Three or four months ago someone asked about the music of Carter Pann, who
was slated back then to have some music recorded and released by Naxos.
Here's some information about the man and the music on the new CD.

Carter Pann is a hugely talented 28-year-old composer, student of, among
others, William Albright and William Bolcom at the University of Michigan.
A CD of his music, conducted by Jose Serebrier and stupendously played by
the Czech State Philharmonic, Brno, on Naxos 8.559043, has just been
released.  It includes:

Piano Concerto (1996/7), played by Barry Snyder, piano
Deux sejours (1994)
Dance Partita (1995), Barry Snyder, piano obbligato
Two Portraits of Barcelona (1994)

The overall comment I would make about Pann's music is that he is a master
orchestrator, a brilliant pasticheur, a sly practitioner of musical humor,
and that he is capable of some of the most lusciously melodic and moving
slow music.

The piano concerto has five movements.  The first, entitled Pina
Colada (yes, inspired by that silly pop song of some years ago), is a
loose-jointed Caribbean-influenced piece that reminds me a lot of Michael
Torke in his 'Javelin' mode.  The second, Nocturne, is quiet, slow,
Debussyesque.  The third, Your Touch, is for solo piano and sounds an
awful lot like jazz pianist Denny Zeitlin's smoky classic 'Quiet Now.' This
is a high recommendation; it's got a gorgeous tune and luscious harmonies.
The fourth, Blues, sounds like updated jazzy Bernstein in its dislocated
accents, stride bass, throwaway virtuosity.  The fifth, Concert, is a
hilarious knockoff of just about every classical concerto cliche and even
quotes, almost note for note, a bridge passage from Beethoven's Emperor
Concerto, before exploding into one of those hilarious never-ending classic
tonic-dominant endings.  I found myself laughing out loud.

Deux sejours (Two journeys) are evocations of two small towns - one in
France, one in Italy - and are intentionally modeled on the orchestrations
by Debussy of Satie's 'Gymnopedies'.  Quiet gardens, civility, serenity,
lovely melodies.

Dance Partita is an eight-movement (actually four movements and four
ritornellos) orchestral suite, with piano obbligato, based on baroque
models.  Stravinsky in his neoclassic music - think Jeux de cartes or,
better, Pulcinella - comes to mind.  Also Bolcom's 'Orphee-Serenade' (an
under-recognized masterpiece) is evoked.  Brilliantly done.  One's toe
taps until tripped up by the irregular time signatures.  Delicious.

Two Portraits of Barcelona.  The first, 'Antoni Gaudi's Cathedral' is a
six minute tone-poem that builds from a mysterious opening, evoking the
religious grandeur of the Cathedral, to a wicked Rouse-ian description
of Gaudi's wild architecture.  The second, 'The Bullfight', starts with
mock-heroic Spanish bullfight music, complete with trumpet duo flourishes,
and builds to a frenetic danza, ending the CD with high spirits and this
listener with a desire for more.  Ole!

Lest it sound like I think Pann has no 'sound' of his own, I want to
emphasize that this man has the goods and is discovering a voice that
I predict will be increasingly listened to.

Scott Morrison