#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 4

The Classics a Day team has celebrated Black composers before. This time around, I tried to avoid duplication with previous posts. It was easy to do. There is a lot of classical music by persons of color, both in the past as well as the present. A lot.

Here are my posts for the fourth week of #BlackHistoryMonth for #ClassicsaDay.

02/22/21 Clarence Cameron White - Levee Dance

White was one of the best violinists at the turn of the 20th Century. His race limited his opportunities. His music blended African-American traditions with Western classical forms.

02/23/21 Michael Abels - Urban Legends

This work is credited with jumpstarting Abels' film career. Jordon Peele saw it, and tapped Abels for the score of "Get Out." He followed this with the soundtrack for "Us."

02/24/21 Ulysses Kay - Six Dances for String Orchestra

In 1954 Kay was asked to provide music for a CBS radio program "String Serenade." He wrote two dances. They were hit, and so he wrote two more for the program. Later he added two more to round out the suite for concert use.

02/25/21 Zenobia Powell Perry - Up Over My Head I See Freedom In the Air

This is an aria from Perry's opera "Tawawa House." It was an underground railroad station and later the site of Wilberforce College, one of the first black-owned colleges.

02/26/21 Alvin Singleton - After the Fallen Crumbs

Singleton wrote this work while serving as the composer in residence for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The ensemble premiered the work in 1987.

 

Airat Ichmouratov Symphony a tonal masterwork

Some of my classical music friends are convinced that the art form died in the 1920s -- and Schoenberg killed it. Contemporary music is uniformly academic, difficult to perform, and even harder to listen to. Airat Ichmouratov is but one of several contemporary composers who refute those stereotypes time and again. 

Ichmouratov is a true eclectic. Born in Russia, Ichmouratov lives and works in Montreal. Though a practicing Muslim, he also has a deep love of Klezmer music, and even plays clarinet in a Montreal-based Klezmer ensemble. 

Ichmouratov fuses classical and popular styles together to create music that's engaging, substantial, and accessible to both serious and casual listeners. Ichouratov is the master of orchestral color, as the three works in this release demonstrate.

Ichmouratov's Symphony is subtitled "On the Ruins of an Ancient Fort." His orchestrations effectively evoke impressions of this fort and its rich history. What I best enjoyed about Ichmouratov's music was its originality. Contemporary tonal music can often sound like movie music. Not here. Ichmouratov's orchestrations are refreshingly different, without sounding derivative.

The Maslentia Overture (2013) evoke the celebrations of the week preceding Lent. Here Ichmouratov uses elements of Gregorian chant to set the stage. The Youth Overture, fittingly, is a high-energy work that seems to brim with optimism. This is its recording world premiere -- performed by the orchestra and conductor Ichmouratov composed the overture for. 

L'Orchestre de la Francophonie has a good recorded sound. The ensemble blend is quite pleasing, and the soloists performed with exceptional musicality. An album of exceptional music, and one I'll be sharing with my anti-modernist friends.

 Airat Ichmouratov: Symphony, Op. 55, "On the Ruins of an Ancient Fort"
"Youth" Overture; "Maslentisa" Overture
Orchestre de la Francophonie; Jean-Philippe Tremblay, conductor
Chandos 20172

Weber Piano and Orchestral Music in Good Hands

In a way, I suppose, this release was the next logical step. Pianist Ronald Brautigam and the Kölner Akademie have already recorded the complete piano concertos of Mozart, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn. Presenting those of Carl Maria von Weber helps fill out that timeline.

Von Weber was a younger contemporary of Ludwig van Beethoven, and his music draws more on the style of Mozart and Haydn. The first of his two piano concertos illustrates that. 

The Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major is a classically balanced work. The clear textures and straight-forward harmonies seem Mozartian, with perhaps a dash of Mendelssohn. 

Piano Concerto No. 2 in E-flat major seems more strongly influenced by Beethoven. In 1811 the "Emporer" concerto (also in E-flat) premiered. To my ears, it doesn't sound as if Weber is imitated, Beethoven. Rather, it seems as if Beethoven's inspired Weber to be more adventurous -- which he is. 

That adventure continues with the Konzerstücke in F minor from 1821. Here Weber's music leans towards Romanticism.

Ronald Brautigam performs with a fortepiano modeled after an 1819 Conrad Graf. It's a good choice, as all three works fit nicely to the instrument. Brautigam's playing is precise and expressive. His powerful gestures heighten the stormy dramas in the second concerto and Konzertstucke.

The Kölner Akademie, directed by Michael Alexander Willens also delivers some spirited performances. The ensemble also uses period instruments, but that doesn't lessen their impact.

I have heard period-instrument performances of Weber that seem flat. Not here. There's plenty of dynamic contrast. And even though the ensemble has a different color to it than a modern chamber orchestra, it still engages the ear.

Some of that may be due to the recording. The SACD version delivers exceptionally fine detail through a good system (or headphones). 

A fine addition to the catalog of these musicians.  

Carl Maria von Weber: Complete Works for Piano and Orchestra
Ronald Brautigam, fortepiano
Kölner Akademie; Michael Alexander Willens, conductor
BIS 2384 SACD

Dreams of a New Day - Songs of the Black Experience

This is an important album. Its concept and execution make it so. Baritone Will Liverman has assembled a program of art songs by Black composers spanning over a hundred years. 

Each composer used the foundation of the classical art song. And each created something different that enriches the genre.

Liverman commissioned Shawn E. Okpebholo's "Two Black Churches." The two movements reference a 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, and the 2015 mass shooting in Charleston, South Carolina. This powerful work receives its world premiere recording. It's worth the price of the album alone. 

The release also includes "Five Songs on Poems by Laurence Hope." The composer, Henry Burleigh, studied with Antonin Dvorak and is credited with introducing him to Black music. The style is late-19th Century, but the lyrics lift the music above the commonplace. 

For "Three Dream Portraits" Margaret Bonds set poems by her friend Langston Hughes. The text goes right to the heart of the Black experience, as true now as when it was written.

Leslie Adams's "Amazing Grace" isn't a rehash of the familiar hymn. Rather, it's an original poem by Adams, set to original music. This 1992 composition is one of exceptional beauty.

Will Liverman has a rich, powerful voice that commands attention. His voice, especially in the upper register, is beautifully expressive. Liverman effectively conveys the emotional substance of these works. 

And that's what makes this such an important album.

Dreams of a New Day
Songs by Black Composers
Will Liverman, baritone; Paul Sanchez, piano
Cedille Records CDR 90000 200

Niccolò Zingarelli Milanese Symphonies Surprise

 

Niccolò Zingarelli is best remembered as a composer of operas. Over the course of his career, he composed around 37, mostly comic operas. But he also wrote other in other forms, too. This release presents four of his "Milanese" symphonies.

The works were given this name by musicologist Rey Longyear. It references the Conservatory of Milan, where the manuscripts are housed. Zingarelli arrived in Milan in 1793 and composed for La Scala through 1803. These symphonies date from an earlier time, around 1780. 

Zingarelli was about 28 years old, and the Sturm und Drang movement was in full bloom. These four symphonies show some of those traits, especially with the wide dynamic contrasts between sections.

The symphonies are all in three movements, and concise. What sets them apart from, say, the symphonies of Johann Stamitz are their melodies. Zingarelli the opera composer brings his skill to these instrumental works. The slow movements especially have beautifully crafted melodies.

The Atalanta Fugiens Orchestra directed by Vanni Moretto performs in a refined Classical style. There's plenty of drama, but none of it is overwrought. The melodies have an Italian lilt to them, revealing their kinship to Zingarelli's operas. 

The ensemble is recorded in a somewhat spacious venue, giving the music an expansive sound stage. It softens the sound a little, but I think it makes complement's Zingarelli's style.

Niccolò Zingarelli: Sinfonie Milanesi Nos. 5-8
Atalanta Fugiens Orchestra; Vanni Moretto, conductor
Urania Records LDV 14068