CHARLES T. HAUBIEL: Karma (Symphonic Variations) – Columbia Symphony Orchestra/Robert Hood Bowers, conductor – Pristine Audio

by | Jan 5, 2009 | Classical Reissue Reviews | 0 comments

CHARLES T. HAUBIEL: Karma (Symphonic Variations) – Columbia Symphony Orchestra/Robert Hood Bowers, conductor

Pristine Audio PACS127, 23:47 [Distrib. by www.Pristineclassical.com] *** :

Charles Trowbridge Haubiel (1892-1978)’s Karma was composed for the Schubert Centennial Contest of 1928, the same musical contest that gave birth to the Sixth Symphony by Kurt Atterburg. Haubiel joined the Institute of Musical Art of New York–which later became the Juilliard Foundation–in 1920, then New York University in 1923. He founded the Composer’s Press in 1935 to promote the work of American composers.

Karma won the first place prize at the Schubert Centennial Competition. The present recording, transferred by Mark Obert-Thorn, was cut 12-13 June 1928 on American Columbia shellacs as Modern Music Album No. 1. The “program” for the piece–and its balletic realization–derives from the Hindu Song of God, the Bhagavad Gita, in the translation by Sir Edwin Arnold: “I Brahma am! The one  eternal God! And Soul of Souls! What goeth forth from Me/Causing all Life to Live, is Karma called.” 
Set as a theme and twelve variations, the piece proves an eclectic assembly of styles, ranging from British music, neo-classical, to Richard Strauss evocations, some excursions into bi-tonality and hints of Max Reger, with plenty of string glissandi and portamenti. Each of the variations bears a separate character: Contemplation, Gayety, Jesting, Struggles, Vision, Pursuit, Resignation, Death, etc. So it provides, in concentrated form, a kind of Ein Heldenleben of the spirit without the Nietzschean trappings; or perhaps, Haubiel has exchanged Nietzsche for his version of Schopenhauer. The orchestra is large, the effects busy. Whether any memorable melody emerges from out of the intricate variation technique remains a matter of taste; for my money D’Indy’s Istar packs more firepower and is more academically clever. Maybe Haubiel has translated Elgar’s “enigma” into his personal riddle. Some will find in the opening motif a scent of La Folia; so, is Haubiel just converting the old chaconne into incense, making an Eastern event? A musical curio it certainly is, o adventurous ones!

–Gary Lemco

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