Скачать или смотреть SPARKS - Works For Orchestra

1 gangsta – 0:00-1:30
2 still motion – 1:34-3:04
3 fragments I. - 3:08-4:40
8 tango – 4:44-6:14
9 summertime - 6:18-7:48
10 prelude – 7:52 – 9:22
11 in memoriam – 9:27-10:57
12 event horizon – 11:01-12:27
13 crown of the continent – 12:31-14:01

SPARKS, a compilation of orchestral miniature works by several composers, offers a sampling of much of what post-modern, contemporary orchestral music has to offer, and is most interesting to consider in contrast to nineteenth century orchestral transitions. Miniatures, in their brevity, defy the conventional bias that orchestral music must conform to the characteristics of large symphonies. More generally, the works on this album suggest a wide range of influences unique to contemporary postmodernism. These include the aesthetics of midcentury composers, as well as film scores and non-classical genres.

These orchestral miniatures, because of their limited duration, all, in some way, focus on one specific idea, and play with that over the course of their structures. In works like Phillip Rhodes’ A Tango Fantasy and Bruce Babcock’s Event Horizon, this kernel is conceptual, whereas in works like Rain Worthington’s Still Motion, the piece develops a singular musical idea.

Richard Stoltzman’s performance of Summertime, composed by George Gershwin for the opera Porgy and Bess, shows how the colors of the clarinet can be used to create the wonderful feelings that singers achieve in the great arias of contemporary opera. Worthington’s energetic work explores rhythm and melody, developing a melodic idea that is introduced immediately in the vibraphone part. Babcock’s piece is the most abstract and dissonant of the album, using delicate and fluid orchestral textures to express momentum and arrival. Rhodes’ work’s allusions to tango are fascinatingly subtle, as the piece only expresses the essence of tango – its iconic rhythms, typifying harmonic motions, and slippery melodies – without making too obvious a connection to the well-known dance genre. Fragments, by Marga Richter, is based on one melodic idea, which it explores over its five brief movements in an astonishing array of orchestral textures and colors. Gangsta, by Jay Anthony Gach draws its title in reference to the popular 1940’s film noir gangster cinema – the work’s intensity and use of brass choirs seems to evoke the drama of today’s blockbuster film scores. Prelude for Charles, composed by Steven Winteregg, is a myriad of thematic materials based on the musical representations of the word, "Charles." Stephen Lias’ Crown of the Continent is the result of an Artist-in-Residency at Glacier National Park in Montana, celebrating in music its beautiful and colorful “wild west” history. Douglas Anderson’s solemn and moving In Memoriam was written in response to the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City on 9/11/2001.

http://navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6050/