Search - Morton Gould, Jorge Mester, Lawrence Leighton Smith :: The Louisville Orchestra First Edition Series: Morton Gould (2-CD set)

As good an introduction to the music of Morton Gould as you

Discophage | France | 12/04/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Althoug he was something like a late starter with them ("Soundings" and "Columbia" were the first recordings of his works made by the orchestra, in 1971), Morton Gould must have been one of the favored composers of the Louisville Orchestra: All in all, between 1971 and 1987, the orchestra recorded and released on their Louisville First Edition Recordings LPs over an hour and 45 minutes of his music, all reissued on these two CDs. No wonder. Pieces like "Housewarming", "American Symphonette No. 2", "Columbia (Broadsides for Orchestra on Columbian Themes" are exactly what you expect of their composer. The music breaks no grounds but is highly accessible, lively, often based on vernacular dance rhythms or songs (by the way "Columbia" is named for the town of Coumbia, Maryland where it was given its first and outdoors performance, and the Columbian themes are not from Latin-American Colombia but "Hail Columbia" and "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean"), colorful and with moments of genuine dramatic intensity (as in the "Fanfarades", the second movement of "Housewarming"). Though Gould hasn't attained the same standing as Copland, his music shares many similarities with the Brooklyn-born composer's, and represents the best of the traditional approach to American symphonic writing. Whether that traditional approach represents "the best" or the most interesting in American symphonic writing is anybody's taste.



The set aptly collates examplars of the various styles and moods of Gould, some of his most famous pieces and some relatively unknown, composed at various times in his career, offering a good overview of his compositional trajectory and a fine tribute to his versatility. The famous "American Symphonette No. 2" (1939) is as good an example of a classical symphonic composition inspired by Jazz- and Latin-American Dance rhythms as you will find (personnally find that kind of mixture brilliant but ultimately hollow). In some of the pieces Gould sounds like a composer under influence: "Flourishes and Galop" (1983) sounds like a Prokofiev Ballet - more specifically, "Romeo and Juliet" - with some boisterous Bernstein-Jazz. Though composed in 1943, the Viola Concerto wasn't premiered - by these performers - until 1983. In parts, especially in the first movement, in sounds strikingly like the works Hindemith wrote for the same kind of set up (Schwanendreher, Kammermusik) - which is quite remarkable, considering its date of inception. The second movement is a gently brooding pastorale and the finale is more specifically "Gouldian" with its hoe-down feel. The composition is not very colorful (the husky tone of the Viola doesn't lend itself to pyrotechnical achievements) but a good piece in the genre in traditional modern language.



But compositions like the 1969 "Soundings" and "A Symphony of Spirituals", at least in its two first movements, go beyond that: in the latter the reference to spirituals is quite abstract, the music is angular, highly inventive, worthy of any symphonic work composed in those years by, say, Schuman or Mennin. It is a late piece, composed for the Bicentennial in 1975, not to be confused with the earlier (1940) and equally superb "Spirituals for Orchestra" (see my review of George Antheil ~ Symphony 4 / Morton Gould ~ Spirituals for Orchestra). As for "Soundings", it is an extraordinary exploration of orchestral textures, more advanced in its language than much that was written in those years, yet highly dramatic and accessible. It is hard to believe was written by the same composer as "Housewarming" or "Flourishes and Galops". It is a great piece and an unexpected surprise.



Good liner notes, good sonics. For the collectors and discographers, "Columbia" and "Soundings" were released on LP on LS 716 paired with Carlisle Floyd's "In Celebration", the "American Symphonette" came on LS 751 with David Baker's "Le Chat qui pêche" for Soprano, Jazz Quartet and Orchestra, the Viola Concerto on LS 788 with Chihara's Forest Music (now on CRI, Music of Paul Chihara), and "Housewarming" and "A Symphony of Spirituals" together on LS 791, one of the last LPs to be released by Louisville's First Edition Recordings.



This is as good an introduction to this composer as you will find, especially as, with compositions such as "Soundings" and "A Symphony of Spirituals", it spotlights angles of the composer which are not quite those you might expect.

"