MICHAEL DAUGHERTY: Fire and Blood for Violin and Orchestra; MotorCity Triptych for Orchestra; Raise the Roof for Timpani and Orchestra – Ida Kavafian, violin/Ramon Parcells, trumpet/ Brian Jones, timpani/Detroit Symphony Orchestra/ Neeme Järvi – Naxos 8.559372, 69:30 *****:
Metropolis Symphony for Orchestra; Deus Ex Machina for Piano and Orchestra – Terrence Wilson piano/Nashville Symphony/Giancarlo Guerrero – Naxos 8.559635, 75:55 *****:
Michael Daugherty, originally from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has become one of the most commissioned, programmed and recorded living composers on the U.S. concert scene today. Among his teachers have been Ligeti, Boulez, Roger Reynolds and Gil Evans. One critic referred to his “maverick imagination,” which has produced works based on Elvis, Jackie O, and other beacons of 20th century pop culture. Including Superman in the second of these new discs.
Daugherty grew up in a family of musicians of all sorts and has been able to bring the pop/jazz world into his compositions in innovative ways, giving them instant appeal to many listeners. The first of these two CDs is tied in with three works commissioned and premiered by the Detroit Symphony during the composer’s four years of residency there. Diego Rivera’s huge fresco and the paintings of his wife Frida Kahlo inspired Fire and Blood. The Rivera murals partly inspired Daugherty due to the artist himself predicting the possibility of turning his artwork into music. The first movement is Volcanos, referring to the environment of Mexico City, where he was born, as well as their association with revolution. The second movement, River Rouge, deals with the Riveras’ visit to the Ford factory at River Rouge, as well as the suffering of Frida with her lifelong medical problems. Assembly Line, the last movement, stresses a perpetual motion theme in picturing the collaboration of man and machine, which Rivera saw as bringing liberation for the workers.
MotorCity Triptych is a sort of musical travelog in three movements. The first honors the Motown recordings which were central to the composer’s youth. The second is Pedal-to-the-Metal – a high-speed drive along Michigan Avenue in the world’s auto capital. Rosa Parks Boulvard, the third movement, has solos by three trombonists: Michael Becker, Kenneth Thompkins and Randall Hawes. Daugherty’s inspirations for the timpani/orchestra work were Notre Dame cathedral, the Empire State Building, and other architechtural wonders. He designed the work to give the timpanist long expressive melodies not usually hear from the timpani.
This year is the 50th anniversary of Superman’s first appearance in the comics, so naturally Daugherty has to create a “symphonie fantastique for our times.” His response to the myth of Superman expresses the energies, ambiguities, paradoxes and wit of American pop culture. The work’s five movements cover various elements of the Superman myth: Lex, the first, represents Lex Luthor, the hero’s main villain. No. 2, Krypton, is the exploding planet from which Superman is launched as an infant. The third movement is MXYZPTLK, a wild imp from another dimension who occasionally threatens Superman’s Metropolis. Lois Lane, the newspaper report who is Clark Kent’s love interest, is focused on in the fourth movement, and the suite concludes with Red Cape Tango, which uses the well-known Dies Irae theme in a death chant conceived as a tango. Deux Ex Machina – meaning “god from the machine” – is Daugherty’s three-movement piano concerto capturing the world of trains. The first movement synthesizers various avant-garde ideas about trains into the composer’s own “musical manifesto.” The second movement is Train of Tears, and refers to the slow-moving funeral train after Lincoln’s assassination. Night Stream, the last movement, is about the few steam locomotives left on American railroads after the 1950s, and receives here its world premiere recording.
All of these are accessible and fun works which should have a wide appeal, and they are superbly performed and recorded.
– John Sunier
