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 |  |  | | | | Track Listings | | | 1 Samson Agonistes (Starer) | 13:35 | | Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (Starer) | | | 2 I. Fast and bright | 4:52 | | 3 II. Slow, poco rubato | 6:34 | | 4 III. Lightheartedly | 4:20 | | 5 IV. Slow, deliberate; fast | 4:56 | | 6 Lightning (An Overture) (McKinley) | 15:16 | | 7 Adagio for Strings (McKinley) | 20:24 | | Total time: | 70:25 |
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| | | | | | Modern American Classics Volume V - Music of Robert Starer and William Thomas McKinley | | | Our Price: $9.95  | | | | Item Number: MMC2070 | | Audio Format: DDD | | Genres: Concerto\Orchestral | | | | Description | | Excerpts from the Liner Notes (by Alexander Carpenter)
Samson Agonistes
"Samson Agonistes" was first conceived and composed as ballet music for Martha Graham. It received its premier in 1960, under the title of Visionary Recital. The piece was originally scored for chamber orchestra, but was shortened and re-orchestrated in 1963 for full orchestra. The “real” premier of the newly-titled Samson Agonistes as a “symphonic portrait” took place in 1965, with the Cincinnati Symphony under Max Rudolph.
Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra
Premiered in 1996 by soloists Misha and Cipa Dichter and the Seattle Symphony under Gerard Schwarz, Starer’s concerto is an energetic and challenging work. Consisting of four movements, the work is based largely upon simple, pervasive rhythmic figures, and features the juxtaposing of soloists and tutti with contrasting yet complimentary material. The concerto is meant to be, as the composer indicates, an exploration of individuality, as soloists share the same material, but will necessarily perform the material with slight and subtle differences.
Lightning (An Overture)
McKinley’s overture was composed in 1993, and was commissioned by Absolut Concerto. It received its premier in 1994 at the Avery Fisher Hall. The overture, according to McKinley, has both a formal and programmatic purpose: it is a rondo, with a “imbricated architecture,” and it is also a metaphorical simulation of “the power and multileveled nature of perhaps one of Earth’s most frightening and primordial forces.”
Adagio for Strings
Composed in 1987, the Adagio for Strings was commissioned by SinfoNova and the Massachusetts Council for the Arts. The piece is a single-movement work which explores the expressive possibilities of the string orchestra. McKinley notes that there is a certain dark, “tragic lyricism” inherent in the string orchestra, characteristics that compliment the “dramatic purpose” of the Adagio. It is important to note as well a certain irony here, namely that McKinley writes of being able to achieve his darkness and tragic lyricism only by virtue of the “amiability” of the string orchestra genre. The result of this marriage of string orchestra and the composer’s romantic-dramatic vision is, in his own words, a “Mahlerian and Gothic” musical structure, an expression of the tragic lyricism that he felt while composing the Adagio. |
| | | | | | | Reviews | | "Viennese-born Robert Starer (b. 1924) is a composer whose long career and achievements should not need any introduction."
"...as brilliantly as [Starer’s] music is constructed, it never degenerates into a mere mind game."
"Here conductor Vladimír Válek and his Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra are apparently quite moved by this score [Adagio for Strings]...and produce a both sumptuous and gripping account of it."
"To provoke, exasperate, and, ultimately, to charm seem to be McKinley’s missions... Here he once again succeeds admirably."
"Here [MMC] once again does itself proud by producing performances that go far beyond documentation."
-Fanfare: William Zagorski |
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