Breaths of fresh musical air waft at you from all directions with this example of the super-accessible very American-sounding music of Don Gillis. It’s one of only two SACDs out of a series of discs which the Albany label has thankfully devoted to the composer who died in 1978 and whose lifelong goal was “to reach the people.” This trio of symphonies brings us his most popular work, the “5 1/2,” plus the recording premieres of his first two symphonies.
Gillis was born in Missouri but attended the North Texas State Teachers College and spent most of his life in Texas. He never attended a classy music conservatory, but pursued music diligently. His talent in radio production got him the job of Arturo Toscanini’s technical major domo. His personal credo had three elements: love of country, love of God, and love of a good laugh. How fortunate that the fascist stranglehold of international serialism has been broken and we can enjoy Gillis’ urgently tuneful and often jazzy music without apology or snide comments! His style is something like the true American heart of Charles Ives or Aaron Copland, but extracted before any wild experimentation or sophisticated gussying-up has been done to it.
Both Symphonies 1 and 2 were written during WW II years. The First is definitely a war symphony, but betrays a more optimistic cast than most such, with plenty of spunky tunes and lots of fanfare-sounding figurations throughout. It was written before the U.S. declared war and was intended to encourage our entry into the conflict. Patriotism was a simpler, more innocent emotion back then than it is in today’s world. The Second Symphony is a plain-talking, rustic sort of vehicle for Gillis to communicate “the ideals of this nation,” as he put it. Its second movement is a song of faith in God, country, land and fellowman. However, it could not be said to be stereotypically religious in nature – a warm feeling for humanity is at its core.
While working on his Symphony No. 5 Gillis came up with two brief movements that just didn’t fit with what he had planned. So he wrote two more in a similar lighthearted mood and dubbed it his Symphony 5 1/2. Gillis sense of musical humor gets full flight in these four snappy little movements. He uses tongue-in-cheek titles such as Perpetual Emotion and Scherzofrenia, and drops in quotes from Petruschka and the New World Symphony. Like many other recorded performances of music by American composers (on CRI, New World and others), Albany had to go to Poland to realize this SACD. The Varsovia chamber orchestra – whose current music director is Penderecki and whose previous director was Yehudi Menuhin – couldn’t be a better choice, having the very highest performance standards and familiarity with a very wide repertory.
– John Sunier
