Carson COOMAN (b.1982)
A Trip to the Sky, op.857 (2009) [8:26]
*Schumann Serenade, for string trio, op.732 (2007) [7:00]
*Quartet for Piano and Strings (A Sea Liturgy), op.855 (2009) [16:17]
**Tombeau-Aria, for string quartet, op.541 (2003) [3:12]
**Four Aphoristic Inventions, for string quartet, op.559 (2003) [4:22]
+Estampie, for two violins, op.752 (2008) [3:50]
+Viola Quintet (Unquiet Parables), op.856 (2009) [13:17]
++Cavatina, for viola and piano, op.776 (2008) [6:23]
++Planctus, for solo viola, op.499 (2005) [5:09]
Carson Cooman (piano) [op.857]
*Marek Zwiebel (violin), Peter Zwiebel (viola), Jozef Lupták (cello), Nora
Skuta (piano)
**Vladimír Harvan (violin), Lucia Harvanová (violin), Zuzana Bourová (viola),
Jozef Podhoránsky (cello)
+Marián Svetlik (violin), Juraj Tomka (violin), Julián Veverica (viola), Juraj
Madari (viola), Ivan Tvrdík (cello)
++Sarah Darling (viola), Jeffrey Grossman (piano)
rec. Slovak Radio Studios, Bratislava, 4-8 June 2010; Futura Productions,
Roslindale, MA, 9 June 2010 [Trip, Cavatina, Planctus]. DDD
MSR CLASSICS MS 1387 [68:01] 
With this release MSR Classics join a growing list of independent labels recording
the music of American composer Carson Cooman: this is the fourteenth in all
dedicated solely to his works, and Cooman is still not even 30. Many previous
releases have been reviewed, generally warmly, on MusicWeb International -
two fairly recent orchestral ones germane perhaps to this latest can be read
here
and here.
If such a quantity of recordings appears overkill for an 'obscure' living
composer, it isn't - Cooman's obscurity has to do with the effete priorities
of contemporary society, not with his music. His works evince a vivid combination
of inspired mellifluousness, emotional excitement and creative expressiveness.
As it happens, Cooman is one of the most prolific composers of all time. The
newest work on this disc is the title piece, A Trip to the Sky, published
as his opus 857. But that was over a year ago - the latest piece to be listed
on Cooman's website at the time of writing is a five-minute Prelude and
Fugue for organ - op.913! In fact he has been publishing a new work at
the incredible rate of more than one a week for sixteen years. Admittedly,
many are only two, three, four minutes in length, but there are a great number
over ten minutes. Such prolific production also reflects enormous breadth.
He has written for virtually every solo instrument and every combination of
two or more instruments. This amounts to a mind-boggling fertility and application.
The CD opens with the intrigue of A Trip to the Sky. Though performed
here by Cooman himself on the piano, the work is described as being for "any
instrument or combination of instruments": the score must make for interesting
viewing! The piece ends dramatically, yet need not do - another quirk of the
score is that it consists of 9 sections which may be played "in any order,
combination or manner". From this it might be tempting to think that
Cooman is one of "those experimentalists" - but whatever ideas,
fanciful or otherwise, may lie behind any given work, what really counts is
what the score actually sounds like in performance. In that regard Cooman
is unfailingly communicative. His music is at least as pleasing to the 'general
ear' as it is intellectually stimulating. Schumann Serenade, the second
track, immediately confirms this.
A good deal of the music on this strings-oriented disc, such as the Tombeau-Aria,
Planctus and the Cavatina, is fairly slow, contemplative and
atmospheric. This usefully gives the listener more time to marvel at Cooman's
imagination: the sceptic will find no effects for the sake of effect here.
The two longest works - the Piano Quartet and the Viola Quintet
- are probably the finest, but it is also fair to say that every item on the
disc stands up very well to repeated hearing. Hearing this music, all of which
Cooman wrote in his 20s - together with more than 800 other published works,
remember - the listener can only begin to wonder what Cooman will have achieved
musically in another twenty years!
Only Estampie and the Tombeau-Aria have been previously recorded.
Sound quality is almost as good as it gets. The only unwanted noise comes
from the violist's inhalations in Planctus. The balance between soloists
is likewise superb. All the performers, most of whom are leading Slovakian
musicians, sound at their best. The booklet gives brief biographies of everyone,
as well as a more technical description by Cooman of each work.
An outstanding disc in every regard.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at reviews.gramma.co.uk
An outstanding disc in every regard.