(++++) SOLOISTS AND OTHERS

Horatio Parker: Organ Concerto; Wayne Oquin: Resilience; Christopher Rouse: Organ Concerto; Ives: Variations on “America.” Paul Jacobs, organ; Nashville Symphony conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero. Naxos. $19.99.

Michele Mangani: Music for Clarinet and String Orchestra, and for Clarinet and Piano. Seunghee Lee, clarinet; Manhattan Chamber Players; Steven Beck, piano. Musica Solis. $25.

     The use of organ with other instruments remains something of a rarity, despite the importance of the organ’s emphatic appearance in such symphonic works as Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3, Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony, Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 7, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8. Using an organ as concerto solo is even less common, and that makes a new Naxos CD featuring Paul Jacobs and the Nashville Symphony under Giancarlo Guerrero very welcome indeed. The opening and closing works on the disc are especially noteworthy (so to speak) – and are in a sense related. The CD starts with the 1902 Organ Concerto by Horatio Parker (1863-1919). This is a highly worthwhile discovery (or rediscovery): although Parker was among the American composers of his time who were looking for an “American” musical sound, he was thoroughly steeped in and devoted to European models, and this concerto shows just how firmly he grasped them. The organ’s contributions to this finely wrought concerto are thoroughly thought-through and well-developed. The first movement, which takes up half the work’s 21 minutes, is stately and elegant, the interplay between organ and orchestra well-balanced and intelligently managed. The short second movement provides an interval of surprising delicacy and refinement, while the finale is broad, wide-ranging and emphatic – and played by Jacobs with considerable flair and expressive panache. Parker was not really an innovator in practice, whatever his intentions might have been, but he was a fine musical craftsman whose sure-handed approach to this concerto nicely showcases his considerable ability. He was not, however, a particularly salutary instructor of his most-famous pupil, Charles Ives, who almost offhandedly “Americanized” music while showing himself much less a respecter of tradition than Parker was (Ives’ Symphony No. 1 was specifically created under Parker’s tutelage, and sounds it). This Naxos CD ends with the solo-organ variations on “America” that Ives created in 1891 (when he was 17) for the Fourth of July, 1892, and that other composers have found irresistible to edit or modify: the version here was done by famed organist E. Power Biggs in 1949, and the work is best-known in its rather flashy orchestration by William Schuman (1910-1992). Most of the Ives variations in their organ version are actually rather subtle, and there is notable use of bitonality. Jacobs does not overplay the work, but explores it with mostly serious engagement (albeit with appropriate lightness in the third variation and the “Polonaise” fourth) and a fine sense of its overall structure. The other works on this CD are much more recent and of somewhat lesser interest. The Organ Concerto by Christopher Rouse (1949-2019) is a late work (2014) that sounds as if the composer is trying a bit too hard to assert his contemporary bone fides through intense (and loud) dissonance in the first movement before producing a much gentler and more congenial second movement Lento and then a rather neatly balanced concluding Presto that, however, never quite decides where it wants to go. And Resilience (2015) by Wayne Oquin (born 1977), although certainly dramatic enough in its contrast between organ and orchestra, seems more gestural than genuinely heartfelt: it is well-made but does not ultimately seem to have very much to say. This disc as a whole is a worthwhile exploration of some little-known repertoire, and Jacobs and Guerrero do a fine job presenting the material as engagingly as possible – although the older items here stand out more forcefully than do the newer ones.

     If Horatio Parker’s works were in a sense determinedly old-fashioned, that was less of a criticism in his time than a similar comment would be about a composer today. Yet Michele Mangani (born 1966) manages to be both old-fashioned in sound and fascinating in instrumental intricacy – at least on the basis of the clarinet-focused material on a new Musica Solis disc featuring Seunghee Lee. Only a single one of these 14 tracks, Theme for Clarinet (for clarinet and piano), has been recorded before, making the disc an interesting exploration of world première recordings. The first seven items, including six originals and an arrangement, are for clarinet and string orchestra. Executive is immediately impressive in its balance of solo and ensemble, its rhythmic vitality, and its exploration of the clarinet’s chalumeau range, where Lee appears to be particularly comfortable. Although it lasts only five-and-a-half minutes, it is the longest work on the disc. Pagina d’Album is warm and moderately paced, with a kind of film-music ethos about it. Intermezzo has similar sensibilities at an even slower speed. Next on the CD is Mangani’s arrangement of Piazzolla’s Tango Étude No. 3, which has a brightness and acerbity lacking in the CD’s first three tracks and provides a welcome contrast with them. Everything else on the disc is a Mangani original. Love Theme is a yearning “song without words” that is more sweet than plaintive. Dancing Doll is a very slow dance indeed, more a swaying than anything involving actual dance steps. And Ave Maria, the last clarinet-and-strings piece here, is similarly emotive without expressing any particular religious fervor – although its familiar theme is nicely handled. The next three tracks are the Tre Danze Latine for clarinet and piano: Contredanza is not strongly accented but has a pleasant lilt, Vals Criollo has considerable rhythmic vitality, and Chorinho is deliciously fast-paced and allows Lee and pianist Steven Beck plenty of opportunities to collaborate while bouncing material around. The four remaining works are, like most of the pieces here, standalone miniatures. Dreaming returns in clarinet-and-piano mode to the quiet wistfulness of most of the clarinet-and-strings works. Theme for Clarinet is slow, lies low on the instrument, and would fit a warm fantasy or rose-colored romantic sequence in a movie particularly well. Andante Malinconico is not significantly more melancholic than many of the other pieces offered here: Mangani paints almost always in darker colors and produces mostly crepuscular effects. The CD ends with Souvenir, yet another sweet and mostly quiet piece whose foundational gentleness fits the clarinet very well but whose emotions have by this time been quite thoroughly explored in other works on the disc. This is pretty music rather than anything profound, and the similarity of length and emotional heft of most works on this CD make its 50 minutes of music seem longer – unless the disc becomes background music, which it seems to invite itself to be. Its emotionally monochromatic nature makes this a (+++) recording despite the undeniable attractiveness of Lee’s playing and the skill of her string-ensemble and piano accompanists. Although in many cases they are individually effective, the pieces here are less satisfying when heard as the consecutive totality in which they are presented for this recording.