Schelle and Bolcom take flight
07/20/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"As a fan of contemporary orchestra music, I looked forward to this release, featuring the music of three composers who are great at what they do: Bolcom, Schelle and Rodriguez. The Dayton Symphony has done a truly marvelous job under Gittleman, turning in performances that are truly great, handling each of the styles of these composers and giving us readings that show the pieces to their best advantage. Bravo, maestro and band! Tech credits are also good - this recording is very crisp and clean. The quality of the work by the composers themselves, however, is uneven. The first piece on the disc, "Inventing Flight," by William Bolcom is wonderful - American vernacularisms punctuating the robust playing of cellist Mary Davis Featherstone. This is vital, recognizably American, accessible music. The next piece, by the orchestra's tubist, Steven Winteregg, while showing some skill, seems to fall flat, perhaps because it seems so, well, just conventional. The work by Rodriguez disappoints as well. This seems like an unlikely misstep by this composer, whose work is usually of very high quality. However, "Flight: The Story of Wilbur and Orville," does not measure up. "Flight" is just too "literal." Everything that's in the spoken text is in the music (if the text says "up" the music goes up) It's as if Rodriguez doesn't trust his audience's imagination, and has to hand feed us. That can be condescending, even to children. By contrast, "Wright Flight," by composer Michael Schelle, grabs you from the first notes of the piece and keeps you. A piano concerto (with Andrew Russo in a great performance), this is easily the best work on the disc, this music gives you snippets of many different sound worlds: peaceful tunes (the waltz is very lovely) and colorful, harrowing, frantic rides. The listener is excited, sharing in the bumps and jolts, the building excitement, and the warmth, as the piece unfolds. As a master craftsman, Schelle brings to this disc the lift it needs to really pay tribute the historical contributions by the Wright Bros."
Orville & Wilbur Get Their Day at the Philharmonic
J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 07/08/2004
(3 out of 5 stars)
"The powers that be at the Dayton (Ohio) Philharmonic came up with a terrific idea several years ago: to commission several (four as it turns out) orchestral pieces to commemorate the centennial of the invention of powered flight by Dayton's own native sons, bicycle mechanics Orville and Wilbur Wright. This CD is the result of that. The composers were given few constraints and the pieces are diverse enough to make a generally interesting and engaging 77 minutes of music. William Bolcom (b. 1938) is probably the best-known of the composers represented here. His three movement 'Inventing Flight' honors not only the Wright Brothers, but early pioneers of flight: in I 'Daedalus and Icarus' and in II 'Leonardo.' In I Dayton Phil assistant principal cellist Mary Davis Fetherston plays a prominent cello part which personifies Daedalus attempting to caution his impulsive son, Icarus, who is represented by the brass. Bolcom's eclectic music takes a definite turn toward early 20th-c. American music in III 'Wilbur and Orville,' depicting them as jaunty figures whose eventual successful flight is marked by a triumpant march with winds doing loop-the-loops in the sonic stratosphere. Steven Winteregg (b. 1952) is principal tubist of the DPO. His choral/orchestral piece 'To Fly Unbounded,' has four sections: 'To Flee the Bounds,' 'Dreams of Youth,' 'Hymn of Determination,' and 'Flight into the Unknown.' The DPO Chorus sings words by Paul Lawrence Dunbar and Walt Whitman, as well as a quote from Wilbur Wright--but you wouldn't know that; there are no printed texts and one cannot make out the words with any ease. This piece, although it contains some sweet and occasionally stirring music, particularly in I and III, is fairly forgettable, as most pièces d'occasion are. 'Wright Flight' by Michael Schelle (b. 1950) is my favorite. I am a bit surprised at myself because the piece starts out with a lot of minimalist tick-tocking that is generally not my cup of tea. But in that kind of mechanical sound one can picture Wilbur and Orville tinkering with gears, wires, chains and motors in their shop. When the music opens out into a soaring 'flight theme' (it could have come from the pen of John Williams) one smiles with pleasure. Section IV, 'Wright Waltz,' is pure delight. The final piece, a 22-minute mélodrame whose text is read by the Dayton native and star of 'The West Wing,' Allison Janney,('C.J.'), with libretto by Sukey Smith, recounts the efforts of the Brothers. The music by Robert Xavier Rodríguez (b. 1946) is, for me, faceless and unmemorable. Further, the audio level of Janney's narration is often so low that one cannot make out what she is saying. In sum, then, I liked the Bolcom and the Schelle, didn't respond much to the Winteregg and Rodríguez. That's not a bad average, if you think about it, for four new compositions that were commissioned for a special occasion. The Dayton orchestra under conductor Neal Gittleman is reasonably able for a middle-level American orchestra. Scott Morrison"
A fitting tribute
Jorge Barbarosa | the back 9 | 07/09/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Program music for the new millennium, a fitting tribute to the disputed "first to fly", I'm fortunate that in 2003 and 2004 I have been able to visit the Smithsonian Flight Museums (both the D.C. and Dulles facilities), and was able to attend the 100th at Kitty Hawk in December and Kitty Hawk again in May. I would like to attend the Wright-Patterson museum in Dayton, along with whatever Dayton has to offer up in tribute to the Wright Brothers. I'm not even a pilot (but my frequent flyer miles are pretty high), timing is everything, I happened to be in all the "Wright" places during the event horizons. This is a good release, I enjoy it."
Track Listings (4) - Disc #1