BOB BROOKMEYER: Music for String Quartet and Orchestra – Gustav Klimt String Quartet/Metropole Orchestra/Bob Brookmeyer – Challenge Jazz CHR70136, 55:36 [Distr. by Allegro] *****:
I don’t how I missed this one last year – perhaps because it wasn’t one of the usual Challenge label SACDs – but I’m very glad to hear it this year. I think as an orchestral classical/jazz effort it’s the equal of my favorite of that ilk, Stan Getz/Eddie Sauter’s Focus. However, Brookmeyer is not featured on his trombone, he is more than busy conducting the orchestra in his gorgeous suite of music in four selections.
The Klimt Quartet was founded in 1993 and divides its talents between pop, jazz and classical projects. It’s one of the prime examples of the fearless, diversified music scene in Holland. The same goes for the Metropole Orchestra, the world’s largest professional pop and jazz orchestra. Founded in 1945, it has worked with the top names in the world of pop, jazz and cabaret, and has become a main player in providing both Dutch and international film scores. Brookmeyer himself says “They have become one of the essential voices in music.” Brookmeyer also thanks the Dutch Radio for helping him investigate the new horizons shown in these works. His efforts started with a request from the Klimt Quartet to write a piece for them plus orchestra, and things grew from that.
The longest of the four selections is the second, American Beauty. Brookmeyer says the piece just sort of happened to him, that it “came in on the wings of the Music God.” He also reports that all the things he has done over the past 63 years are collected together in A Frolic and a Tune – a tour de force of writing and orchestration. It opens with a Bachian sort of counterpoint with woodwinds and brass over the string section. The string quartet enters with short statements contrasting with punctuations from the brass and more of the orchestra. The brass then state a lovely waltz theme that is played with by the quartet and orchestra. The work moves into a quieter more meditative mood with occasional solo violin standing out. Towards the end the quartet again brings out the melody and the piece proceeds to a quite conclusion. If Brookmeyer’s music wasn’t so thoroughly tonal I might say it’s similar to the earlier Third Stream Music movement.
The album was recorded in Amsterdam in 2003 and is excellent sonically, even though not SACD. Highly recommended!
TrackList: Fanfares and Folk Song, American Beauty, A Frolic and a Tune, Wood Dance.
– John Henry
