RAINBOW BODY

Christopher Theofanidis: Rainbow Body [12:56]
Samuel Barber: Symphony No. 1, Op. 9 [20:13]
Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring [23:20]
Jennifer Higdon: Blue Cathedral [12:19]

Robert Spano, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Telarc CD-80596 [TT 69:06]

This is a must-have recording for anyone who cares about the state of
music today, or about the survival and vitality of classical music, or
simply about the continuity of the mainstream of orchestral composition
and performance.  With all the ominous reports about the shrinking of
orchestral audiences and budgets (in the U.S.) there is encouragingly
more creativity among classical composers recently than is easy to keep
up with, and the two recent works on this recording have both caught me
by surprise and aroused my enthusiasm.  No doubt I just don't read the
right (trade) publications, or maybe live in the right city, but, until
recently, I had never heard of Jennifer Higdon or Christopher Theofanidis,
even though both are quite accomplished.  (Just check Google or LexisNexis.)

Theofanidis, on the composition faculty at Peabody Conservatory for the
past three years--previously at Julliard and elsewhere--has had numerous
important commissions and major awards.  Still, I am sorry to say, this
recording is the first time I have so much come across his name.

Higdon's name had in fact come to my attention recently, because Andreas
Delfs is opening the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra season next month with
her Concerto for Orchestra, which I am eagerly looking forward to hearing,
and because Wisconsin Public Radio very recently made this recording its
"CD of the week." (NPR did a special on it, which I missed at the time,
July 8, but it can still be heard at npr.org.) I did happen to be tuned
in when WPR broadcast Higdon's Blue Cathedral and I immediately ordered
it from Telarc's website.  Higdon writes so brilliantly for orchestra
in this twelve minute piece that I cannot even imagine what she does in
the Concerto for Orchestra, a much more substantial work, premiered to
great acclaim by Sawallisch in Philadelphia last year, luckily for her
at just the time and place where the American Symphony Orchestra League
was meeting.  Spano, whose recording of that is to be released next year,
just played it at Tanglewood.  Higdon now has enough commissions, including
an Oboe Concerto for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra--also now headed
by Andreas Delfs--and, with any luck, we may see a recording of that.

But to get back to the recording at hand, I am going to discuss the works
and performances in the order Telarc gave them, because that arrangement
seems particularly apt.

Rainbow Body, the title of which, the composer says, makes reference to
positive energy in the concept of Buddhist enlightenment, is avowedly
built around fragments of a melody from one of the "sensual and intimate"
chants by Hildegard von Bingen.  Theofanidis does a great deal with this
material.  The work strikes me as an ideal concert opener--or finale,
for that matter.  It is the length of a substantial overture (nearly 13
minutes); it got my favorable attention at once with a solo by the bass
clarinet, one of my favorite instruments; and it works up to a thunderous
conclusion.  Before letting his main melody flow, to a quiet shimmering
accompaniment, and with a deliciously unexpected momentary downturn,
Theofanidis offers some striking figures and phrases on very low to high
solo strings, also to a pianissimo shimmer.  About a third of the way
through, there is an outburst and the music becomes fierce and percussive
(and momentarily a tad cinematic, which I confess I found offputting at
first--let's just say he briefly pulls out all the stops).  When the
broad flowing melody is allowed to return, that is eventually interrupted
with a striking--and loud--five note figure for muted brass.  A quieter
phrase then sounds almost as if it were repeatedly asking a question,
before the final upbeat conclusion with un-muted brass over a pounding
accompaniment and a final thump.

The Barber and Copland surely do not require a description, as they
are well-established in the repertoire, if less well than I would prefer
in the case of the Barber.  I became acquainted with both these works
when I was young, and have loved them since.  The symphony is one I
admire enormously.  It was of interest to me that, in comparing recorded
performances of these works, I was able to hear the very intense Barber
repeatedly without fatigue, but I could not listen to the much more
relaxed Copland twice in succession.

That said, I think that Spano's performance of each of these works
compares quite favorably to other performances I have heard.  In the
case of the Barber it comes closest, in timing and intensity, to Howard
Hanson's old recording--remarkably good for its time--on Mercury.  Slatkin
and Jarvi are significantly slower, especially in the first half of this
single movement piece.  Although generally labeled neo-romantic, parts
of this symphony exhibit a downright Stravinskian savagery, and Spano
brings that out.  In the ravishingly exquisite slow section with the
oboe solo, Spano does not withhold the full lush lyricism--which is
indeed romantic--but then builds the returning tension with admirable
control; and the subsequent section with the rapid-fire trumpet notes
is the fastest I have heard.  This ability to relax as well as push tempi
as appropriate is something I particularly respect in a performing
musician.  (The younger Bernstein had this ability to an extraordinary
degree and I think this was the secret of the success of Van Cliburn in
theat famous competition and subsequent recording.)

Spano's recording of Appalachian Spring also stands up well to the
fine performances of both Bernstein and Copland himself.  The pace is
satisfyingly broad in the slower parts, but a bit less leisurely than
the comparisons--though never rushed.  There is a nice strut to the
accompaniment of the "Gift to be Simple" passage that I have not heard
before.  By the way, this recording was made possible in part by a grant
from the Aaron Copland Fund for Performing Ensembles.

Blue Cathedral was commissioned by Curtis--where Higdon teaches--for
its 75th anniversary, and was completed in memory of Higdon's younger
brother, whose name was Andrew Blue.  Jennifer Higdon describes the
visual associations the music has for her, but as I almost never have
visual associations to music myself--and the one that does come to mind,
in connection with another piece, is morbid--which this music certainly
is not--I cannot follow her there.

Coming after the Copland on this recording, the placement allows the
listener to note, in a Coplandesque flowing melody, a gesture to one of
the musical influences Higdon acknowledges.  Among other influences, she
credits the Beatles for her sense of rhythm.  She studied with George
Crumb.  But this work as a whole is new and fresh.  For whatever it is
worth, Ned Rorem considers her one of the best composers in America.

Blue Cathedral begins and ends quietly, with soft tinkling percussion,
with ethereal effect.  After I strained to identify all the percussion
instruments in this piece I learned that they include about 50 Chinese
metal balls containing chimes which Higdon lends for performances, so
I am glad I did not stick my neck out.  There are some exceptionally
satisfying woodwind passages; Higdon is a flautist.  When the climaxes
get loud, vigorous, fast and thrilling, the strings play strikingly
against the brass, and the brass against the percussion.  And this is
not to mention how she uses the harp...  A wonderful piece.

Inevitably, the term "conservative" tends to come up in connection
with all of these pieces.  Richard Dyer, in the Boston Globe said --of
Higdon's Concerto for Orchestra--that it could have been composed in the
1940's by Schuman or Piston.  If its movement for percussion is anything
like Blue Cathedral, I doubt that very much.  (And as for Piston being
conservative, someone I thought highly of otherwise, during Piston's
lifetime, made a point of pronouncing that composer's name with a strong,
rude emphasis on the first syllable.) Bernard Holland, in The New York
Times, confessed himself embarrassed by the end of the Theofanidis when
he heard it in Atlanta.  That is his problem.  I think this music is
both good and exciting.  There is much in these new pieces that is fresh
and inventive.  Audiences reportedly have found them sensational.  That
is important.  Orchestral music simply has to appeal to large audiences
if it is going to survive.  (Chamber music can take care of itself.) If
that is acceptance of a degree of conservatism, so be it.

Jim Tobin