MEIRA WARSHAUER: Shachrit; Like Streams in the Desert; Ahavah – Stephanie Gregory, soprano/ Jennifer Hines, mezzo-soprano/ Michael Hendrick, tenor/ Carol Potter, narrator/ Slovak Philharmonic Chorus and Radio Orchestra/ Kirk Trevor, conductor – Albany TROY973, 65:42 ***:
Meira Warshauer is a composer and visiting professor at Columbia College in Columbia South Carolina. She is intensely involved in her Jewish roots and takes the teachings of that faith as the basis for much of her music, which is ruggedly ecstatic/spiritual in nature, at least as far as something like music can actually reflect such concepts. The three pieces here all reflect this philosophy, and are to varying degrees successful in portraying such. Their success as pure music is more open to argument.
Shacharit (Sabbath Morning Service) is a work directly based on the texts of this communal gathering, and is faithful to those texts, exultant and generally full of anticipation and optimism of the coming day. But I could not get Leonard Bernstein out of my head, whose Kaddish Symphony kept resonating in my mind. To paraphrase Aaron Copland’s comment of some of Bernstein’s music as being “warmed over Scriabin”, Warshauer’s Morning Service sounds a lot like second-rate Bernstein. Of course, this is not necessarily a bad thing, but Bernstein had a certain distinct style with his sacred music, and this sounds a lot like it, though without the last bit of genius that found its way into his scores.
Like Streams in the Desert, based on Psalm 126 and written to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the State of Israel, is the best thing on the disc. It’s rollicking and jaunty sense of rhythm coupled with a number of fine and memorable melodic fragments make this attractive piece a winner from start to finish. I consider it no slight at all when I say it reminds me of some of the best band or wind ensemble music being composed, for it has those kinds of sonorities even though a traditional orchestra is used.
Ahavah (which means “Love”) was composed during a Jewish renewal retreat on the campus of Bryn Mawr College. I must admit as a disclaimer that when I read things like the following I am immediately skeptical of the music that comes afterward. The composer tells us of her inspiration for this piece: “one afternoon after meditating and praying under a large silver maple, I was moved to connect with the tree, an unusual experience for me. Embracing her wide trunk, I gazed up into her branches, and asked if she had a song for humanity. In the listening silence I heard a three-note chant on the word Ahavah, Hebrew for love. When I brought the tree’s song to my class, we immediately realized the spiritual power in its simple beauty and presented it as part of our performance at the end of the retreat.”
Of course, I might be tempted to ask why she didn’t just ask the tree to go ahead and score the melody for four soloists, chorus, and orchestra, as using it might constitute some kind of environmental plagiarism. But no matter, as this work is the weakest on the disc in my opinion (and fortunately I heard it before reading the notes), a stream-of-consciousness effort that meditates rather than develops, and is more redolent of new age music than anything specifically Jewish. For those that are into this kind of thing, the performances are certainly very fine, the soloists particularly so, and the sound on the recording clear and clean. Warshauer has talent, no question, but whether the extracurriculars either weaken her efforts or clutter them up is hard to tell. But Like Streams in the Desert is definitely the real thing.
— Steven Ritter
