News & Reviews

If the three sonatas were conceived by the composer as calling cards to be presented to prospective patrons, Shaham’s exemplary recording might be thought of in similar terms for herself—though at this stage in her career it’s hardly needed. In her hands, Mozart’s music sings, and the centuries separating composer and performer collapse whenever her fingers touch the keyboard.

Steven Mackey’s violin concerto Beautiful Passing was premiered in 2008 by Leila Josefowicz with the BBC Philharmonic and Juraj Valcuha, but here receives the advocacy of Anthony Marwood with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and David Robertson. The inspiration for the concerto was the death of the composer’s mother, as Mackey explains: ‘The governing metaphor of the work has to do with the violin gaining control of its own destiny, competing with, commanding and ultimately letting go of the orchestra. This metaphor arises from my experience, during the composition of the piece, watching my mother gain control of her destiny to the point of predicting the day she would let go, predicting the day of her death. Her last words to me were “Please tell everyone I had a beautiful passing.”‘

A “blue” note in the Scherzo movement of Beethoven’s last string quartet inspired Grammy®-winning composer Steven Mackey’s choice of career. Beethoven’s gesture was a revelation for this electric guitar player who couldn’t read music.  “They’re writing music for people to listen to, trying to distill all of life into a listening experience. Here was music meant to illuminate the human soul,” he explained to an interviewer.

Even after getting his PhD in composition, Mackey realized “all my favorite bits violate the rules I learned in grad school.” He developed a “voice” — a style of composition that integrated elements of improvisation with the formal serious music tradition—a combination, he says of Stravinsky and Led Zeppelin. In fact, many of his compositions incorporate the electric guitar.

Mnemosyne’s Pool is named for the Greek goddess of memory. This NSO co-commission (with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and New World Symphony) will be featured in NSO concerts December 1st through the 3rd, under the direction of American conductor David Robertson. The Symphony is also included in Mackey’s new release, Beautiful Passing, on Canary Classics. The title piece, Beautiful Passing, is a violin concerto and a deeply personal recollection of his mother’s dying moments. Both works share the idea of memory: musical memory in Mnemosyne’s Pool and personal memory in Beautiful Passing.

Mr. Dorman, a prolific Israeli composer who studied with John Corigliano and shares his former teacher’s penchant for an eclectic, emotionally direct musical language… Mr. Dorman’s colorful but disciplined, intensely focused style is suited to the subject matter, and he has produced a work that appeals to pacifist sensibilities by showing the devastation of war as human, personal and direct. The Gettysburg College Choir and the Tremolo Percussion Ensemble—which is used vigorously in the “Battle” movement, and more subtly elsewhere—perform the piece with eloquence and precision under the baton of Robert Natter in this 2015 studio recording.

Different sides of Mr. Dorman’s instrumental writing are on display in “After Brahms—Three Intermezzos for Piano” (2014) and “Nigunim (Violin Sonata No. 3)” (2011). “After Brahms” channels the sensibility of Brahms’s late piano music, in both its explosively turbulent and gently introspective manifestations, and is played with both power and poetry by Orli Shaham. “Nigunim” builds on the modal melodic turns of Jewish music (a nigun is a short, repeating melody that can be used in anything from prayer to klezmer performances; nigunim is the plural), expanded upon and recast in the Romantic bravura style. In that spirit, Gil Shaham gives the piece a high-energy, virtuosic reading, with firm support from Ms. Shaham on the piano.