Christopher Rouse - Symphony No. 1; Clarinet Concerto (Alan Gilbert; Martin Fröst)

Information

Composer: Christopher Rouse

1. Iscariot, for chamber orchestra
2. Clarinet Concerto
3. Symphony No.1

Martin Fröst, clarinet

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

Alan Gilbert, conductor

Date: 2008

Label: BIS

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Review

One of America’s most individual creative voices, Christopher Rouse (b1949) is a Romantic who writes music that is anything but easy listening. Whether tonal or atonal, Bach-inspired or rock-driven, he tends to use traditional forms to express the essence of today’s broken world. The works on this disc are dedicated to John Adams, Augusta Read Thomas and John Harbison, which may help to contextualise the idiom without preparing you for its unstinting blackness.

The miscellany contains only one work new to the lists. However, David Zinman’s Nonesuch recording of the First Symphony (1986) is currently elusive, while Marin Alsop’s stunning account of 1989’s Iscariot (RCA, 8/97R) has been relegated to American independent Phoenix. If you don’t know this piece, its agonised aesthetic is similar to James MacMillan’s Confession of Isobel Gowdie which it predates and which Alsop has also conducted with distinction. Gilbert is subtler, slower and ultimately not quite intense enough, although that may be the impression imparted by BIS’s more recessed and sophisticated sonics. The concluding thwacks seem insufficiently fierce to clinch the deal – or rather the betrayal.

The Clarinet Concerto (2001) is an unexpectedly angular roller-coaster, constructed in part in reaction to the Rautavaara-like consonance of Rouse’s previous orchestral work, Rapture. Its unlikely game-show inspiration is most obvious in the gong and whistle that bring its torrent of notes to an abrupt end. For much of the time it sounds as if one of Messiaen’s nastier birds is trapped on a busy industrial production line. Martin Fröst copes admirably with the technical challenge.

Gilbert equals Zinman’s achievement in the predominantly miserablist, Bruckner-based First Symphony, a one-movement design of pile-driving dynamics and agonised near-silences. The central consolatory section from 12'25" (were the Swedish players reminded of Allan Pettersson?) achieves an eloquence rare in contemporary music. For me this is postmodern balm of the least specious kind, squashed flat rather than indulged by the music that follows “de profundis clamavi”. You may find the borrowings from the Sixth Symphonies of both VW and Shostakovich more of a puzzle. Recommended.

— David Gutman

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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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Martin Fröst (born 14 December 1970) is a Swedish clarinettist and conductor. Educated at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm and the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover, he has championed both core repertoire and contemporary works. Fröst has performed as a soloist with major orchestras worldwide and at premier venues and festivals. He is the first clarinettist to receive the Léonie Sonning Music Prize and was named International Classical Music Awards Artist of the Year in 2022. He currently serves as Chief Conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and records exclusively for Sony Classical.

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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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