One of the main attractions of this album is the intelligent
and imaginative planning - selecting and juxtaposing these American
works. Buyers should however be aware that this is not the first
time that at least three of these items have been presented
together - EMI’s 1994 recording 5 55358 2 (see below)
also links Barber (Knoxville) and Copland (Eight Poems
of Emily Dickinson and Quiet City). All the items
on this recording share the same sort of atmosphere and often
the same weight of instrumentation even down to the highlighting
of certain instruments - the trumpet for instance - playing
a prominent part in Copland’s Quiet City, as a
short solo in Barber’s Knoxville and more prominently
in his Capricorn Concerto. Conductor David Curtis is
an established figure working in the USA as well as Europe and
the Far East. Moreover the Orchestra of the Swan (OOTS) has
welcomed visiting composers, soloists and conductors from America.
Copland’s Quiet City - for a psychological drama
by Irwin Shaw - evokes, as in so many Copland works, a comfortable,
comforting picture of small town Americana. It’s a small-scale
nocturne beginning quietly, mistily as the city settles down
to sleep. The music is serene, the mood calm and nostalgic until
a broad hint of discord invades the peace. Copland explained
that the piece was "an attempt to mirror the troubled main character
of Irwin Shaw's play" - eschewing his Jewishness
and his ambitions to write poetry, for marriage to a rich girl
and the chance to become president of a department store. His
conscience troubles him as he recalls the haunting sound of
his brother's trumpet playing. Copland’s writing for the
solo instrument is impressive: so plaintive and plangent.
Barber’s atmospheric portrait of a 1915 Knoxville summer
evening is another warmly evocative piece and it has received
several recordings. My personal favourite is with the more mellow
tones of Barbara Hendricks delivering what sounds like authentic
American inflexions, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted
by Michael Tilson Thomas. This was recorded in 1994 as EMI 5
55358 2 - and was later reissued in an all-Barber
programme. This new recording is meritorious too: April
Frederick is a lighter-toned soprano with a most pleasing timbre
and impressive projection - she can certainly hold a long-sustained
note with supreme artistry and confidence. Just listen to her
doing just that in the final Gershwin Porgy and Bess
‘Summertime’. Listen also to how she and the OOTS
touch the heart-strings in Knoxville’s final prayer
section - ‘May God bless my people…’ Again
the trumpet is there in a solo role in the louder brilliant
mechanical evocation of the passing streetcar - all clangings
and sparkings.
Copland’s Capricorn Concerto blends Bach and Stravinsky.
It is named after the house Barber shared with his partner Gian-Carlo
Menotti. The piece has the same scoring as Bach’s Second
Brandenburg Concerto and the Stravinsky influence reminds one
of Pulcinella and Petrushka. This is a nicely
witty and acerbic reading.
Copland’s idiomatic writing illuminates the Eight Poems
of Emily Dickinson. The lullaby-like ‘Nature, the
gentlest mother’ is a lovely pastoral evocation. ‘Heart,
we will forget him’, sad and forlorn, is nonetheless gorgeously,
warmly scored for the strings with haunting brass figures. Themes
of loss, death and eternity are prominent. The grand profundity
of ‘Sleep is supposed to be’ contrasts with the
child-like visions of ‘Going to Heaven’ with those
heartfelt lines, ‘… If you should get there first,
Save just a little place for me, Close to the two I lost!...’;
and of ‘The Chariot’ where the singer rides with
Death to eternity. April Fredericks empathises so well with
these songs and the OOTS reveal all the subtleties of Copland’s
sympathetic settings.
A very satisfying concert of American music.
Ian Lace
Dickinson songs
‘Nature, the gentlest Mother’ [4:25]
‘There came a wind like a bugle’ [1:39]
‘The world feels dusty’ [2:01]
‘Heart, we will forget him’ [2:32]
‘Dear March, come in’ [2:27]
‘Sleep is supposed to be’ [3:07]
‘Going to Heaven!’ [2:57]
‘The Chariot’ [4:02]
April Fredrick (soprano) 