Anyone who read my previous review
of Harbach’s chamber music will know that I am a fan. All I need
say is that this disk is well worth having for, if anything, it’s
even better and more interesting than the previous disk. So if
you’re with me, you can stop reading now and rush to your local
record shop and buy an hour’s–worth of the most glorious music
you’ll hear this year. If, on the other hand, you still need convincing,
or missed the earlier review, stay with me, then rush to
your local record shop.
Harbach
is a fine young American composer, organist and harpsichordist
who has an impressive list of works to her credit, has presented
a TV show, Palouse Performance – seen throughout the inland
Northwest - and is currently professor
of music at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.
Her
music is tuneful, grateful to play and a joy to listen to. I
described the music on the earlier CD as ”white note” music,
implying a new simplicity, and it celebrates the great American
outdoors. The works recorded here, as befits compositions for
orchestra, use larger thoughts and gestures than the chamber
works, but her country is never far from her feelings. Take
Frontier Fancies, for instance. Although there are no
direct quotations from folk music this really is a folk-inspired
piece. It’s the kind of thing that Mark O’Conner has been doing
for years but, fortunately, doesn’t suffer from his overwriting
and outstaying his welcome. In fact one of Harbach’s major attributes
is that she never outstays her welcome, one is always wanting
more when each work ends. This is a very good thing. So whilst
Frontier Fancies “…showcases the interaction between
the violin and orchestra…” as the notes tell us, what we have
is a gorgeous little suite of three movements which have the
feel of the frontier and the cowboy life of the Red Pony,
not the Josey Wales, lifestyle. The slow, middle, movement is
especially lovely, filled with nostalgia.
Arcadian
Reverie, for strings alone, could
almost be called an American Tallis Fantasia, so beautiful
is the string writing. Rhapsody Jardine is half pastorale,
half jig. The oboe is totally at home in this rustic landscape
and the writing is perfectly suited to this most versatile of
instruments. It’s played exquisitely by Cynthia Green Libby.
Had
anyone other than Harbach called Veneration a Symphony
I might have questioned their judgement, but knowing the composer’s
style and sympathies it is easy to understand the work to be
symphonic. Beginning with a lovely pyramid chord, this work
ambles through a lush harmonic environment; it never raises
its voice, speaks clearly and concisely and it’s like having
a chat with a favourite uncle who’s got lots of stories of the
old days to tell. Wonderful.
The
best is kept for last. The (Willa) Cather Symphony is
a more serious composition compared with the rest of the programme
but there’s still elements of the, by now, well known Harbach
Americana in each of the three movements. Based, partly, on
Cather’s 1922 novel – which won the Pulitzer Prize – which tells
of an hero of World War I, and the composer’s own grandfather’s
experiences of that war, this music is the most personal of
all Harbach’s works I have heard so far. Especially impressive,
and moving, are the drum tattoo and brass fanfares which bring
the work to its conclusion which are not as rousing as they
might seem at first hearing; there seems to me to be a poignancy
about this coda, indeed, there’s a very touching quality about
what she has to say in this work, and it’s especially restrained
and understated. This work is very special indeed and needs
to be heard.
The
recording is bright and clear with a good perspective on the orchestra
and the performances are obviously of the very highest standard.
The notes are straight forward and lead one through the music
but don’t get technical, nor tell you too much – so, in general,
the music is allowed to speak for itself. Harbach’s music is in
a class of its own and this is a CD which must not be missed at
any cost.
Bob Briggs
