Search - John Donald Robb, Michael Mauldin, Hayg Boyadjian :: John Donald Robb: Elegy for Our War Dead; Michael Mauldin: Desert Light...

Best of John Donald Robb

M. Mauldin | Albuquerque NM USA | 12/23/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Though I'm impressed with the recording that David Oberg and the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra made of my "Desert Light" on this CD, I want to stress that it includes excellent renditions of two important pieces by my mentor, John Donald Robb. He was a colorful character--composer, educator, conductor, ethnomusicologist (in the tradition of Bartok and Kodaly), author, administrator, soldier and lawyer.



When I was in graduate school at the University of New Mexico, it was an early piano version of his "Scenes From a New Mexico Mountain Village" that moved me to write programmatic music inspired by the magic of New Mexico. This version, arranged and orchestrated at Robb's request by John J. Mitchell, is performed beautifully by Oberg and the PRNSO.



Robb's "Elegy for Our War Dead" was written shortly after World War II and is the second movement of his "Symphony for Strings." Often performed independently, the Elegy is a meditative reflection of its time. It's dedicated to those in the US military who died during the war."