Dan LOCKLAIR (b. 1949)
Symphony No. 2, ‘America’, (2016) [24.46]
Hail the Coming Day (A Festive Piece for Orchestra) (2013) [5.31]
Concerto for Organ and Orchestra (2010) [22.19]
PHOENIX for orchestra (2007) [10.10]
Peter Mikula (organ)
Slovak National Symphony Orchestra/Kirk Trevor, Michael Roháč
rec. 2018, Concert Hall of Slovak Radio, Bratislava, Slovakia
NAXOS 8.559860 [63.03]
One of the oddities of a certain type of midrange restaurant – along with, ‘Is everything fine with you guys?’, carefully timed to match the moment when all mouths are full – is the habit of accompanying the service of a plate with a peremptory ‘Enjoy!’. It is not clear whether this is a recommendation, a polite wish, a command, a pious hope or simply a way of saying ‘Here’s your nosebag.’ But, for all that, the simplest thing I can say about this Locklair compendium is ‘Enjoy!’.
Locklair is very popular in the USA and beyond, and it is very easy to see why. His musical language is straightforward, approachable, steeped in the traditions of popular Copland, the first three symphonies of Ives, Harris and others. This is music to be readily appreciated – and none the worse for that. Great sculpture can be made from straight-grained word – it doesn’t need to be gnarled and knotty. Sometimes we are raised up by our intensive concentration on the gnarled masterpiece, but that does not deprive the straightforward of its significance. Otto Klemperer remarks in Minor Recollections that there is no real distinction between light and serious music, only between good and bad. And Locklair is very good indeed – and far from shallow.
The recent Symphony No.2, America, is a three movement ‘Holidays Symphony’, a celebration of, respectively, Independence Day, Memorial Day and Thanksgiving Day. Where Ives concentrates on an impression of the events, Locklair’s focus is on a musical exposition appropriate to each, interweaving different hymns and dongs. Deeply moving is the use of Taps, heard in full – played by an off-stage trumpet – in the second movement, but heard in brief in both the other two. After all, each such festival is inevitably touched by thoughts of those who have died. In the use of direct themes, I found myself reminded of William Levi Dawson’s powerful and lovely, but rarely played, Negro Folk Symphony. A slight distraction for the British listener is that one tune in the first movement is oddly reminiscent of the Blackadder theme. This large orchestra work nevertheless hold the attention.
PHOENIX also has an off-stage brass ensemble exactly matching the on-stage section. Dialogue between the two is a major part of the work, which overall has an extraordinary majesty as it unfolds.
Perhaps the most impressive piece is the three-movement Concerto for Organ and Orchestra. Its heart is the central movement, built of the triad G-B-D, and sometimes reversed as D-B-G. The title is Canto (to God and dog). No irreverence is intended, but rather a sense of devotion to God and love of the composer’s sheepdog, Riley, then very close to death. The entire piece draws on both modern and ancient sources, with the organ sometimes stern accompaniment but at other times dancelike. In the first movement there is the stateliness as well as dancing energy, and the finale, a toccata, is developed into an exciting and energetic conclusion. The whole deserves a place in the regular repertoire of organ concertos, and is beautiful indeed with further subtleties discovered on each hearing.
Recording quality is very good throughout, and performances both pleasing and detailed. Lovely stuff!
Michael Wilkinson
Previous review: Jim Westhead
