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<TITLE>Bulletin, Vol. XXIII, No. 1, Recording Reviews</TITLE>
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<h1><center>Sonneck Society for American Music</center></h1>
<h1><center>Bulletin, Volume XXIII, no. 1 (Spring 1997)</center></h1>
<center><img src="bdsblu.gif"></center>
<h2><Center>Reviews of Recordings</CENTER></h2>
<center><img src="bdsblu.gif"></center><BR>
<BR>
<center></B>Edited by Ann Sears, Wheaton College</B></center>
<BR>
<hr>
<BR>
<B><I>Viva La Difference: String Quartets by 5 Women From 3 Continents (Lucie 
Vellere, Sarah Aderholdt, Ruth Schonthal, Amy Beach, Prialx Ranier)</B></I><BR>
Crescent String Quartet; Alard String Quartet.  Leonardo Productions, Inc., LE 336, 1994. 
One compact disc.<BR>
<BR>
When it comes to the medium of the string quartet, the average listener tends to 
overlook the efforts of lesser known composers and revel in the abundance of great works 
by acknowledged masters.  <I>Vive la Difference</I>, five string quartets in a 
variety of twentieth-century styles by composers who happen to be women, makes a 
strong argument for looking further.<BR>
<BR>
Sarah Aderholdt (b. 1955), a native of North Carolina, has pursued her career in 
Minnesota and currently in Washington, D.C.   Her one-movement String Quartet, 
an early work composed in 1978, has elements of minimalism and chance composition 
which the material, suffused with richness and imagination, builds throughout 
its nine minutes.  The composition is at once complex, accessible, and hypnotic.  
Aderholdt is primarily a composer of chamber music, and the string quartet makes one 
whish to hear more of her work.<BR>
<BR>
Ruth Schonthal (b. 1924) has had a distinguished career as a composer, teacher, and 
concert pianist.  Born in Hamburg, she studied in Berlin, Stockholm, Mexico City, and 
Yale University.  She currently resides in New York and is on the faculty of 
New York University.  Her String Quartet, in her onw words, "consists of many 
brief, contrasting movements."  The style is deeply rooted in European tradition 
with an especially strong affinity to Bartokian harmony and syntax, but is by no means 
derivative.  Rather, the composition is an almost stream-of-conciousness succession of musical 
invention, colors, and harmonies.<BR>
<BR>
The venerable Amy Beach, by now almost a household name, still suffers from a 
dearth of recordings of her works.  This recording is therefore especially 
welcome.  Completed in 1929, the one-movement composition is based on three Eskimo 
or Innuit tunes whcih have been completely integrated into the work's form and texture.  
It is one of Beach's finest works and is further illuminated by the especially 
informative notes by the noted Beach scholar, Adrienne Fried Block.<BR>
<BR>
All of the above works and the impresstionistic String Quartet (1951) by Lucie Vellere 
(1896-1966) of Belgium have been well-served by the sensitive, fine performances of the 
Crescent String Quartet, originally recording in 1981, as is the fascinating Quartet 
by Priaulx Rainier (1903-1986) of South Africa and London peformed by the Alard 
String Quartet.<BR>
<BR>
The "great men" of the past were surely onto something when they made the 
string quartet the medium for their finest efforts, and the tradition continues 
with composers of both sexes who still await discovery.  <I>VIve la Difference</I> 
is a delight and a revelation.<BR>
--Amy E. Camus<BR>
Whitestone, New York<BR>
<BR>
<HR>
<BR>
David and Ginger Hildebrand.  <B><I>Over the Hills and Far Away Being a Collection 
of Music from 18th-Century Annapolis</B></I><BR>
1990.  Albany Records H103.  One compact disk.<BR>
<BR>
<B><I>Music of the Charles Caroll Family from 1785 to 1832</B></I><BR>
1991.  Albany Records TROY056.  One compact disk.<BR>
<BR>
These recordings will never go out of date.  They are unique documents of early 
American musical practices that will not only give pleasure for listening but also 
are useful for classroom instruction.  The Hildebrands bring together a variety of 
authentic instruments and fully documented repertory to open a new window on the 
everyday music of the people living in the Chesapeake region between about 1730 and 
1830.<BR>
<BR>
The term "gentlemen amateur" is often applied to those who performed music during the 
colonial times.  Recent research have shown that this condescending term is really not 
appropriate.  Music was performed by all levels of society according to their own 
needs and pleasures.  Since on-demand pre-recorded msuic was available only on expensive 
barrel organs and musical clocks, many gifted musicians found ready employment in 
theaters, churches, ballrooms, in military service and in taverns and private homes.  
In a society that placed high value on the acquisition and appreciation of the arts, 
many of those who had musical skills chose to perform as a stepping stone to 
personal advancement.  Many more undoubtedly played simply for their own enjoyment.  
In their assigned role as givers of pleasure, women were particularly pressured to learn to 
play and sing music in semi-public domestic settings; gentlemen wer expected to be able 
to take a part in a catch and sing a song on demand.  Those who mastered instruments and the 
art of composition were valued as colleagues, friends or employees.  It is the repertory of all 
of these people that is heard on these recordings.<BR>
<BR>
The places on the first document the kinds of music heard in different venues: in priate 
parties, taverns, theaters, churches, and informal settings.  For example, when 
the members of the Tuesday Club gathered for dinner in Annapolis in the 1750s, they brought 
their instruments and new compositions written for that week's party.  John Barry  
Talley, who has documented the Tuesday Club music in detail, joins the Hildebrands 
to perform two of the earliest surviving pieces written in Britain's American colonies, a 
march and a spirited catch by Thomas Bacon.  Theater music is represented by colonial 
favorites from the <I>Poor Soldier</I> and the <I>Beggar's Opera</I>; Scottish and Irish 
songs reflect the settlers who populated the upper South, and a remarkably modern song 
called "Tobacco," the "Annapolis March," and two psalm tunes round out the collection.<BR>
<BR>
The second disk continues the high level of documentation and performance, conentrating on 
the music played by members of the Carroll family in the Federal period.  Again the instruments 
selected are authentic: violin, English and baroque guitars, harpsichord, pianoforte, 
organ, recorder, and ahmmered dulcimer.  Again, the documentation is detailed and complete. 
The music in Carrolls' library included comic opera scores, variations and voluntaries for 
keyboard, and Scottish songs; thus the disk includes arias from <I>Rosina</I>, <I>Artaxerxes</I>, 
and the <I>Poor Soldier</I> as well as the old favorites "Katherine Ogie" adn "Maggie 
Lauder."  A highlight is Philip Anthony Corri's march written for the occaion 
when Charles Carroll laid the first mile marker of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1828.  
The Carrollton March is vigorously performed on a Broadwood pianoforte made in 1806.<BR>
<BR>
The Hildebrands have created convincing arrangements and they and guest performers 
play with grace and polish.  Although the selectins reflect all levels of society, 
from the folk tune "Corn Riggs" to "Stanley's Voluntary III," the music heard on these disks 
most accurately depicts performances for and by upper-middle-class American families.<BR>
--Kate Van Winkle Keller<BR>
Darnestown, Maryland<BR>
<BR>
<HR>
<BR>
John Cage: <B><I>Sonatas and Interludes; Dreams</B></I><BR>
Louis Goldstein, piano.  Greensye Music, Greensye 4794, 1996.  One 
compact disc.<BR>
<BR>
Cage described an early period of his creative life as being "intentially expressive." 
The two piano compositions from 1948 on this disc are representative of this expressive, 
intimate style.  Pianist Louis Goldstein makes the most of these qualities with his 
highly sensitive and refined performances.<BR>
<BR>
The major work, <I>Sonatas and Interludes</I>, is a palindrome consisting of four sonatas, 
interlude 1, sonatas 5-8, interlude II, interlude III, sonatas 9-12, interlude IV, and the 
final four sonatas.  Although binary formal structures are evident, particularly at the 
beginning and there are clear breaks between movements, the overall response of the 
listener soon moves from thoughtful analysis to a realm of tranquil receptivity.  The 
interesting program notes quote Cage as stating that this work is "an attempt to expresss 
in music the 'permanent emotions' of (East) Indian tradition: the heroic, the erotic, 
the wondrous, the mirthful, sorrow, fear, anger, the odious, and their common tendency 
toward tranquility."  While individual movements may indeed depict power, calm, or 
playfulness and utlize pedal points, augmentation or gamelan effects, the overal intent is 
to produce a trance-like state in the listener.  The length of the work (over sixty-three 
minutes) and the use of the muted, prepared piano contribute to the meditative quality 
of the composition.  Although there are dynamic contrasts, they are within a narrow range, muted by 
the materials placed upon the strings of the instrument.   The intention of the composer is 
quite obviously to invoke a quiet and tranquil listening environment.<BR>
<BR>
<I>Dream</I>, the opening work on this disc, also evokes a trance-like state.  
Surprising to those familiar only with the later iconoclastic works of Cage, this work 
proclaims its links to romanticism and impressionism.  A clearly tonal structure 
supports a lyrical melodic line based largely upon the whole tone scale.  The eight-minute 
length adds to the accessibility of this work, so aptly titled.<BR>
<BR>
As a counterbalacne to <I>Dream</I> and to ensure that we do not forget the 
revolutionary and humorous Cage, the disc ends with five distinct bands of Silence 
(3, 4, 5, 6, and 20 seconds respectively).<BR>
--Eleanor Carlson<BR>
University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth<BR>
<BR>
<HR>
<BR>
Veronica Kadlubkiewwicz, violinst.  Salvatore Macchia: <B><I>Chamber Concerto no. 
3</B></I> (1991); Donald Wheelock: <B><I>Partita</B></I> (1989); Lewis Spratlan: <B><I>Night 
Music</B></I> (1990); Robert Stern: <B><I>Fanasy Etude</B></I> (1984).<BR>
Gasparo, GSCD-226, 1993.  One compact disc.<BR>
<BR>
Each of the four works featured on this recording of new music for violin was written 
by a composer who currently lives and works in central Massachusetts.  The relationshiop 
between performer and composer is especially close in this collection, for three of the 
four works were written for the recording's soloist, Polish-American violinist 
Veronica Kadlubkiewicz.<BR>
<BR>
The album opens with Salvatore Macchia's Chamber Concerto no. 3.  Macchia, who studied at 
Yale University, is currently on the faculty at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  
The work was written for and dedicated to Veronica Kadlubkiewicz.  A strong sense of lyricism 
pervades the three-movement concerto, particularly in the first two movements but also in the 
percussive final movement.<BR>
<BR>
Donald Weelock wrote his Partita for solo violin for Ms. Kadlubkiewicz after he heard her play 
one of Bach's solo violin sonatas.  The five-movement work offers the soloist ample opportunity 
to display the timbral, technical, and melodic possibilities of the violin.  Wheelock, who also 
conducted Macchia's Concerto on this recording, is professor music at Smith College in 
Northampton, Massachusetts.<BR>
<BR>
The third selection on the disc is the atmospheric <I>Night Music</I> by 
Lewis Spratian.  Scored for violin, clarinet and percussion, this work 
is again dedicated to Kadlubkiewicz.  The trio is constructed in three main sections, 
each more intense than the last.  There is a great deal of interplay between the three 
performers, and, as with the previous two compostions on the disc, timbre is at the fore 
of the composer's mind.  Spratian, who studied with Mel Powell and Gunther Schuller at Yale, 
has taught and conducted at Tanglewood and is on the faculty of Amherst College.<BR>
<BR>
Concluding the CD is <I>Fantasy Etude</I> by Robert Stern, who currently teaches at the 
University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  The work is for solo violin, and reflects both the composer's 
son's interest in The Who and Stern's own interest in Baroque muic for solo violin.  The 
rhapsodic etude, which lasts just under six minutes, exhibits common ground 
between rock and Baroque idioms in terms of harmony, rhythm, and repetition of 
motivic material.<BR>
<BR>
This collection provides a solid addition to the recorded repertory of new music for violin.  
Performances are all solid and convincing, and Ms. Kadlubkiewicz's championing 
of new compositions for violin is to be highly commended.<BR>
--William A. Everett<BR>
Washburn University<BR>
<BR>
<HR>
<BR>
<B><I>New Calliope Singers: New Cantatas and Madrigals by Druckman, Babbitt, Gerber, 
Gideon, Monod, Wright</B></I><BR>
New Callipe Singers; Peter Schubert, conductor.  Composers Recordings, Inc., CRI CD 
638, 192.  One compact disc.<BR>
<BR>
As noted in the title, this 1992 release contains a collection of "new" cantatas and 
madrigals (the cmpositions span the years 1958 to 1987).  The extensive linear 
notes that accompany the CRI Recording define the madrigals as "short a capella pieces 
on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century texts in groups of three or four" while the cantatas 
are "larger-scale pieces involving instrument sand soloists" (p. 4).  The New Calliope 
Singers was founded in 1969 by Peter Schubert and specialized in presenting premieres, 
having done so more than fifty times.  In fact, the group sang the premier of the Babbitt 
composition included herein, <I>Three Cultivated Choruses</I>, in 1990, and Gerber's <I>Une 
Saison en Enfer</I> was written for the group in 1985.  The collection is representative of the 
second half of the twentieth century in exhibiting a variety of techniques and styles: 
The Gerber, Druckman, and Wright works are diatonic; Gideon's contribution is atonal; and 
the Monod and Babbitt pieces are serial.  According to Peter Schubert, the works emply a 
range of textures and vocal spacings, and the composers' approach to rhythm 
runs the gamut from non-metrical to "rhythmically forthright, driven largely 
by text declamation" (p. 4).  English, Italian, German and French texts exploring different 
moods and expressions have been used by the composers in very short settings (Babbitt -- 1:03) 
and in lengthy works (Gerber -- 19:11).<BR>
<BR>
Of special interest to Sonneck readers, the Babbitt Choruses were composed in 1987 
in celebration of Wiley Hitchcock's sixty-fifth birthday the following year.  The score of 
that work is presented in its entirety in <I>A Celebration of American Music</I> edited by 
Crawford, Lott, and Oja from the University of Michigan Press.<BR>
<BR>
While is quality of the recorded sound is quite pleasing, the overall English diction 
of hte group was unsatisfactory in many places, both in a capella and in 
accompanied selections.  Featured soloists also were mixed in their ability to bring the 
text across clearly, and bass Wilber Pauley seems to stretch his lower range uncomfortably 
in the Monod.  However, the ensemble is to be commended for its ability to 
interpret a diversity of texts and to handle difficult angular melodies.  The group 
exhibits an interesting palette of tone color from a clear, "white" sound in the 
Druckman to a robust sound in the opening and closing Wright movements.<BR>
--Linda Pohly<BR>
Ball State University<BR>
<BR>
<HR>
<BR>
Leslie Bassett: <B><I>Echoes From an Invisible World; Variations for Orchestra; Sextet 
for Piano and Strings</B></I><BR>
Composers Recordings, Inc., CRI CD 677, 1994. One compact disc.<BR>
<BR>
This disc is one of the CRI series called "American Masters," honoring the work of major 
composers of an older generation (decidedly past mid-career) who more often than not work 
in mainstream styles.  Recordings are frequently re-processed form CRI's archives of 
materials formerly issued in long-play format -- an incomparable collection of 
twentieth-century American concert music, by the way.  One CD in this sereis is devoted 
to the music of Leslie Bassett, and it offers an especially rewarding view of a 
highly accomplished composer's work.  Bassett is known as an important teacher of younger 
composers, as a distinguished figure at the University of Michigan, and as a Pulitzer 
Prize winner, but (like so many other "American Masters") he is heard less 
frequently in concert halls than he deserves to be.<BR>
<BR>
Certainly the three pieces here testify to Bassett's eloquent handling of long-range 
narrative form, and his imaginative use of instrumental color for expressive 
affect.  Variations for orchestra was composed in 1963 and premiered that year in 
Rome; as a result of the 1965 American premiere, Bassett was awarded the Pulitzer Prize one 
year later.  The single-movement work abounds in angularly rising and falling lines, 
often surrounded by swirls of color, diaphanous "clouds" and trills of varying speeds.  
The eight individual variations, on a grouping of high-profile phrase gestures, are not clearly 
delineated; rather, they tend to run into one another, so that the listener 
perceives the entire work as a through-composed, continuous narrative (although one 
with a central section of more deliberate tempo and expressive lyricism).<BR>
<BR>
The language is basically non-tonal, relatively astringent and dissonant in a manner 
typical of its decade.  (The composer has acknowledged the use of a twelve-tone 
row, but only in certain variations).  What sets the Variations apart, however, is 
its inventive, even brilliant, use of timbre.  The work's opening gesture, a 
very quiet passage for divided contrabasses, harp, and tam-tam, is coloristically 
stunning.  It's also a difficult act to follow, but in fact it sets the level for the 
rest of the piece, as Bassett continues to create sonorities that are inventive, 
refreshing, and a delight to the ear.  His handling of form is no less admirable; 
the rise and fall of tempo, activity and energy levels, and the subtle interplay 
of mood, help create a cogent, convincing argument which holds up over the work's 
relatively lengthy duration of twenty-five minutes.  (It's also nice to recall an era, 
not so long ago, when American composers were actually encouraged to write major 
works that long and had the opportunity to get them played!)<BR>
<BR>
<I>Echoes from an Invisible World</I>, a three-movement work of symphonic proportions, 
was commissioneed for the Bicentennial celebrations of 1976, more than a decade after 
the Variations.  Although it is equally coloristic and commanding in the logic of its 
argument, there are important differences between the two works.  With regard to the 
handling of time and timbral continuity, the solidity of the earlier work seems to have 
been replaced by a  more fragmented, Webernesque approach.  (In his liner notes for 
<I>Echoes</I> Bassett remarks on the influence of electronic studio technique, and, 
one that association has been made, one can easily hear gestures reminiscent of tape 
splicing, filter controls, reverberation sppeds and the like).  In addition, the music 
seems metrically free, more flexible in its articulation of time-passing.  Timbrally, 
the work is more soloistic than its predecessor.  Colors of intrumental sub-groups, 
chamber-like in their clarity, are tossed back and forth; these have the effect 
of bringing massvie tutti passages into sharper relief.  Silences, sustained drones, 
and "grounds," and a fondness for static gestures (such as ostinati and repeated-note 
patters) which are overlaid against each other, often creat the illusion of two 
different time worlds (one very rapid, the other very slow-moving) 
coexisting simultaneously.<BR>
<BR>
The third composition on this CD is scored for chamber ensemble -- piano, string 
quartet and added viola -- rather than orchestar.  Bassett is inclined to treat 
the forces of  his Sexted in an "orchestral" manner, however, delighting in fused 
timbres and rapidly shifting articulations -- flurries, cascades, whispers -- rather 
than the traditional counterpoint of lines and individual personalities.  On another 
level, the six performers seem engaged in an ever-changing balance of weights and masses 
reminiscent of the concerto grosso.  (A two-tiered approach, with the piano 
balancing the rest of the ensemble, is often favored, although the piece is by no means 
a piano concerto).  The Sextet performance, by the Concord Quartet, pianist 
Gilbert Kalish and violist John Graham, is delightful.<BR>
<BR>
How can we characterize this music?  Perhaps a misprint on the CRI jewel box for the 
disc might provie a clue.  In what may be a uniquely Freudian typo, the record 
company's New York address is given not as Spring Street but as Sprint Street.  What 
a serendipitous error!  Bassett's music does indeed "sprint."  In fact, it leaps, 
gambols, and even vaults, with dynamism and athletic grace and a palpably physical 
quality.  If one wanted another (equally subjective ) clue, one might examine 
Bassett's ties to the University of Michigan.  Although there is no "Michigan 
sound," there is certainly a grand tradition of composition teaching, within which 
Leslie Bassett stands as an important figure -- both a former student and a 
distinguised professor.  If one can perceive a mid-twentieth century Michigan 
"family tree," or a line from the spiky, neo-classic pitch rigor of Ross Lee 
Finney to the evocative sound-sculptures of George Crumb, Leslie Bassett and 
his work might fall directly on the mid-point of that line, partaking of the 
virtues of both.  This disc of Bassett's music is well worth hearing.<BR>
--Elliott Schwartz<BR>
Bowdoin College<BR>
<BR>
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