Gekker is fabulous
Scott Taylor | 06/09/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"What a great showcase for the amazing sound of Chris Gekker and his trumpet. His playing is nothing short of breathtaking. My only wish is that he was the trumpet soloist on "Mountains And Rivers Without End" too. At any rate, this disc has great recordings of an extraordinary musician. Hovhaness's music is as magical and mystical as ever."
Sounds and Melodies without End
P. Alvarez | Killeen, Texas United States | 01/30/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"First of all, Alan Hovhaness was not Armenian-American.
Hovhaness was an American composer of Armenian
ancestry born in Somerville,Massachusetts to Armenian
and Scottish immigrants. Hovhaness is my most
favorite of all American composers. In this
recording we listen to some of his most and
less recorded works. From the "Prayer of St. Gregory"
to a less known Trumpet Concerto(Return and Rebuild
the Desolate Places). "Mountains and Rivers Without End"
is in one movement, and what the composer calls a chamber
symphony and is score for flute, oboe, trumpet, trombone
clarinet, timpani, harp and percussion. On this chamber
symphony the trombone opens the work with a melody
that repeats all over the work. The Trumpet Concerto
"Return and Rebuild the Desolate Places" was written
in two movements for trumpet and band(there are several
pieces by Hovhaness for a solo instrument and band, a
usual practice of this composer)composed originally
in 1944 and later arranged in 1965. The opening movement
the trumpet plays, against tone clusters; the second was
influenced by an Armenian painting. Hovhaness is a composer
whose music one has to listen to, to realize that
one has found music by a genius in an age of
"musical opportunists" and false atonal music."