Don Gillis Gets (Mostly) Serious
J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 07/15/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"As I titled my earlier Amazon review ( at http://snipurl.com/gabm ) of the previous release of Don Gillis's 'Star-Spangled Symphony' and the 'Dance Symphony', he wrote 'Absolutely Top-Drawer Light American Symphonic Music.' His brand of brash pop-music-inflected orchestral music on that release was a spot-on representation of what it was like to live in America in the mid-twentieth century. And that is just as true with the current release - two symphonies written in the 1940s, plus his later 'Paul Bunyan Overture.' Except that in the symphonies he is going for a more serious statement.
Symphony No. 5 'In Memoriam' (1945) honors those who died in World War II and its tone is appropriately somber and at times monumental. But the materials are the same as in his lighter works -- walking tenths, rich brass chords, plangent wind melodies (in particular, the lovely, sad English horn melody of the middle movement) all in typical 1940s big-band influenced orchestration. This is evocative music but it is also immediately accessible and singularly American in its straightforwardness. The finale is a lilting 6/8 tarantella/jig sometimes sounding Italian, sometimes Irish --- a fitting evocation of the American melting-pot -- and always lively, celebratory in honor of those who served and survived. And it also suggests the burgeoning optimism of the immediate 'let's-make-up-for-lost-time' postwar era, but with reminiscences of the horrible sacrifices just past.
Symphony No. 6 'Mid-Century U.S.A.' (1948, and coming right after his hilarious and very popular 'Symphony No. 5 1/2') is more of the same but is in general much livelier and lighter. At times I think I hear Indian melodies (rather like those in MacDowell's 'Indian Suite') as well as typical pop-music harmonies, Coplandesque wistfulness, American dance rhythms and, again, that open-faced optimism so frequent in Gillis's music. It is amazing to me, as it was in the earlier release, that this music can be played so idiomatically by a Polish orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, conducted by a Briton, pianist/conductor Ian Hobson. This is their third Gillis release and one might think that's why they get it so right, but in fact from the very first release they have played as if they were an American orchestra, high praise in my book.
The opening number is the 'Paul Bunyan' overture' (1964) and it is a genuinely folksy, funny, bigger-the-life 7-minute boogie-based romp. The first time I put it in my player it was so enjoyable I immediately played it three times. Gillis had the gift of writing instantly memorable melodies, and this overture has several of them.
This is another treasurable release in what appears to be an ongoing series of recordings of major Gillis orchestral works. Bravo to Hobson, Sinfonia Varsovia and Albany Records for that.
TT=66 mins.
Scott Morrison"
Track Listings (3) - Disc #1