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 |  |  | | | | Track Listings | | | Summer Dances (McKinley -1985) | | | 1 I. Bolero | 6:51 | | 2 II. Valse | 5:43 | | 3 III. Ballad | 6:30 | | Violin Concerto (Carbon -1995) | | | 4 I. Adagio | 8:06 | | 5 II. Lento e teneramente | 9:24 | | 6 III. Allegro tumultuoso | 4:11 | | 7 Song Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra (Chumbley -1995) | 24:31 | | Total time: | 65:33 |
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| | | | | | Three American Concertos | | | Our Price: $9.95  | | | | Item Number: MMC2059 | | Audio Format: HDCD | | Genre: Concerto | | | | Description | | Excerpts from the Liner Notes (by Mark Lehman)
Summer Dances
As its title implies, "Summer Dances" - though scored for violin and orchestra - is not a conventional concerto, and though it certainly has a prominent and crucial role for the soloist, it replaces the blazing virtuosity and (at times) frenzied excitement typical of McKinley’s full-fledged concertos with a somewhat more subdued and introverted (though still quite demanding) solo part. Cadenzas - a salient feature of his concertos - are likewise dispensed with, and the orchestral forces are also more modest; four winds, three brass, harp, piano, percussion, and strings. The three “dances” are “Bolero,” “Valse,” and “Ballad”;
Violin Concerto
Carbon’s 1994 Violin Concerto makes a fascinating comparison with his 1993 Clarinet Concerto. They are at once identifiable as products of the same mind: both derive immense variety from a single germinal motive, both are charged with Carbon’s distinctive lyrical intensity, both challenge the soloist with demanding virtuosity that conveys passion rather than simply brilliance (they both use several brief cadenzas, rather than longer ones, so as to heighten rather than disperse emotional impact), and both offer a luminous, resplendent orchestral soundworld of sumptuous plenitude and visionary sweep.
Song Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra
As the title suggests, this is not a concerto but a large-scale, single-movement “fantasy,” sui generis and unpredictable in form, almost as if it were being improvised before us. It is, moreover, explicitly evocative, even pictorial, for, as Chumbley explains, the work was inspired by a particular musical experience: that of listening to the Portuguese folk music known as “Fado” in the dark, smoky nightclubs of Lisbon where this fervent, melismatic, Moorish-tinted music is sung in the husky, soulful voices of its female performers. Fado, as heard in these nightclubs, has a sensual, fierce, almost hypnotic intensity, relieved at intervals by faster dances (in triple meter) called “Fandangos” which offer muscular and emotional release to the club audiences who get up and dance to them after being held rapt by the songs. |
| | | | | | | Reviews | | "Peter Zazofsky adapts chameleon like to the distinctive colorations of each of the three disparate works. He’s reticent in McKinley’s obbligato, jettisons tonal weight to achieve Carbons’ acrobatic flights, and digs with rough gusto into the throaty role of a nightclub singer. The engineers have also accommodated these shifts, achieving clarity throughout without sacrificing ambiance. Zimmerman and the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra exhibit the wide rage of emotional, dynamic and textural contrast upon which the success of these works-and their performance- depends.... Recommended."
-Fanfare: Robert Maxham |
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