Paul Schoenfield - Viola Concerto; Four Motets; The Merchant and the Pauper (Various Artists)

Information

Composer: Paul Schoenfield

• Viola Concerto
• 4 Motets
• The Merchant and the Pauper (Excepts from Act II

Robert Vernon, violin

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin

Yoel Levi, conductor

BBC Singers

Avner Itai, conductor

University of Michigan Opera

Kenneth Kiesler, conductor

Date: 2004

Label: Milken Family Foundation / Naxos

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Review

Paul Schoenfield (b1947) remains best known for Café Music, a lively remix of Viennese Tafelmusik and contemporary influences. The nascent ethnic element in that 1985 work has become a dominant force in Schoenfield’s idiom, and can be clearly heard in the opening of the Viola Concerto, inspired by a kindergarten playground in Israel from which the composer heard children singing Hassidic odes. The winding theme is derived from a Lubavitch melody, and the Hebraic solo viola line soon segues into a jaunty canter.

The introspective lines of the following ‘Soliloquy’ evoke a sense of subdued tragedy, before a celebratory finale, ‘King David Dancing Before the Ark’, of klezmer-like frivolity. The solo writing is artfully interwoven with the orchestra, yet as with the similarly structured Barber Violin Concerto, the rapid hurly-burly of the finale doesn’t quite jibe with the darkness of the preceding two movements, which also lack Barber’s melodic indelibility. The soloist at its Cleveland première in 1998, Robert Vernon, plays with rich tone, enviable panache and technical flair.

The Four Motets (1995), drawn from Psalm 86, are more substantial and often stunningly beautiful. Avner Itai draws lustrous, warmly blended performances from the BBC Singers, who deliver the consolatory opening Lento and the ardent rising lines of the concluding Tranquillo with burnished ensemble polish.

Schoenfield’s 1999 opera The Merchant and the Pauper was premièred in St Louis to mixed reviews, and these three excerpts from Act 2 leave a mixed impression. Schoenfield is again at his finest in his writing for chorus and the final duet has some radiant moments, but the didactic libretto and off-putting narration make for turgid results.

This may not be an essential release in the series, but Schoenfield has an individual voice and his intensely moving motets deserve recognition.

— Lawrence Johnson

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Paul Schoenfield (24 January 1947 – 29 April 2024) was an American classical composer and pianist. Born in Detroit, he studied at Converse College, Carnegie Mellon University, and earned a doctoral degree from the University of Arizona. A former touring pianist, he performed internationally and recorded Bartók's violin and piano works. Schoenfield lived and worked in both the United States and Israel, including time on a kibbutz. His compositions, performed by major orchestras worldwide, draw heavily on Hassidic and vernacular music, aiming to challenge and invigorate both performers and audiences.

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