GORDON GETTY: = Orchestral Works = Overture to “Plump Jack;” Ancestor Suite; Tiefer und Tiefer; Homework Suite; The Fiddler of Ballykeel; Raise the Colors – Academy of St. Martin in the Fields/Sir Neville Marriner – PentaTone PTC 5186 356, 60:22 [Distr. by Naxos] ****:
At age 76, Gordon Getty is a serious classical music composer in spite of having been pegged by Forbes Magazine as the richest living American. He inherited 13% of the family fortune, of which the biggest piece is Getty Oil, but he seems to be more interested in composing and occasionally performing as a baritone. He’s the only family member on the board of the lavish Getty Museum in LA.
Most of his compositions have been in the vocal area, and his big production is the opera Plump Jack, based on Shakespeare’s name for King Henry VIII’s jovial pal Falstaff. His works generally have a sort of charming, late-Romantic appeal, with a few more modern touches here and there. Getty refers to himself as “2/3rds a 19th-century composer.”
This is the first collection of Getty’s strictly orchestral works. The Overture attempts to be a sort of synopsis of the entire opera, in which Prince Hal banishes Falstaff when the Prince becomes King. The Ancestor Suite is a ballet score which was premiered in Moscow. It is based on Edgar Allen Poe’s macabre short tale The Fall of the House of Usher, although most of its 11 short sections sound fairly non-threatening – in various dances styles such as the Schottische and Gavotte. Tiefer und Tiefer (Deeper and Deeper) is for strings only and has a retrospective mood with simple waltzes. The Homework Suite – in five short movements – began as a solo piano piece. The Fiddler of Ballykeel, also for strings, is the most energetic work on the disc, and is very strictly diatonic. The closing selection is an energetic march in C Major. Getty observes that “There is still plenty to be said in C major.”
Sonics are up to PentaTone’s usual high standards and the music is enjoyable. Nice to be exposed to the other side of Getty’s music for those of us more attuned to instrumental works than vocal. However, is this must-have material? To my ears, no.
– John Sunier
