Christopher Rouse - Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4; etc. (Alan Gilbert)

Information

Composer: Christopher Rouse

• Odna Zhizn
• Symphony No. 3
• Symphony No. 4
• Prospero's Rooms

New York Philharmonic Orchestra

Alan Gilbert, conductor

Date: 2016

Label: Dacapo

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Review

Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic have already set down a cycle of the Nielsen symphonies together with recent orchestral works by Magnus Lindberg for the Dacapo label. This latest disc focuses on Lindberg’s successor as the orchestra’s Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence, Christopher Rouse (b1949), whom Gilbert has long championed, having already recorded the first two of his symphonies with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic (BIS, 1/10).

The Third Symphony (2011) follows on directly from its predecessors in terms of musical idiom. Rouse has cited Prokofiev’s Second Symphony as the governing influence, and this two-movement work proceeds from an initial Allegro, whose tensile sonata design evokes its model even aside from several allusions, to a theme with five variations that streamlines the discursive trajectory of the Prokofiev into a simple though effective alternation of stasis and dynamism. This culminates in a heightened recall of the theme, then a coda of fateful decisiveness.

Even more absorbing is the Fourth Symphony (2013), not least through its striking out on an appreciably different path. Equivocation is the watchword: whether in the translucent texture and warmly enervated manner of the initial ‘Felice’ or the ensuing ‘Doloroso’ that gradually loses momentum as it draws into itself on the way to a sepulchral close. Intriguing, not least because the composer has pointedly refrained from discussing any more concrete ‘meaning’, and it will be fascinating to hear just where Rouse’s symphonic odyssey is headed (the first performance of his Fifth Symphony is scheduled by the Dallas Symphony for next season).

Odna Zhizn (2008) – the Russian for ‘A Life’ – is a homage to a close friend and, for all the pungent aggression at its centre, it is the ethereal music either side that lingers in the memory. Prospero’s Rooms (2012) is the ‘overture’ to an unwritten opera on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death, but what resulted is so rich in incident as to be its own justification. No less persuasive is the advocacy of Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic, heard to advantage in sound of clarity and depth. Rouse devotees and newcomers alike have no reason to hesitate.

— Richard Whitehouse

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Christopher Rouse (15 February 1949 – 21 September 2019) was an American composer. Educated at Oberlin Conservatory and Cornell University, he studied with George Crumb and Karel Husa and later taught at the Eastman School of Music and The Juilliard School. His works were performed by major orchestras worldwide, and he gained particular acclaim for his concertos written for leading soloists. Rouse received numerous honors, including a Grammy Award and the Pulitzer Prize. His final composition, Symphony No. 6, premiered posthumously in 2019, marking the culmination of an influential career.

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Alan Gilbert (born 23 February 1967) is an American conductor and violinist. Raised in New York City and educated at Harvard, Curtis and Juilliard, he served as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic from 2009 to 2017, where he significantly expanded the orchestra's contemporary programming and interdisciplinary initiatives. Gilbert has been Chief Conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra since 2019 and Music Director of the Royal Swedish Opera since 2021. An internationally active guest conductor, he has received numerous honors for his contributions to orchestral and operatic life.

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