Fanfare Reviews
from September/October 1995

Reviews: Messiaen - Persichetti - Pinkham - American Variations

MESSIAEN: O sacrum convivium!'¹ Poèmes pour mi, Book 1². La Merle noir³. Messe de la Pentecôte: Offertoire⁴. Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum⁵. Alfred Calabrese conducting the Britten Choir¹. Teresa Hopkin, soprano²; Deborah Thoreson, piano^2,3; Carl Hall, flute3. Timothy AIbrecht, organ⁴. Steven Everett conducting the Emory Wind Ensemble⁵. ACA CM20024 [DDD]; 56:02. Produced by Steven Everett. (Distributed by Albany.)

With each passing year, as ever more musicians and audiences become acquainted with this music, the position of Olivier Messiaen in the pantheon of great musical artists becomes more firmly entrenched. There is much beauty and passion in Messiaen's work, but he transcended superficial attractions with an extraordinary focus on his vision of the role of art, in his case, as the expression of spirituality. All of his generous means are designed to this end, even when he dares to develop, in music, the very essence of the meaning of life. If Messiaen did not ultimately solve this eternal riddle, his failure was a glorious one.

This collection of live performances commemorating Messiaen, who died in 1992, makes a convenient and well-wrought introduction to this music of genius. There is, as far as I know, no other sampler in the catalog. Of course, connoisseurs might argue as to the choices (I would have included some solo piano music, perhaps a selection from Vingts Regards sur l'Enfant Jesus), and there are certainly individual performances of the pieces here that are bettered in rival recordings.

But such quibbles would miss the point of this production. These fine Emory University musicians honor the composer with fervor and affection for this deeply affecting music; I envy those that had the privilege of attending this concert in the flesh. For both newcomers to Messiaen, and for the initiated, this disc is warmly recommended.

Peter Burwasser

PERSICHETTI: Concerto for English Horn and Strings¹. ROREM: Concerto for English Horn and Orchestra². HODKINSON: The Edge of the Olde One³. Thomas Stacy, English horn; Vincent Persichetti conducting String Orchestra of New York¹; Michael Palmer conducting the Rochester Philharmonic²; Paul Phillips conducting the Eastman Musica Nova³. NEW WORLD 80489-2 [ADD^1,3?; DDD²?]; 71:22. Produced by Richard Gilbert¹, Elizabeth Ostrow², Sydney Hodkinson³.

PERSICHETTI: Symphony No. 6. GREGSON: Celebration. MAW: American Games. SCHOENBERG: Theme and Variations. GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue¹. Eugene Corporon conducting Cincinnati Conservatory Wind Symphony; William Black, piano¹. KLAVIER KCD-11047 [DDD]; 74:16. Produced by Jack Stamp. (Distributed by Albany.)

Fanciers of the English horn--are there many?--will certainly be interested in the New World disc, which features three substantial and stylistically diverse contributions to the instrument's rather meager repertoire. Each was tailored specifically for Thomas Stacy, probably the instrument's most celebrated virtuoso, and he performs each work splendidly. Only the Rorem work is newly recorded; the other two appeared on a Grenadilla LP issued in 1979, which 1 reviewed in Fanfare 4:l (pp. 178-80).

The Persichetti concerto is a relatively late work, composed in 1977. The following year it won the prestigious Kennedy Center/Friedheim Award. As many late works are conventionally characterized, the concerto has a distinctly autumnal quality--not especially dissonant or abrasive, but cool, dry, and ruminative, resulting in a very low expressive profile, not unlike the relatively familiar Hollow Men for trumpet and strings. Persichetti was fond of reworking thematic material already explored in previous works. This was not a matter of self-aggrandizement, as it is with many composers, or of lazy mannerism, as it is with even more, but rather a key aspect of Persichetti's remarkable compositional methodology, in which cross-references among works create a whole subtext of interrelationships--a complex subject worthy of an entire doctoral dissertation. (In fact, most of the twenty-five Parables are commentaries on his previous compositions.) The English horn concerto reworks material that appeared earlier in two of Persichetti's most important compositions, the Symphony No. 5 for strings (a masterpiece that may be heard on New World 80370-2) and The Creation (a large oratorio as-yet-unrecorded). However, as much as I love Persichetti's music--and I do believe he is one of America's greatest--I continue to find this a disappointingly pale and anemic work. Indeed--blashemphy though it may be--it is the least interesting piece on the disc.

The Rorem concerto was only just completed a couple of years ago and is temperamentally a far cry from the Persichetti. While the latter is austere, inward, and reflective, Rorem's five-moment work has lots of surface appeal. The languorous sensuality of the opening movement immediately calls Samuel Barber to mind, as his later works--Essay No. 3, Fadograph of a Yestern Scene, for example--evoke a very similar sensibility--one that reappears throughout Rorem's concerto. This deliciously rich, sultry quality is offset by more lithe, active sections, orchestrated with bright splashes of color. On the whole, it is a pleasantly entertaining work, but suggests little beneath the surface, and is not as tightly focused structurally and expressively as Barber's music always is. This diffuseness may tend to cause one's attention to wander.

The Edge of the Olde One, by Canadian composer Sydney Hodkinson, was written the same year as the Persichetti, and exemplifies the sort of music considered fashionably avant-garde during the late 1970s--consistently atonal, with "expanded" instrumental techniques (such as multiphonics), electronic manipulations, and so forth. Regular readers know that I am no fan of this sort of stuff, but I must say--as I said back in 1979--"Hodkinson has created an intensely captivating and fascinating odyssey in sound--a true psychedelic experience, in the best sense of the word . . . [and] a coherent large-scale structure, exciting and satisfying as an integrated piece of art." The work was inspired by the ramblings of the English Romantic poet John Clare, who had been declared insane at the time. According to Hodkinson, it is "an elaborate journey of the mind, a trip: often meandering, thorny and dense, that threads itself vaguely across the subconscious: . . . It is not unlike the eyes (of the lunatic?), constantly darting from image to cloudy image, from insanity to a super-saneness." This is the sort of music that brought a fleeting prominence to such figures as Jacob Druckman. However, from today's standpoint, the music that Druckman composed at that time seems important chiefly as a rejection of sterile, artistically irrelevant academic abstractedness, rather than as a satisfying alternative. By contrast, the vividness, intensity, and structural coherence of Hodkinson's work continue to compel attention.

* * *

The Klavier disc offers another installment in the valuable series of recordings featuring the Cincinnati College-Conservatory Wind Symphony under the direction of its ambitious conductor Eugene Corporon. With Persichetti's Symphony No. 6, we are addressing what is the sine qua non, the ne plus ultra of mid-century American band symphonies--and that was a period that saw a veritable flood of such works. As I have said many times before, Persichetti's Sixth is neoclassicism's answer to Mozart's "Jupiter" Symphony--and in a mere sixteen minutes! What more need be said? Just that it has been recorded twice by Frederick Fennell, who, of course, was the conductor ne plus ultra of mid-century American art music for band--once in 1959 (three years after it was written) with the Eastman Wind Ensemble (available on Mercury 432 754-2), then again in 1989 with the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra (Kosei KOCD-3101). Both performances are brilliant--similarly so--in conception, stupendous in execution, and breathtakingly recorded. This Cincinnati/Corporon performance is also excellent--very polished and meticulous, as are all the performances on this disc--but rather lacking in excitement. The first-movement Allegro is too relaxed and passive (sounds like the way today's orchestras play the standard repertoire--embalmed); the poignant second movement lacks warmth and sensitivity; the third movement is too rushed; the fourth movement is fine. The sonic ambience has a dry deadness that I have noticed on other recordings in this series.

Both Edward Gregson and Nicholas Maw are English, but their pieces, written in 1990 and 1991, respectively, have a decidedly American flavor, at least to my American-oriented ears (the Maw is, of course, overtly American in concept), although neither uses vernacular materials. Actually, what they sound like is the sort of band music composed by the ream by American neo-classicists during the 1960s--a bracing and breezy Stravinsky-Hindemith-Bartók conflation with nifty syncopations, but with Persichetti's distinctive personal characteristics. The Gregson is a short concert-opener, while the Maw is a full twenty-two minutes, but neither leaves a strong impression.

Arnold Schoenberg's Theme and Variations is an international band classic. Listeners who are not familiar with it may be surprised that this clearly tonal composition from 1943 displays neither the torrid hyper-romanticism of the composer's early work nor the congested, unrelieved angst of the later twelve-tone pieces. Rather, it conjures something of a wry, impish solemnity that suggests Kurt Weill tempered by Hindemith, and illuminates an important, but less familiar, facet of Schoenberg's compositional personality.

Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue is offered in Ferde Grofé's original jazz-band orchestration. William Black is a fine pianist, but both he and the ensemble approach this chestnut with a gentility that I find too relaxed and polished (though they are far from unique in this misconception). Recordings made under Gershwin's direct supervision exhibit a rough-hewn feistiness that seems to have disappeared from the performance tradition of this pops favorite.

Walter Simmons

PINKHAM: Serenades for Solo Trumpet and Wind Ensemble¹. Symphonies: No. 3; No. 4. Sonata No. 3 for Organ and Strings². James Sedares conducting the London Symphony Orchestra; with Maurice Murphy, trumpet¹; James David Christie, organ². KOCH INTERNATIONAL 3-7179-2H1 [DDD]; 48:55. Produced by Michael Fine.

As one of the country's premier composers of organ and classical music, Daniel Pinkham (b. 1923) has lately been in danger of being taken for granted, particularly as regards large-scale orchestral music. As this excellent follow-up to Koch International's recent collection of his chamber music makes clear, Pinkham has been quite productive in this area over the past decade or so.

When he made his first appearance as a composer during the 1950s with spiky, effervescent concertante works involving organ, harpsichord, and strings, Pinkham was still correctly seen as a neo-Baroque figure continuing the Boston Brahmin tradition into the twentieth-century mainstream. Although there has been little doubt that Stravinsky's neo-classicism is--as in the case of Ingolf Dahl (reviewed by this writer elsewhere in this issue)--a primary determining influence Pinkham's choice of idiom and forms, over the years his language has broadened to encompass a much more varied and communicative range of expression.

Does any composer of his generation carry a more inclusive and imposing set of credentials? Piston, Copland, Honegger, Barber, Boulanger, Biggs, Landowska--all these musical household names figure among his teachers and mentors. And yet Pinkham's work has a genuine modesty and sense of proportion about it which is never less than fully professional. Another distinguishing trait of his music is its exceptional compactness and pithiness, which all four works on this release illustrate to perfection.

Even though the Third Symphony of 1985 is only thirteen and a half minutes long, at the conclusion of its four carefully crafted and joined sections, one feels one has had an aural experience of considerable depth and complexity. Both the relatively brief "Gently Lyrical" and "Fast and impudent" movements build toward the work's climactic core--the movingly labile "Lament With Interludes," which is capped by a forty-five-second "Epilogue."

The Fourth Symphony of 1990 is even more streamlined at slightly under twelve minutes, yet its three fancifully and alliteratively titled movements--" Purling," "Pining," and "Prancing"--provide solid musical shape and substance. For both of these symphonies, Pinkham uses a relatively modest ensemble--a kind of augmented chamber orchestra--with consummate ease and imagination so that the medium and the content are beautifully suited and proportioned to each other.

The somewhat more aloof Serenades (note the plural) is a succession of jaunty allegros of a sportive character in which the soloist updates Haydn in the spirit of Rossini, while the fleet Sonata No. 3 for Organ and Strings of 1987 is probably the driest work here, with its smoothly functional Hindemithian counterpoint.

All in all, this collection shows Pinkham still fruitfully evolving toward an expressive eclecticism fusing the rigors of classical forms with Pistonian punch and Barberian lyricism to create a valid and welcome middle ground between tradition and innovation. And Sedares continues to display his increasing mastery of a wide variety of idioms with these impeccable and engagingly sympathetic readings.

Chalk up another successful chapter in the survey of twentieth-century Americana the team of producer Michael Fine and conductor Sedares are putting together for Koch. A basic addition to any library of our native music.

Paul A. Snook

* * *

Daniel Pinkham (b. 1923) studied composition with Piston, Copland, Barber, and of course with Nadia Boulanger. Carrying on the two-century traditions of the New England School, Pinkham is a conservative composer in the Piston mold; his compositions show a similar ease and expertise with technique and are written in a comparably classic style, while admitting some more modern harmonies. The 1980 Serenades are three happy movements; the finale has a jaunty insouciance that is almost French. The trumpeter gets a workout, and Maurice Murphy delivers precise playing in silvery tones.

In the one-movement Third Symphony, from 1985, titles of its four sections do not tell all. Gently Lyrical is dark and deep; Fast and Impudent is no scherzo but an intense accumulation of crashing power. Lament with Interludes is as long as the other three; the interludes are varied but fail to relieve the general angst. A brief Epilogue sums up, intensifies, and completes. One hears Barber in this fine symphony; Pinkham has packed much emotion and musical energy into its fourteen minutes. Apparent contradictions suggest that this expertly played performance stresses drama at the expense of humor. Listeners are warned that the entry point for track five (the second movement) comes about fifteen seconds too late.

The Fourth Symphony (1990) has much of the same dramatic posture but is coated with a smoother surface; despite repeated hearings, it makes less of an impression than the Third. The 1987 Organ sonata was written for church performance with a string quartet. The expansion to full string section does not violate the work's basically intimate character; it remains a concertante piece but avoids the virtuosic solo aspects of a concerto. All these performances are expert, and Koch's recordings are clear and open, although never rising to sonic glory. In conjunction with an earlier Koch release of Pinkham's choral and chamber music (Fanfare 17:2), this disc provides a welcome portrait of a fine composer.

James H. North

AMERICAN VARIATIONS. Eugene Corporon conducting the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Wind Symphony; Brian Bowman, euphonium¹. KLAVIER KCD-11060 [DDD]; 75:41. (Distributed by Albany.)

GOULD: American Salute (arr. Lang) TICHELI: Amazing Grace. CLARKE: Carnival of Venice¹. IVES: Variations on "America" (arr. Rhoads). PICCHI. Fantaisie Original (arr. Mantia)¹. ROMBERG: Serenade from The Student Prince (arr. Godfrey)¹. BENNETT: Suite of Old American Dances. GOLDMAN: Scherzo¹. BELLSTEDT: Napoli Variations (arr. Simon)¹. REEVES: "Yankee Doodle" Fantasy Humoresque (arr. Brion). ROGERS: The Volunteer¹. SIMON: March of the Majorettes.

Klavier's series with the Cincinnati Wind Symphony continues apace with the release of American Variations. How much longer the series will continue, though, is in question. I read recently on the Internet that Corporon is leaving his Cincinnati post for another college. It would be ideal for all fans of band music if his replacement were to continue this series with the Cincinnati players and if Corporon were to start a competing series at his new school. But enough dreaming about the future; on with the present--at this writing, at least.

American Variations gets off to a bracing start with an oft-performed transcription of Morton Gould's American Salute, variations on the folk song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." Considering the popularity of the work in concert, it's remarkable that there aren't more commercial recordings of the band arrangement. This zippy performance by Corporon's forces, brass players at the fore, compares favorably with my favorite orchestral version by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops on an RCA Papillon disc, plenty of drive and dynamic shading.

Frank Ticheli's 1994 setting of "Amazing Grace"--commissioned by Michigan State University band director John Whitwell in memory of his father--pushes all the right emotional buttons. The five-minute work begins with a plaintive saxophone solo and slowly develops and builds to a lush climax before quietly fading away. Although Corporon's forces don't quite push the envelope during the big statement as it seems they should, Amazing Grace remains hauntingly effective nonetheless

Charles Ives's Variations on "America," in an arrangement that's faithful to William Schuman's orchestral transcription, comes across rather dry here. All the notes and dynamics are faithfully represented, but this performance lacks bite. Far what it's worth, though, I must say that I've never been endeared to the work, which surely has some effect on my impression.

Robert Russell Bennett's Suite of Old American Dances, however, comes off smashingly. This is the best performance I've heard since Frederick Fennell's historic mono recording with the Eastman Wind Ensemble for their first Mercury LP, American Concert Band Masterpieces.

Frank Simon (1889-1967), the dedicatee of this program, founded the band and instrumental music department at the Cincinnati Conservatory in 1934. His March of the Majorettes of 1947 was originally called Camp Hook March after Charles Hook, the president of American Rolling Mill Company, whose band Simon founded and conducted, but the title was changed after the composer and executive had a falling-out. Unlike David Wallis Reeves's "spectacular showpiece" of 1878, "Yankee Doodle" Fantasie Humoresque, the march is basic band fare, but Corporon pulls it off with aplomb.

Euphonium soloist Brian Bowman, who performs regularly with wind ensembles in the United States and around the world, appears on six of the sixteen works on this disc. His nimble-fingered, lightning-tongued performance of Herbert L. Clarke's arrangement of The Carnival of Venice, a standard for hotshot soloists, will have you running out of your listening room to find anyone nearby to hear it. If Bowman's normally liquid-smooth tone becomes a bit airy and pinched in the upper range during the ending pyrotechnics, we can certainly forgive such an overall small shortcoming in the interest of witnessing such a feat. It's when the same undesirable qualities pop up in similar passages in the Napoli Variations and Fantaisie Original that they become more difficult to overlook. This is only a problem because of questionable programming. With three works that use variations on an Italian melody as their theme, this program has two too many (on a disc titled American Variations, no less)--all basically similar in form and the demands that they place on the soloist. I enjoy amply filled discs as much as any other serious collector, but this program could have lost thirteen minutes of redundant material and still have been more than an hour in length. Leaving Carnival of Venice and Edwin Franko Goldman's Scherzo as the sole displays of Bowman's technical prowess would have been more effective. On the less technical side, the simply arranged Serenade from The Student Prince and Walter Rogers's patriotic salute, The Volunteer, allow Bowman to show off his expressionism to good form. The band provides model accompaniment at every opportunity.

Klavier's notes, as usual, are exemplary in presentation, always attractively laid out and dressed-up with well-placed photos and graphics. But Thomas Stone's writing focuses too much on the composers and glosses over the compositions at hand, his write-up on Suite of Old American Dances and arranger Keith Brion's own notes for the "Yankee Doodle" Fantasie Humoresque being the exceptions.

Even accounting for my few quibbles and my apathy toward Ives's variations, American Variations still merits a recommendation of patriotic proportions.

Randy A. Salas

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Fanfare Reviews from September/October 1995

Fanfare Reviews
from September/October 1995