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Ned
ROREM (b. 1923)
Piano Concerto No.2 (1951) [34:08]
Cello Concerto (2002) [25:10]
Simon Mulligan
(piano); Wen-Sinn Yang (cello)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/José Serebrier
rec. 30-31 August 2006, Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow NAXOS 8.559315 [59:18]
Time
Magazine has called Ned Rorem "the world's best composer
of art songs", and Rorem has written, "Anyone can
be drunk, anyone can be in love, anyone can waste time and
weep, but only I can pen my songs in the remaining years
or minutes." It is through his songs that most people
will have encountered Rorem’s music – after all, he has written
about 300, including 17 song-cycles. Because of his lyrical
leanings, he has said that everything he writes is vocal.
Instruments sing; not for him climbing into the piano with
a soft mallet to attack the strings. His career started in
1948 with the song The Lordly Hudson which was voted "the
best published song of the year". In the same year he
won the $1,000 George Gershwin Memorial Prize in composition.
Words are as important to Rorem as music - hence
his phenomenal vocal output. To some he is better known as
the author of eighteen books. Many of these are somewhat
indiscreet diaries, recounting his relationships with many
of the leading American musicians of the 20th century,
including Bernstein, Copland, Julius Katchen and Virgil Thomson,
outing several others. He is not backward in coming forward
in attacking the orthodoxies of the avant-garde.
Despite his literary achievements, it’s his music
which is most important and his large output covers all genres,
from opera (words again) to song to chamber works. Over the
sixty years of his career his style has changed very little.
It has matured, to be sure, but listening to these two works
written fifty years apart they are obviously the work of
the same voice.
In 1949, shortly after leaving the Curtis Institute
he moved to France. This was ostensibly to study with Honegger
who, according to Rorem, was too ill to teach him so agreed
to sign whatever papers were necessary for Rorem to continue
to receive his grant and remain in France. What started as
a visit for the purposes of study turned into a nine year
stay. His production of music was prodigious during this
time, not to say his drinking and sexual exploits – all retold
in the Paris Diary.
The Second Piano Concerto was written in
Morocco in 1951, for Julius Katchen – for whom Rorem also
wrote his Second Piano Sonata. Katchen’s superb performance
on Decca is only available as part of an 8 CD set – 00289
475 7221. Premiered in 1954, the Concerto was reviewed
favourably in Musical America, “… (it) should prove a winner
in the concert hall, for it gives the soloist plenty of scope
in both lyrical and virtuoso piano playing …”. Despite this,
Rorem says that “The piece … lay silent for the next half
century”. It was revived for a series of programmes the BBC
made for Rorem’s 80th birthday in 2003 and it
proved to be the winner Musical America said it was.
The first movement, despite being marked Somber
and Steady is anything but that. The music flits from
one mood, and tempo, to another, now rhythmic and jazzy,
now slow and languid. The second, slow, movement is one
of Rorem’s many songs without words, long singing lines
from the winds and a rich string background – special praise
here for the principal oboe. The finale (Real
Fast!) is a stunning piece of writing for soloist and orchestra,
filled with jazzy rhythms and a breathtaking conclusion.
After this knockout work Naxos, very sensibly,
gives us 15 seconds respite before the start of the Cello
Concerto, and we need this for two reasons; the Piano
Concerto has overwhelmed us and the Cello Concerto starts
in repose.
Rorem has written, “Although I don’t believe that
non-vocal music can be proven to ‘mean’ anything … it’s still
fun to give programmatic subtitles to various sections. Thus
the eight movements of the (Cello) Concerto are more or less
literal descriptions.” These eight movements do have fanciful
titles and they do contain pointers as to their processes
but they don’t give that much away. Curtain
Raise is a slow
and thoughtful “hello” from the soloist, There and Back contains
a thrilling dialogue between cello and timpani! This is followed
by a slow movement of great probity, and a violent scherzo
with, as Rorem puts it, “the solo cello and solo violin engaged
in a demonic confrontation”. The final four movements are
more relaxed and, in the main, concentrate on the relationship
between soloist and orchestra. Although most of these are
short they are perfectly formed and, whilst on paper they
seem to give the impression of a suite rather than a concerto,
they cohere into a unified symphonic work, without ever using
symphonic form.
These performances are as fine as one could hope
for. Simon Mulligan is a fantastic soloist making everything
Rorem throws at him sound easy. The Piano Concerto is
a big work and, I would imagine, tiring to play, but he makes
light of the technical difficulties. Wen-Sinn Yang
is given other problems. As he has a more thoughtful work
to play his challenge is to keep the argument
cogent through many pages of slow discourse. He achieves
this magnificently. He’s a fine young cellist and I want
to hear more of him. Both soloists are accompanied - this
is not really the correct word as there are passages for
the orchestra alone where it can let go and show itself off
to best advantage - with style and verve. The Royal Scottish
National Orchestra is conducted by Serebrier who also supplies
a very good note in the booklet.
This
is the seventh CD devoted entirely to Rorem’s music, and
third to his concertos, to appear on the Naxos label, and
it is the seventh time that
Naxos
has done him proud.