Jonathan LESHNOFF (b.1973)
Symphony No. 4 Heichalos (2017) [21:07]
Guitar Concerto (2013) [25:04]
Starburst (2010) [7:58]
Jason Vieaux (guitar)
Nashville Symphony Orchestra/Giancarlo Guerrero
rec. 2016/18, Laura Turner Concert Hall, Schermerhorn Symphony Center,
Nashville, USA
NAXOS 8.559809 [54:46]
American composer Jonathan Leshnoff sets out his stall in no uncertain
way with his Symphony No. 4. The music blitzes along with components
suggesting familiarity with John Williams, Bernard Herrmann, William
Schuman and Elmer Bernstein. He does not set out to be difficult. The
work was written for the
Violins
of Hope, a collection of restored instruments that survived the
Holocaust; you are not aware of their presence. The notes assert that
“The composer draws inspiration from an ancient Jewish mystical
text, Heichalos, to explore spiritual and ethical questions
at the heart of the Jewish experience.” This score forges its
own free path avoiding simplistic semitic DNA and not sounding like
Bloch in his Avodath Hakodesh¸ Violin Concerto, Schelomo
or Voice in the Wilderness. It is in two movements. The first
is dynamic and pummels in much the same way as Philip Glass’s
Second Symphony. The second delights in serenity. The benediction of
bells is borne leisurely on high by the strings somewhat in the manner
of Barber’s Adagio and Howard Hanson’s Sixth Symphony. The
music ends gently - half murmur, half heartbeat.
The three-movement Guitar Concerto is bejewelled
and does not seek to distance itself from Rodrigo; quite the contrary.
It’s played by Jason Vieaux with the breathless concentration
of an adept. The recording appears to pick up every nuance and effervescent
ascent and descent. There’s a lot going on in this work - none
of it recalcitrant. Starburst - a firework
of a calling-card - looks in its brilliance of detail and dazzle of
texture to the example of Walton but mixed again with Hanson. There’s
also another kinship and it’s with Michael Daugherty who has also
been championed by Guerrero
and Naxos in Nashville.
Leshnoff was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and studied at Johns
Hopkins, the Peabody and the University of Maryland. His music has found
a ready home on CD with Naxos (two other orchestral discs and a chamber
one). While there is no sign of the Third Symphony as yet, the First
has been done by Naxos and the Second by ASO Media in Atlanta. Brian
Wilson has already written in warm terms about the Cello Concerto.
There are ten concertos and four oratorios so far and further Naxos
instalments would come as no surprise.
Rob Barnett
