Naxos’s investigation of the Delos back-catalogue proceeds
apace. We are now presented with three pieces by Richard Danielpour
conducted by the ever-exploratory Gerard Schwarz with the Seattle
orchestra. Danielpour was in fact appointed composer-in-residence
with this orchestra in 1991, but the three pieces Schwarz gives
us here were written before that date. Danielpour clearly felt
the need to write these scores, not just to fulfil a
commission or an obligation. The results are delivered by Schwarz
and the orchestra with full commitment and plenty of passion.
Both the back of the CD and the booklet insert describe Danielpour
as a “neo-romantic”. There is certainly plenty of
recycling of earlier styles going on here, but not much of it
could be frankly described as romantic with or without the “neo”
tag. The outer sections of First light call to mind rather
the neo-classical Stravinsky of the Symphony in C and
the Symphony in three movements. The influence of The
rite of spring and The firebird can be heard very
clearly in both The awakened heart and Danielpour’s
Third Symphony. Following the original issue of this
CD, Danielpour was apparently given an exclusive contract with
CBS/Sony - the first composer since Copland and Stravinsky himself
to be so distinguished, we are informed. More recent issues
of his music have appeared on other labels, so it seems that
this exclusivity has now lapsed. The composer’s own website
has not been updated for some years, and not all of the Sony
CDs remain available so this reissue is valuable in bringing
Danielpour back to our attention.
The failure to provide the texts for the Third Symphony
either in the booklet or online must be counted against this
release. The words are clearly important, and despite Faith
Esham’s excellently poised and always polished singing
it is not possible to distinguish much of them. Danielpour’s
own online website seems to be defunct, and the Schirmer website
only gives some short excerpts from the texts. They are hardly
great poetry, but without them the music of the symphony really
doesn’t stand much of a chance. The text for the second
movement begins:
The journey to God is merely the reawakening
Of the knowledge of where you always are and what you are
forever.
It is a journey without distance
To a goal that has never changed.
The music clearly echoes the sentiments of the words, but Esham
manages to make almost none of the words audible; and the chorus,
when they enter at the end of the piece, fare little better.
The vocal writing throughout is highly approachable, with some
superbly judged climaxes, but we really need to know precisely
what everyone is singing about.
Apart from this, the music is well worth getting to know. Danielpour
has established quite a reputation in America, but this has
not translated into the renown in the rest of the world which
has attended the music of John Adams for example. Once the Stravinskian
echoes are past, there is a fresh and responsive approach to
traditional musical vocabulary which strikes an immediate response
from the listener. Danielpour is not afraid to tackle big subjects:
the text for the Third Symphony is drawn from A course
in miracles ‘scribed’ and anonymously published
by Helen Schucman, a Columbia University professor of medical
psychology; her authorship, from dictation by an ‘inner
voice’, was not revealed until after her death. The climactic
phrases bring an almost Wagnerian expansiveness, which tax Esham’s
basically lyric resources to the limit - but apart from a generalised
sense of ecstasy, we can understand very little of the words
that are being sung.
The purely orchestral First light and The awakened
heart also derive from deeply felt poetical models. The
first is based on verses by Robert Duncan, and its four sections
contrast violent neo-Stravinskian passages with some really
effective quiet reflections which - if the gift for melodic
distinction were better marked - might be taken for Vaughan
Williams. The booklet notes tell us that the final section is
based on two Gregorian chants, which serve not as direct quotes
but as the basis for the material of much of the work as a whole
and the “ultimate destination of the music’s journey”.
A chorale also serves as the basis for the second movement of
The awakened heart, entitled Epiphany. This is
a really beautiful piece of writing, with rhapsodic outpourings
surrounding the melody itself. It is preceded by a movement
subtitled Into the world’s night - again the influence
of The rite of spring is most noticeable here, reflected
through Bernstein - perhaps with a hint of what Stravinsky maliciously
called Bernstein’s “tempo di hoochie-coochie”.
The subtitle here comes from a phrase from the existentialist
philosopher Martin Heidegger, and the final movement My hero
bares his nerves takes its title from a poem by Dylan Thomas.
This last recalls music from the earlier movements, “proceeding
at breakneck speed” (to quote again from Paul Schiavo’s
booklet note) and once again the spectre of Stravinsky is immediately
apparent.
Danielpour deserves to be better known; for, despite the obvious
stylistic debts to Stravinsky, his individual sense of purpose
and command of his technique are highly impressive. We should
be grateful to Naxos for rescuing these recordings from oblivion,
but we really do need the texts in music like the Third Symphony.
Could they not please be put on the company’s website?
Paul Corfield Godfrey
Faith Easham (soprano)* 