Samuel Adler

*  Five Sephardic Choruses
*  Nuptial Scene
*  The Binding (excerpt)
*  El Melekh Yoshev
*  Ahavat Olam
*  Sim Shalom
*  Bar'khu
*  Sh'ma Yisra'el
*  V'ahavta and Mi Khamokha
*  Hashkivenu
*  Symphony No. 5 "We Are the Echoes"

Phyllis Bryn-Julson, soprano; Mary Ellen Callahan, soprano; Helen
Kruszewski, soprano; Freda Herseth, soprano; Margaret Bishop Kohler, mezzo;
Heather Johnson, mezzo; Roslyn Jhunever Barak, cantor; Richard Botton,
cantor; Alberto Mizrahi, cantor; Matthew Kirchner, tenor; Joseph Evans,
tenor; Gideon Dabi, tenor; Ted Christopher, baritone; Raphael Frieder,
baritone; Barbara Harbach, organ; Rutgers Kirkpatrick Choir/Patrick Gardner;
Eastman Players, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Singers,
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin/Samuel Adler
Naxos 8.559415 Total time: 70:39

Summary for the Busy Executive: Some good, some not so good.

Born in Germany, Samuel (born "Hans") Adler fled with his family in 1938
to the U.S. His father was a cantor, as was Kurt Weill's.  Adler studied
with Copland and Piston, among others.  Although he has work in all
genres, he has written an extensive body of liturgical work and of work
inspired by Jewish themes.  In fact, my home temple commissioned a service
from him.  Since I hadn't been inside the place for at least ten years
before the premiere or since, I missed it.  Anyway, My Brush with
Greatness.

Although not exactly a household name, Adler has enjoyed a very active
career, with steady commissions from first-rank groups.  His energy is
prodigious.  He has started and run musical programs and ensembles,
written books and articles, and taught throughout his professional life.
His musical idiom ranges from neoclassic tonal to dodecaphonic.  He does
have a good sense of occasion, as shown by the fact that the music for
liturgical use is singable, even hummable.  He reserves the knottier
stuff for professional executants.

The program breaks that way here.  I admit I preferred the liturgical
music and the Five Sephardic Choruses above the rest.  I also enjoyed
Nuptial Scene -- a kind of psychological monologue of a mother giving
her daughter advice on the occasion of her wedding -- but it's not the
sort of thing you go out humming, exactly.  Nevertheless, it's very
acute; the music captures a wide and subtle range of mood.

The excerpt from The Binding (about Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac)
and the symphony, the most ambitious items on the program, seem to
me to suffer from the same problems.  I can't call either one of them
badly-written, but that's the best I can say.  The Binding suffers from
a kind of "facelessness." I can't distinguish it from the music of a lot
of other people -- a generic International Beige piece.  The symphony I
like a little better.  It's a work that wants to understand the ways of
God toward the Jews.  If God exists, why have the Jews suffered?  The
texts are mainly very well selected.  I particularly admired Adler's
choice of a poem by Muriel Rukeyser.  However, the "vocal symphony" is
a difficult genre to bring off in general.  In this case, I found myself
far more interested in the instrumental sections than in the vocal ones.
The instrumental sections make the strongest lasting impact.  Indeed,
the vocal parts seemed to get in the way of whatever musical momentum
Adler had generated.  Furthermore, the music isn't particularly melodically
memorable, death in a vocal work.  The singer seems to jump around like
a butterpat on a hot skillet, to very little purpose other than to get
through the text.  Adler seems to resort to all-recitative, all the time.
I don't blame the problem on dodecaphony, since I've heard impressive,
even hummable twelve-tone vocal music.  Here, however, the singer just
meanders.

Adler can't blame his executants, all of whom do excellent work.  Soprano
Phyllis Bryn-Julson heroically negotiates the symphony with grace and
style.  Cantor Rosalyn Jhunever Barak has an exquisite voice and, unlike
many cantors, knows how to use it without hoking it up.  Mezzo Margaret
Bishop Kohler delivers a penetrating performance in Nuptial Scene.  The
choruses -- the Rutgers Kirkpatrick Choir and the Rochester Singers --
go beyond technique and sing with insight.  Adler himself acts as his
own persuasive advocate with a variety of groups.  Based on this CD,
he's a more than competent conductor.

The sound is fine, but not spectacular.

Steve Schwartz