EVAN CHAMBERS: The Old Burying Ground – Tim Eriksen, folksinger/ Nicholas Phan, tenor/ Anne-Carolyn Bird, soprano/ University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra/ Kenneth Hiesler, conductor – Dorian Sono Luminous 92113, 56:11 [Distr. by Naxos] ****:
This haunting and rather strange work (easily accessible) is also possessed of a quiet beauty that one must hear in contextual terms. Evan Chambers, currently Chair of Composition at the University of Michigan, uses epithets found on the tombstones from two historical cemeteries, The Old Burying Ground in Jaffrey, NH, and St. John’s Episcopal Church in Portsmouth, NH as the basis for a unique cantata. A soprano and tenor give the piece a strange seriousness that is interrupted by what feels like a common-man commentary on the more formal declarations of the “classical” artists by the folksinger. The texts used are poems created by writers that were selected by Chambers and are used in conjunction with the epithets.
One might think that such a paean to death would be too overtly depressing for toleration, but this is not the case. In fact, the poems adroitly bring out the possible unexamined stories and situations of the people commemorated here, and as such actually are comforting, reflective, and ultimately life-affirming, as the words by Jane Hirschfield in the last number affirm when speaking about one Miss Fanny Drown, who died May 14, 1811 at the age of 26: “The grip of life is as strong as the grip of death.”
This is a wonderful composition that is moving and inventive, and I wish it a long life. All here give their all, and one would be hard-pressed to think of a better performance. If I have any complaint, it would only be that sometimes the U. of M. student orchestra strings sound a little underpowered, hardly a novel problem among university orchestras as the players have not yet reached full mastery of bringing out full tone from the instruments. But they are technically in line and totally in tune, so this is an admitted quibble. Otherwise the sound is very good. Most enjoyable on all accounts!
— Steven Ritter
