Jeffrey Silberschlag - And the President Said...
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Album Review MMC's And the President Said… is an American-themed collection that is rather different from the standard fare. It takes a capricious and tongue-in-cheek look at America, and given the political climate in America at the time of release it is a shame that the disc isn't a little better than it is, as the program is not without a measure of inspiration. All of the music, save William Thomas McKinley's Wild Stallion and Roger Davidson's American Meditation, sounds as though it was recorded somewhere down the street in the middle of the next block. This creates a conflict particularly in Morton Gould's Hosedown, as the studio recorded narration, engineered as though it were a radio commercial, does not even sound as though it is in the same sonic universe as the orchestra. This is a pity, as this late, previously unrecorded firefighting opus from Gould has some fine musical qualities and is a great piece for kids, initially commissioned for use in young people's concerts. Mostly the disc is devoted to music of William Thomas McKinley. His Presidential Overture and And the President Said… seem awfully busy musically, perhaps taking as point of departure the orchestral music of Charles Ives, except that in Ives there is usually some strong foreground element in dense orchestral textures that focuses the attention of the listener. These two McKinley pieces just tumble along in a featureless fashion with shards of Americana poking in and out of the fabric, although the extreme sense of distance in the recording doesn't help much. Retired Washington Post vice-president "at large" Benjamin Bradlee, who narrates And the President Said…, must be a heck of a score reader, as one wonders how anyone could find the cues in the music for the narrator. Bradlee does a fine job, by the way, and wears his tuxedo a bit more smartly than does conductor Jeffery Silberschlag in the front cover image. Bradlee also contributes the short introduction to Roger Davidson's American Meditation, a pleasant trumpet solo with orchestra that, according to annotator Peter Bates, "hearkens back to the earlier folk-jazz style of composers like George Gershwin," but actually sounds more like something the Jackie Gleason Orchestra might have dished up in the ‘fifties, only longer. And the President Said… might find its best application as a disc for American conductors in order to review patriotic concert selections that go beyond the usual, familiar Lincoln Portrait kind of fare. For the rest of us, it is more of a non-essential option. ~ Uncle Dave Lewis, All Music Guide Credits
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