I have to confess that until I received this CD for review that I had not
heard of
Cindy McTee.
Reading about her made me intrigued to hear the music, particularly as her
husband Leonard Slatkin, whom I much admire, conducts these
performances.
Circuits with its references to kinetic energy is an energetic
overture to this disc and is full of references to the hurly-burly we
associate with modern America. It is forceful and to me conjures up the
world of a busy city.
Symphony No. 1 begins with great force, making an immediate
impact. There is a nervous anxiety apparent with an atmosphere of some
foreboding. I was impressed by the symphonic structure and a full use of the
orchestra that brings colour to her ideas. In the
Adagio second
movement I felt some similarities to Shostakovich as well as a sense of
mourning for something lost. The massed strings play with great feeling and
without any sentimentality. That
Adagio is adapted from her
Agnus Dei for organ in the wake of 9/11. Inspired by Ravel's
La
Valse, the third movement is a short but powerfully thought out
"traditional" movement. The finale owes a debt to Stravinsky's
Rite of
Spring with jazz influences and is touched with the same foreboding
evident in the first movement. All in all an impressive piece, well
executed.
Einstein's Dream expresses in musical terms the great mind of
Einstein and his theories on such matters as quantum theory. There are lots
of diverse sounds during the piece and one gets the idea of a dream.
Interesting piece but I was less taken with it than the first two works. It
would have benefited from separate tracks for the seven parts.
Double Play is divided into two movements of relatively equal
length. With its reference to Ives'
Unanswered Question the
composer in
Unquestioned Answer is exploring the idea of disparate
musical elements coexisting and complementing each other. I think it works
well. The second movement
Tempus Fugit has quite a lot of
clock references and is a bustling piece with ideas that are never
overused.
This is a disc that certainly deserves the attention of anyone who is not
hopelessly averse to modern works. The playing and recording are first rate.
The stand-out for me was the
Symphony but I found all the pieces
well worth hearing. It will be interesting to hear more from Cindy
McTee.
David R Dunsmore
Previous review:
Rob Barnett
