a series of concert band recordings honoring the lives and music of individuals who have made significant contributions to the band repertoire and to music education. Designed primarily as educational resources, these recordings are painstakingly researched to authenticate standard performance practices and to reflect the original intent of the composers. The biographical information, detailed program notes, and historical photographs are included to provide music educators and their students with insight into the compositions which they hear and perform. This compact disc was recorded in August 1999 at Devers Hall, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, using multi-track digital equipment. Its release coincides with the centenary celebration of Aaron Copland's birth, allowing educators to use it as a reference in preparing for their own concert programs in the year 2000.

United States Army Field Band: The Legacy of Edwin Franko Go

Howard Hanson, a composer of imagination and sweep and a colorist of huge eloquence, is one of the most approachable of all twentieth century symphonists. His guiding spirit was always Sibelius, and in the Symphony No. 1 ‘Nordic’ he used the same key as in the Finnish composer’s own First Symphony. The work is haunting, rapturous and serene, beautifully orchestrated and wholly commanding. The Lament for Beowulf, written for chorus and orchestra, dates from 1925. Its dark, brooding tension reflects its poetic inspiration with indelible force. “This is confident, generous, beautifully made music, richly (and sensitively) scored. Schwarz, and his splendid Seattle orchestra do not short-change us on any of this and they are beautifully, ripely, recorded here.” (Gramophone on the original Delos release)

United States Air Force Airmen of Noted: A Holiday Note From

Features music of Irving Berlin, Leroy Anderson, Frank Loesser, and more, arranged for wind ensemble.

The Heritage of John Philip Sousa, Vol. 9

Colorful, original, whimsical, and adventuresome, this collection of musical short stories from one of America’s most diverse composers has something to please every ear.



SCHICKELE A Year in the Catskills. Gardens 1. What Did You Do Today at Jeffrey’s House 2. Dream Dances 3. Diversions • Blair Wind Qnt members; 1,2 Melissa Rose (pn); 3 Felix Wang (vc) • NAXOS 8.559687 (52:03)


The Blair Wind Quintet is a faculty ensemble of the Blair School of Music of Vanderbilt University. Though a woodwind player myself, I am not familiar with their work, so this release, the second on which this ensemble appears, is a pleasant introduction to these fine musicians. Their performances here are mostly solo and in smaller groupings, with only the title work, A Year in the Catskills, played by the whole quintet. This last is one of a trio of works for resident ensembles funded by the Blair Commissioning Project. Peter Schickele’s quintet was joined by a piano trio from Susan Botti and a string quartet by György Kurtág; one can but imagine what a wildly incongruent faculty recital that could have made.


Schickele is, of course, best known in his persona of the researcher and exhumer of works by “the youngest and oddest of J. S. Bach’s 20-odd children.” Since 1965, the year of his first public concert, he has created a body of entertaining musical parodies of familiar musical forms for his fictional P. D. Q. Bach. There is another aspect of the composer, though, as many will know. Under his own name, he composes concert works for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensembles, and vocalists, as well as scores for film, theater, and television. This disc presents a nice sampling of pieces for wind instruments, written over a 46-year period. They cross boundaries of genre and style with consummate skill, and are uniformly clever, lightweight, and charming. Even when fleetingly serious, they are never more than melancholy. They are more often humorous. In fact, minus the more obvious burlesquing that goes on in a P. D. Q. Bach pastiche, his serious works sound remarkably akin to his comedic bread and butter. The unexpected instrumental colors are a bit more subdued, the odd cadence more integrated, and the stylistic incongruities less outrageous. What is played for laughs when acting The Professor is quirky and playful in the realm of the serious composer, but the singular identity can never be in question.


Consider the four seasonal portraits of A Year in the Catskills (2009), presented in Baroque canons and a fantasy, and rounded out with a fifth movement called “Fast Driving,” which bebops the listener back to more modern urban surroundings. Or What Did You Do Today at Jeffrey’s House? (1988) for horn and piano, which remembers childhood games (one is relieved to learn, given his compositional credits for O! Calcutta! ) with a piano-stride parade and a boogie-woogie carnival with dancing bears framing a very brief compulsory nap. Finally, there is Dream Dances (1988), a suite for flute, oboe, and cello, which juxtaposes a not very Baroque minuet and sarabande with a jitterbug, a demented French gallop, and a waltz that only needs John Ferrante and some silly lyrics to become one of the Diverse Ayres on Sundrie Notions.


The two remaining earlier works give some idea of where Schickele might have headed if the fictional “minimeister of Wein-am-Rhein” had not been such a huge success. In these we hear a composer still working in academia, creating works that reflect seriously (well, all right, more seriously) on relatively contemporary styles. Gardens (1968) for oboe and piano is an atmospheric triptych with overtones of Messiaen, though this is more obvious in New York Philharmonic oboist Joseph Robinson’s recording on Cala. Diversions (1963) for oboe, clarinet, and bassoon channels neoclassical Stravinsky in portraits of the bath, a game of billiards, and a New York bar. It is all very engaging, and wonderfully presented by musicians and engineers. Naxos has a winner here, and I hope we hear more from the Blair Wind Quintet. Meanwhile, woodwind fanciers are hereby alerted to a must-buy release.


FANFARE: Ronald E. Grames


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It is a good and joyful thing to see a nice collection of Peter Schickele’s concert music. Not that he is unduly famous for his P.D.Q. Bach character, but as a composer of serious music he shines as one of the most original voices of his generation. Schickele has not invented a new wheel, rather he has managed to take traditional musical gestures and season them with his own invention with the skill of a master chef. This collection of chamber music, deftly rendered by members of the faculty of Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music, is a showcase of the composer’s unique wit and creativity.

Commissioned by the Blair Quintet, A Year in the Catskills was brand new at the time of this recording. It is a picturesque work; full of the kind of interesting twists of melody that make Schickele’s music so fascinating. He is prone to shifting one or two notes in a tune by a semitone here or a semitone there to make what could sound quite ordinary into something that is unique and quirky.

The brief triptych Gardens, for oboe and piano is a study in colors. One of Schickele’s outstanding features is his ability to say so much in a very short time. I wouldn’t call him a miniaturist, but he can get his point across with little fuss. Such are these elegant little pieces that depict a garden at the three parts of the day. Jared Hauser plays with a sweet unforced tone, and is sensitively accompanied by pianist Melissa Rose.

What Did You Do Today at Jeffrey’s House? is a bit of nostalgia based on memories of the composer’s playtime with a childhood friend. These are whimsical pieces, pulling from a number of styles including a rollicking boogie-woogie ending. Scored for horn and piano, Leslie Norton and Melissa Rose find all the charm of these brief episodes. I can’t say that I was completely in love with the pieces themselves, as they came across to these ears as a bit contrived.

The outstanding work in this recital is the lovely set of Dream Dances. Scored for flute, oboe and cello, Schickele combines the old and the new by creating a suite that is reminiscent of a Baroque partita, but just for fun he throws in the semi-modern by replacing the Courrant with a Jitterbug and the Allemande with a Waltz. It is pretty much genius really, and Jane Kirschner, Jared Hauser and Felix Wang deliver an elegant performance full of wit.

Diversions, scored for oboe, clarinet and bassoon are again whimsical, and depict three specific scenes, a hot bath, a billiard game, and a New York bar. Although I felt that the composer captured his scenes well, I can’t say that I was particularly moved by these little snapshots, in spite of their being very well played.

Peter Schickele is reported to be one of the most performed composers in America, and it is easy to see why. The term accessible gets too much airplay, but his music is almost always captivating, mainly due to his double ability to color within the lines while choosing shades that don’t come from just any box of crayons. A good listen.

Colorful, original, whimsical, and adventuresome, this collection of musical short stories from one of America’s most diverse composers has something to please every ear.


-- Kevin Sutton, MusicWeb International

Ned Rorem' clarity of emotional expression is perfectly suited to the 'breathy gold' of the flute.

Tim Fain has constructed an adventurous and exciting recital of American violin music. It takes in the concert version of Philip Glass' Einstein on the Beach-Fain "played the hell out of the piece".

"A concert recording celebrating the United States Army Blues Jazz Ensemble's 25th anniversary. Features The New York Voices vocal quartet A program consisting mainly of American standards, including Benny Goodman's “Air Mail Special”, Hoagy Carmichael's “Star Dust” and George Gershwin's “Summertime”. Since its 1972 founding, this ensemble has backed both jazz legends and show business stalwarts."

The concept of Echoes was to select well-known short works-five to ten minutes in length-and to transform them for our present time.

SCHWANTNER Percussion Concerto 1. Morning’s Embrace. Chasing Light • Giancarlo Guerrero, cond; 1 Christopher Lamb, perc; Nashville SO • NAXOS 8.559678 (68:00)


Bottom line first: If you know and love the music of American composer Joseph Schwantner, you will find this brilliantly performed and vividly recorded disc irresistible. You need read no further. Those who are unfamiliar with the music of this magnificently gifted composer are urged to read on.


Schwantner long ago established himself as one of the preeminent composers of our time. Born in Chicago in 1943 and educated at Northwestern University, Schwantner has been the recipient of numerous awards including the 1970 Charles Ives Scholarship and the 1979 Pulitzer Prize, as well as commissions from the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Saint Louis Symphony, the National Symphony, and many other world-class ensembles and artists. His style is immediately accessible and very eclectic, incorporating elements of French Impressionism, jazz-influenced harmonies, African drumming, and Minimalism. Schwantner often finds inspiration in poetry, the verbal imagery of which frequently becomes the basis for his titles—… and the mountains rising nowhere, Aftertones of Infinity, Chasing Light (included on this disc), etc. Early on he developed his own unique sound, distinguished by mildly dissonant harmonies scored in an open manner, often presented in glittering pyramid and cascade effects. He is also a master orchestral colorist. Schwantner’s early works were somewhat episodic and fragmented, relying almost entirely on successions of independent and seemingly unrelated sonic tapestries, held together by a recurring, structurally binding chord. More recently, his works have been more forward-moving and thematically based (though I would hesitate to describe them as melodic in the traditional sense), while still retaining the composer’s unique sound and compositional fingerprints.


My friend and Fanfare colleague Walter Simmons very accurately described Schwantner’s 1994 Percussion Concerto as “a tremendously exciting showpiece, involving the featured instruments in lots of activity, well organized into a coherent statement” ( Fanfare 21:6). The emotional and musical heart of the work is the second movement, “In Memoriam,” a moving elegy to American composer Stephen Albert, a close friend of Schwantner, whose life was cut short in a car accident at age 51. The binding element of the movement is the bass drum, which plays a repeated rhythm representing the beating of a human heart. The emotional effect is overwhelming as the heartbeat fades and slows to silence. The two outer movements are more overtly flashy, though no less musically substantial, displaying the virtuoso potential of a virtual arsenal of percussion instruments. The work was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for its principal percussionist, Christopher Lamb, who performs it on this disc and whose insightful, texturally clear, and colorful interpretation makes a wonderful companion to the more overtly virtuosic premiere recording by Evelyn Glennie and the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Slatkin (RCA 68692). I would not want to be without either recording.


Two recent works, both of which were inspired by the sunrise at Schwantner’s home in rural New Hampshire, complete the disc. The composer’s own wonderfully informative program notes, upon which I could not improve, provide eloquent and accurate descriptions of these works. Schwantner tells us that his Morning’s Embrace , composed in 2005, “draws its spirit and energy from the intensely vibrant early-morning sunrises I experience living in rural New Hampshire. The powerful kaleidoscope of hue and color piercing the morning mist and trees provided potent imagery for my musical imagination.” The work is a dazzling procession of orchestral color from dark to light, the effect of which is quite breathtaking.


Chasing Light from 2008, a similarly inspired work, concludes the disc. Again in the composer’s words, “One of the special pleasures of living in rural New Hampshire is experiencing the often brilliant and intense early-morning sunrises, reminding one of Thoreau’s words, ‘Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me.’” He further states, “ Chasing Light , like my earlier work Morning’s Embrace , also draws inspiration from the celebration of vibrant colors and light that penetrate the morning mist as it wafts through the trees in the high New England hills.” Like its companion piece, this four-movement orchestral tour de force is a feast for the ears.


The Nashville Symphony, conducted by its music director, Giancarlo Guerreo, plays the music as if it owns it, stepping up to give performances befitting the greatest orchestras in the world. The recording is rich and lucidly detailed, though I would have preferred a bit more orchestral presence in the concerto. Highly recommended and a Want List no-brainer.


FANFARE: Merlin Patterson

Anger produces menacing sounds. But the voice of tenderness is softer,' wrote French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and much the same could be said of the diverse music on this second volume of American percussion music. It ranges from Elliott Carter'

Every Friday for two years between 1942 and 1944, a group of teenage boy prisoners in the Terezin concentration camp shared their poems, stories and artwork in a secret magazine they called Vedem. Most of those boys perished in the Holocaust.

Scored for as few as three marimbas or as many as a hundred percussion instruments plus celesta, harp and piano, these five striking works by contemporary American composers abound in fascinating rhythms, ingenious combinations and juxtapositions.

Charles Wuorinen' staggeringly prolific output has been remarkably consistent yet tremendously varied.

HEWITT Medley Overture. New Medley Overture. New Federal Overture. CARR Federal Overture. REINAGLE Miscellaneous Overture. Occasional Overture . Overture in G • Patrick Gallois, cond; Jyväskylä Snf Finlandia • NAXOS 8.559654 (68: 25)


Most readers will never have heard of these composers. In fact, I rather suspect that most collectors attracted to this release, The 18th-Century American Overture , will be so more out of historical curiosity than out of any prior knowledge of the music itself. Benjamin Carr (1768–1831) and James Hewitt (1770–1827) were both English-born and educated. Carr, who studied organ with Charles Wesley and composition with Samuel Arnold, the first great cataloger and editor of Handel’s music, was a prolific publisher, a driving force in the development of a music establishment in Philadelphia, and one of the founders of the Musical Fund Society. Hewitt, who made the questionable claim that he had played violin in London under the direction of Haydn, was similarly engaged in New York, where he bought an earlier publishing concern from Carr, and later in Boston, where he was a conductor, arranger, publisher, and of course composer. Scots-born Alexander Reinagle was a contemporary of Carr in Philadelphia, where he established a concert series and was involved in the theatrical life of the city. He was a favorite composer of George Washington, who not only attended many of Reinagle’s concerts, but arranged for Reinagle to give piano lessons to his adopted daughter, Nelly Custis.


I mention the credentials of the three composers, as one would otherwise never attribute these works to musicians of any serious standing. Of course, when listening to the initial track, the Hewitt Medley Overture , one may well assume that a disc of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 had been substituted. But wait a bit, for soon after follow quotes of reels, marches, and patriotic songs like Yankee Doodle . In many of these, transitions are minimal, and there is little or no attempt to create a coherent flow. Tunes are occasionally cut off in mid-phrase to make way for the next, and the sublime and the trivial reside incongruously together. These then are pops concert entertainments of their day, compendiums of common tunes that would be recognized by the audience, packaged occasionally with the latest works from Europe. (The Mozart piano concerto premiered but 13 years before its appropriation here.) Some, like Carr’s Federal Overture , have a political purpose, with La Marseillaise running roughshod over some English tunes, followed by Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be? and Philip Phile’s Presidential March , now better known as The Itsy-Bitsy Spider . The intent would not have been lost on his audience in 1794. Others by Reinagle, the pragmatic man of the theater, lack pretensions musical or political, and are full of lively dance tunes.


Each of them, whatever the musical merit, gives insight into the culture of the new republic. These seven overtures are all that remain of many such works produced in America in the last two decades of the 18th century, and these have only survived in published piano reductions, or string parts without wind parts or score. The reconstructions were done by musicologist Bertil van Boer, professor of music history and theory at Western Washington University in Bellingham. He explains the historical background, and the detective work done in preparing the reconstruction, in his amusing and informative insert notes. Van Boer’s specialty is Scandinavian music of the 18th century, which explains, perhaps, the provenance of the recording. The Jyväskylä Sinfonia Finlandia is not an ensemble whose work often finds its way to these shores. Fanfare critics have reviewed only two releases: a disc of works by Rautavaara and another of Finnish tangos. That is about as broad a range as any ensemble I know. Now add obscure American popular potpourris to the mix. Who does their programming?


Whatever the story behind the recordings, kudos to van Boer, conductor Patrick Gallois, and the adaptable musicians of the orchestra for rescuing these curiosities and bringing them to our attention. The execution is polished and enthusiastic. The engineering is top-drawer. No one will mistake anything other than the Mozart quotes for great music, but the overtures are amusing, and this release adds an important tile to the mosaic of American music.


FANFARE: Ronald E. Grames


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This is another issue in the Naxos “American Classics” series. Even if you are doubtful about the relevance of the word “Classics” these Overtures most certainly are, and go out of their way to be, American. Each is in the form of a “Medley Overture”, a collection of popular tunes linked together with greater or lesser skill. Although this device originated in London the examples here are all intended to further particular political views at a time of intense debate in America between Federalists and Republicans. All of this is explained in the fascinating leaflet notes by Bertil van Boer who has also reconstructed these works, in some cases from limited evidence.

The tunes included in these Overtures almost invariably include “Yankee Doodle” and a large helping of Scottish and Irish tunes, presumably appealing especially to those coming from those countries. Other tunes used include the “Marseillaise”, William Shield’s “The Ploughboy”, “Oh dear, what can the matter be”, and, most surprising of all, the opening tutti from Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 20 in D minor. The results are clearly of considerable historical interest even if musically to describe them even as second rate might seem an exaggeration of their qualities. However unless you insist on nothing but the best, as did a relation of mine whose entire reading of fiction consisted of “Ulysses” and “War and Peace”, there is much to enjoy here. This is due more than a little to the sprightly performances and clear recording but I think is primarily due to the very appealing self-confidence and ingenuous swagger of the music itself. Despite the political messages that their music is apparently intended to send, the three composers represented here were all British in origin – Reinagle from Scotland and Carr and Hewitt from England. These Overtures have much in common with the music of such composers as Michael Kelly, Charles Dibdin and Steven Storace. Hewitt is best known for a wonderfully naïve Sonata describing the Battle of Trenton, and the works by him on this disc are little more advanced musically. However like all the rest they have charm and curiosity value in abundance. Maybe it is overstating the case to describe them as “American Classics” but this is certainly a disc that I find almost always generates a contented smile in this listener at least.

-- John Sheppard, MusicWeb International