David Stock Archive

DAVID STOCK: Concertos = Concierto Cubano; Oborama; Percussion Concerto – Soloists/ Boston Modern Orchestra Project/Gil Rose – BMOP

by Audiophile Audition | May 2, 2016 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

Diverse and accessible concertos from a champion of modern music. DAVID STOCK: Concertos = Concierto Cubano; Oborama; Percussion Concerto – Andrew Cardenes, violin/ Alex Klein, oboes/Lisa Pegher, percussion/ Boston Modern Orchestra Project/Gil Rose – BMOP Sound 1047, multichannel SACD, 60:10 ****: David Stock (1939-2015) is one of those unknown champions of modern music. In 1976 he founded the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble and for 40 years they premiered music of nearly 300 contemporary composers. He was Professor of Music at Duquesne University for 19 years. While he performed a wide variety of modern music of his time, his compositions eschewed the more esoteric cerebral strain so common in academia. “It took a while to realize that the ‘normal’ climb-the-ladder academic path wasn’t my path,” he commented. His music is dramatic, melodic and thematically interesting, making an immediate impact on his audiences. As composer-in-residence with the Pittsburgh and Seattle Symphonies, Stock had many opportunities to compose and perform his own music. His vibrant Concierto Cubano (2000) for violin and string orchestra, opens with Cuban soloist Andrew Cardenas (Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony for 20 years) taking upper-register virtuosic turns against low-register string accompaniment. A singing, calm but enigmatically unsettled middle movement […]