UHF No 70 (Net).indd - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

Software
Bells for Stokowski
Junkin & Univ. of Texas Wind Ens.
Reference Recordings RR-104CD
Rejskind: The title puzzled me right off.
Famed conductor Leopold Stokowski
has been dead for nearly 30 years, even
though he lives on through his countless
recordings. Actually the album
title is drawn from its fi nal piece, that
of Michael Daugherty. Daugherty’s
forte is commissioned music suites. He
has written evocative music in praise
of Baltimore, Detroit, Los Angeles,
and even places that don’t exist, such as
Superman’s home town of Metropolis.
The subject in this case is Philadelphia,
and it is one of three commissioned
pieces in honor of that city.
It’s got bells, as the title promises:
two large bells on either side of the stage,
plus a variety of other bells and bell-like
percussion instruments. The result is
most attractive and even refreshing,
but…why?
Daugherty explains that he has imagined
Stokowski — one-time conductor
of the Philadelphia Orchestra as of so
many others — “visiting the Liberty
Bell at sunrise, and listening to all the
bells of the city resonate.” He includes
various bell sounds throughout the
piece, including occasional tolling by
the two big bells, and his multilayered
orchestration is also meant to evoke the
variety of music Stokowski conducted,
from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier and
Goldberg Variations (which he quotes) to
20th Bells for Stokowski
Junkin & Univ. of Texas Wind Ens.
Reference Recordings RR-104CD
Rejskind: The title puzzled me right off.
Famed conductor Leopold Stokowski
has been dead for nearly 30 years, even
though he lives on through his countless
recordings. Actually the album
title is drawn from its fi nal piece, that
of Michael Daugherty. Daugherty’s
forte is commissioned music suites. He
Century atonal music, and ending
with a full-orchestra roar Stokowski
loved. I do think Stokowski would have
enjoyed conducting this.
The other works are unrelated. They
include an English folk song suite by
64 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
Ralph Vaughan Williams. It seems odd
to hear his music played by a wind band,
since he himself very much favored lush
strings, but this suite really was composed
for band. I have reservations about
his rather amorphous, rambling music,
but he had a talent for arranging good
melodies in a new setting: his Fantasia
on Greensleeves remains, deservedly, his
best-known work. Vaughan Williams
collected many folk songs to keep them
from being forgotten, and this suite
contains several.
The first and third selections are
surprisingly bold and brassy. The middle
one, an arrangement of My Bonny Boy, is
quieter, more introspective, but with a
strong architecture.
Most unusual is a suite of old music
from 16th best-known work. Vaughan Williams
collected many folk songs to keep them
from being forgotten, and this suite
contains several.
The first and third selections are
surprisingly bold and brassy. The middle
one, an arrangement of My Bonny Boy, is
quieter, more introspective, but with a
strong architecture.
Most unusual is a suite of old music
from 16 Century Belgian composer
Tielman Susato. I had never heard of
him, nor have most people. One of
his few pieces that have survived is a
collection of songs and dances called
th Century Belgian composer
Tielman Susato. I had never heard of
him, nor have most people. One of
his few pieces that have survived is a
collection of songs and dances called
Your source for Klavier and Analekta
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The Danserye, originally composed for
the instruments of the time —sackbut,
krumhorn and the like — and adapted
for modern wind band by Patrick Dunnigan.
Jerry Junkin’s excellent University
of Texas Wind Ensemble is much larger
than any orchestra of fi ve centuries ago
would have been, with the result that, not
withstanding the period dance rhythms,
with their symmetrical development and
characteristic repetitions, the suite has
a decidedly modern sound. This is by
no means a bad thing, and I enjoyed it
immensely.
The collection, finally, includes a
highly contemporary work by David Del
Tredici, titled In Wartime. Del Tredici
completed it while he sat in front of the
TV, watching the US “shock and awe”
invasion of Iraq. Many composers have
written music on the theme of war. It is
generally joyous and bombastic if it is
written early in the war, sad and tragic
if written after. This piece was written
before, but was fi nished in front of the
TV images. Would Del Tredici have a
point of view?
In Wartime begins with a hymn,
the part most war requiems end with.
It then continues with a Battlemarch,
well-crafted but whose sense I strove
to discern. Perhaps the war is still too
close, and I was working too hard to
make intellectual sense of it, though I
was somewhat shaken by the ending,
whose sound suggests an air raid siren.
I wondered whether Del Tredici will
ultimately feel compelled to add a third
movement to his suite. It is too soon to
guess what its title will be.
The sound, as usual with this company,
was done by Keith O. Johnson,
and is mostly outstanding, but for some
rather shrill peaks on trumpets and
fl utes. It sounds especially good if you
have a player with an HDCD decoder.
Proper decoding adds explosive dynamics,
a bottom end that borders on scary
and great depth to what is already a
pretty good recording.
Celebration
Les violons du roy/Gauvin/Roschmann
Dorian DOR-90024
Lessard: The reputation of this ensemble
long ago overfl owed local frontiers
to emerge in only a few years as one of
the world’s most appreciated chamber
orchestras. Its founder and conductor
has found a way to be respected rather
than feared. Much as he is appreciated by
the public, he shows surprising modesty
before the ovations at his concerts. As for
the 15 musicians he leads, they are virtuosos
of their respective instruments.
Bernard Labadie has a particular
penchant for Handel, Bach, Vivaldi and
Mozart. Handel’s Concerto Grosso op. 6
No. 5 in D Major opens this 78 minute
CD of musical and auditory joy.
The Allegro assai from the Sinfonia in
D Major is from J.C.F. Bach, possibly the
least-known member of the celebrated
dynasty, though that should not be
taken to imply a lack of talent. In fact his
output, nearly all composed at the court