William Bolcom - Violin Concerto; Fifth Symphony (Sergiu Luca; Dennis Russell Davies)

Information

Composer: William Bolcom

• Violin Concerto in D
• Fantasia Concertante 
• Fifth Symphony

Sergiu Luca, violin

American Composers Orchestra

Dennis Russell Davies, conductor

Date: 1992 / 2006

Label: Decca / Phoenix USA

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Review

Seattle-born Bolcom is a dynamo of a creative force. To our and his benefit he has in recent years had many of his works recorded. There are eight symphonies written between 1957 and the present day. In addition his catalogue comprises eleven string quartets, four violin sonatas, three operas, musical theatre pieces, two film scores (Hester Street and Illuminata) and much else.

 

Much as they have with Kernis, Phoenix have struck a deal with Decca Argo to re-release the present grievously missed disc of 1980s orchestral works first issued on Argo in the 1990s.

 

Bolcom’s music is laid out with wonderful aural clarity – a delight to the ear. The ideas draw on popular music in much the same way as Piston (Symphony 2 and Incredible Flautist) and Barber (Souvenirs). As we know from his Songs of Innocence and of Experience he has no aversion towards hybridising all branches of modern culture with ‘high art’. This can also be heard in the wonderfully saturated sentimental smoochiness of much of the Violin Concerto where Sergiu Luca’s style recalls that of Joe Venuti and Stéphane Grappelli. Despite this ham-fisted description much of the music evokes an ethereal ballet – Ravel’s La Valse drifts into focus several times before falling away. The ear-tickling Fantasia Concertante is a drier piece with gusts, gentler asides and rhythmic ebullience reminiscent of Beethoven; it was after all premiered in Vienna in 1986. The Fifth Symphony was first performed by Dennis Russell Davies and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1990. Across four movements this is a work that breasts dissonant storms, does a groaningly spectral Frčre Jacques with Here Comes the Bride, continues the macabre strain with a bleakly haunted Hymne ą l’Amour and in its finale Machine rises to a thuddingly propulsive ruthlessness that recalls both Mussorgsky and Panufnik. It is a superb work.

 

The disc benefits from the composer’s own notes and updated artist profiles.

 

If you’ve caught the Bolcom bug do confirm the addiction with this nicely varied collection and let’s thank Phoenix for rescuing yet another Argo deletion.

 

— Rob Barnett

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William Bolcom (born 26 May 1938) is an American composer and pianist known for bridging popular and classical music traditions. Educated at the University of Washington, Mills College, the Paris Conservatory and Stanford University, he later served as professor of composition at the University of Michigan. A prolific composer, Bolcom wrote works across genres, including piano études, operas, orchestral music and song cycles, and showed a particular affinity for ragtime. He received the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 and multiple Grammy Awards in 2006. Bolcom has also been active as a performer, writer, editor and educator.

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Sergiu Luca (4 April 1943 – 6 December 2010) was a Romanian-born American violinist. Born in Bucharest, he relocated to Israel as a child and made his orchestral debut at age nine. After studies in Europe and at the Curtis Institute with Ivan Galamian, he made his American debut in 1965 with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Luca recorded J. S. Bach's major works and the romantic and 20th-century repertoire, collaborating with leading artists. He founded several influential chamber music organizations and festivals and served as a professor at Rice University from 1983 until his death in Houston at the age of 67.

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Dennis Russell Davies (born 16 April 1944 in Toledo, Ohio) is an American conductor and pianist. Educated at The Juilliard, he has held prominent posts in the United States and Europe, including music director roles with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Filharmonie Brno and MDR-Sinfonieorchester. A co-founder of the American Composers Orchestra, Davies has been a leading interpreter of works by Philip Glass, Arvo Pärt and others. He is a Grammy Award winner and an influential teacher and festival director.

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