REEL LIFE: The Private Music of Film Composers, vol. I
Music Amici performing works
by Michael Kamen, Rachel Portman, David Raksin,
Bob James, Howard Shore, Bruce Broughton
Arabesque Recordings Z6741
(69:17)
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This album perhaps more appropriately should be reviewed on the classical
music side of this Web site, but the six composers featured here are of
particular interest to fans of film music. Though their efforts are not limited
to composing for films, that is where Raksin, Kamen, Shore, Portman and Broughton
are best known. (I would not say quite the same for James, whose work is
the first heard on this recording, but the point is made.) As such, this
is something of a “concept” album -- but what a concept! Many of
us are familiar with the concert works of such film notables as Bernard Herrmann,
Miklos Rozsa or Franz Waxman, but the vast repertoire of non-film works by
otherwise well-known film composers remains largely unrecorded and thus unknown
to their many admirers.
And this immediate note to those fans: The compositions featured on this
disc are not large orchestral works such as film scores usually offer. Reel
Life features eight compositions written for chamber orchestra, each enjoying
its premiere recording by the eight-member Music Amici. While far from avant
garde, none of the works offers the motific immediacy -- much less the dramatic
bombast -- that make film music so readily enjoyable.
Nevertheless, there are gems herein, made all the more interesting because
they display a side of these composers we might otherwise not see.
Still, like a film score, several of the pieces are at least slightly
programmatic, such as Kamen’s ‘Cut Sleeves,’ which depicts
an ancient Chinese legend of an emperor who slit his bed dress so as not
to disturb his young lover when forced to leave their bed to attend to state
matters. Kamen uses the oboe to introduce his theme, adroitly joining it
with flute, cello and harp to weave this musical tale -- which, by the way,
was Kamen’s first professional composition as a non-rock musician. At
more than 11 minutes, it’s the longest single piece on Reel Life, apart
from a five-movement work by Broughton. The piece is marked by a sharply
lyric fluidity, particularly in its first half.
My favorite piece -- and perhaps the most immediately accessible on this
disc -- is the first of two by Portman: her 6-minute ‘Rhapsody’
which she wrote for a friend’s wedding in 1994. Softly pastoral in its
tone, ‘Rhapsody’ opens with piano voicing a sense of yearning which
is then picked up by violin and clarinet in succession, each building
on the same sense of yearning which evolves, as the trio join, into one of
fulfillment. (What a wonderful wedding gift -- and how sad that we had to
wait this long to hear it!)
Portman’s second work, ‘For Julian,’ is a memorial in solo
piano for her young friend, Julian Wastall, a composer whose work for film
and TV may be better known to British readers of this Web site than to me.
Portman’s contemplative piano effortlessly combines a feeling of both
questioning and acceptance, leaving the listener with a sense of loss at
its ending.
Raksin’s contribution to Reel Life, ‘A Song After Sundown’
(the title is a takeoff on a work by Delius) actually was used in a film
-- the 1962 Too Late Blues, albeit as a vocal in a larger jazz arrangement.
Heard here in chamber form by Music Amici, its bluesy nature remains
unmistakable. By itself, this may be worth the price of the CD. Like Portman,
Shore's represented by two pieces -- ‘Hughie’ and ‘Piano
Four’ -- each is among the more abstract works on this recording. The
former is a musical portrait of the title character of a Eugene O’Neil
play, the latter described by the composer as “a brief statement for
the end of the Millennium.”
Easily the most ambitious work is provided by Broughton, with his 21-minute,
5-section ‘A Primer for Malachi.’ Written for the impending birth
of the composer’s grandson, the piece moves without interruption through
various stages of life under the following headings: Flowing, Faster,
Rhapsodically, Very Quick, Very Calm. The first opens with flute, cello and
clarinet encircling each other in a vain search for unity, The pace picks
up in part two, led by a piano as each instrument begins to speak with more
self-confidence, if not the still sought-after coherence of maturity. Broughton
tosses thematic ideas out seemingly at random here, experimenting,
rejecting, and again revisiting various concepts. Throughout this and the
next section, Broughton continues his search for musical cohesion and order,
not unlike a young man struggling to find his way in life. This begins to
assert itself in part four, followed by a more tranquil maturity, finally,
in the aptly titled final section.
Reel Life opens with ‘Odyssey,’ a piano-flute duet by jazz keyboardist
James, whose primary Hollywood connection is the catchy title theme to the
U.S. TV series Taxi. The piece opens explosively with both instruments boldly
declaring themselves and then just as quickly turning tentative, as if suddenly
self-conscious in each other’s presence. The piano eventually steps
forward, followed by flute as the two begin a spirited dance, each taking
turns at leading.
I can’t praise too highly the overall effort by Music Amici and its
director, violinist Marti Sweet. Reel Life is a product of the efforts of
Michael Whalen, Marvin Reiss, Jonathan Schultz and Charles Yassky, the latter
also performing on the violin. The sound is crisp and intimate, as a chamber
work necessarily must be. Bravos all around. I hope volume II isn’t
far behind.
Reviewer:
John Huether
