Review of Dessoff CD "Reflections"
February 2001
Vol. 65, No. 8
The Dessoff Choirs
"REFLECTIONS" music of Moravec, Convery, Rorem, and Corigliano. Hart; Arnold .Tritle. English texts. The Dessoff Choirs 1101
This new recording of contemporary American choral music performed by the Dessoff Choirs provides feast for both the ear and the mind. Composers Paul Moravec, John Convery, Ned Rorem, and John Corigliano all write knowledgeably and winningly for chorus, and all have chosen literary and provocative texts.
Moravec's Songs of Love and War sets four actual letters to and from American soldiers, starting with Vietnam and proceeding in reverse chronological order back through World Wars II and I, ending with the Civil War. The poetry generated by these war-time civilians is unexpectedly breathtaking, and Moravec's setting for baritone,chorus, trumpet and strings is inventive and haunting,appropriate but not obvious. David Arnold appears as soloist in the first poem—a plain-spoken,six-line gem called "Don't Ask" from a Vietnam soldier to his mother—and the last one, a love letter from a Civil War soldier to his wife promising that they will meet again somewhere, even if he doesn't survive combat("Always, Always"). Arnold sings with a fervent, unearthly quality that is well-suited to the timeless themes of love and war.
The densest of the texts is Wallace Stevens 'To the One of Fictive Music, set by Robert Convery. This poem, whose subject is music,and, specifically, the degree to which music should reflect "the near, the clear" of human experience or, conversely, "the strange unlike," clearly appealed to Convery in avery personal way. His take on the poem is a striking depiction of the conflicting impulses a modern composer faces. At the very end, as if to summarize the dilemma, a dissonant a cappella major seventh hangs in the air until it is obliterated by a unison B-flat in the orchestra.
The most light-hearted literary offerings are the seven poems Ned Rorem selected for his cycle From an Unknown Past, an early work (1951) drawn from short,anonymous texts of the 15th through 17th centuries. Rorem,not surprisingly, finds rare and pure beauty in these deceptively simple verses; his taste, wit, and harmonic acuity are evident throughout his madrigalesque settings, even at this early stage of his compositional life.
For that matter, John Corigiliano was barely out of college when he composed his setting of Dylan Thomas 'Fern Hill, a longing reminiscence of childhood, and later part of Corigliano's A Dylan Thomas Trilogy. The composer's youth reveals itself in the ingenuous melodies of the piece, but sophistication is evident in his ability to balance variety and coherence while sustaining lucidity of structure over the course of the fifteen-minute work. Mezzo-soprano Mary Ann Hart, with her warm, welcoming tone and direct mode of expression, is a breath of fresh air in the central section of the piece.
The Dessoff Choirs—both the full 70-member group and the smaller Chamber Choir—handle these four tonal but challenging pieces with assurance and luster. The 22-member orchestra, apparently a pick-up group, plays like a well-integrated ensemble, and features some excellent solo playing (particularly trumpeter Scott MacIntosh in the Moravec work and pianist Steven Ryan in the Convery). Music Director Kent Tritle and all the singers,instrumentalists, and composers can be proud of this substantial achievement.
—Joshua Rosenblum
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