LifeMusic III = SEBASTIAN CURRIER: Next Atlantis; PIERRE JALBERT: Icefield Sonnets; PAUL MORAVEC: Anniversary Dances; LOWELL LIEBERMANN: String Quartet No. 3, Op. 102, “To the Victims of War” – Ying Quartet – Dorian 92114, 59:33 [Distr. by Naxos] ****:
Possibly it might sound biased when I say that this recording of American music is far more interesting than the same quartet’s renditions of Chinese music on Telarc but that’s the way it is. I really did enjoy the Ying Quartet’s sound and technical finesse on the Telarc recording, but the music on this disc is superior in every way, and not just because it’s American but because it’s better.
We get a variety of styles; Currier’s blisteringly beautiful Next Atlantis uses tape and quartet (the tape needed for various water sounds) in making a very pertinent commentary about New Orleans and Katrina. This is not a political statement of any kind, just a ravishing, subtle, musical exercise in effecting needed emotion over a tragic event, impressionistic and ghostly. Jalbert’s Icefield Sonnets attempts to portray moments of “coldness” its three movements “Cold is a Cell”, “Glass is a Place”, and “North is a Notion” all referring to northern climes and winter, something appealing to me because I too love those melancholic aspects of winter, even as I enjoy the thought of it more than the actuality from my chair in warm Atlanta—even in winter, for the most part.
Anything by Paul Moravec with the word “dances” in it is bound to get the pulse up and this one does too, a joint commission by the Eastman Institute for American Music and Astrid and John Baumgardner for their 30th wedding anniversary. They should be very pleased with the results of this attractive work.
But the most important piece here has to be Lowell Liebermann’s Third Quartet, dedicated, modestly, to “all the victims of war”. Glad he didn’t choose anything profound here…but in truth this 13-minute piece is a fine depiction of sentiments relating to those lost through mankind’s interminable desire to wreak havoc, whether justified or not. Liebermann is not one we turn to for a good time; the man simply is serious, serious, and serious. But when he’s on and when he’s right it’s all good, and this brief temple to tempestuousness is as fine a work as I can recall hearing by him, gripping and convincing.
Sound is excellent, performances first class. I have not heard LifeMusic I and II, but will definitely be on the lookout!
— Steven Ritter
