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East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Orchestral Music of Daniel Crozier – Seattle Symphony / Gerard Schwarz / Moravian Symphony / Stanislav Vavrinak – Navona 

East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Orchestral Music of Daniel Crozier – Seattle Symphony / Gerard Schwarz / Moravian Symphony / Stanislav Vavrinak – Navona 

by | Feb 7, 2018 | Classical CD Reviews

Compelling contemporary orchestral works by an increasingly lauded composer  East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Orchestral Music of Daniel Crozier – Seattle Symphony cond. by Gerard Schwarz and the Moravian Symphony cond.  by Stanislav Vavrinak – Navona CD NV6137 (1/18/2018) TT: 45:00  ****: East of the Sun West of the Moon contains two works by composer Daniel Crozier. A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Crozier currently teaches Theory and Composition at Rollins College. His output includes symphonic music, operas and solo works. The first piece on the disc is the Symphony no. 1: Triptych for Orchestra. It’s an energetic work, which Crozier says displays his investigations into the narrative story telling power of music. While there is no specific story spelled out, the listener is invited to use their imagination. The disc also offers Crozier’s Ballade: A tale After the Brothers Grimm. It’s a free wheeling and colorful work, loaded with interesting musical ideas, some unique syncopation, and in both works, some bravura performances by the Seattle Symphony and and the Moravian Symphony. The recording took place in different venues, one in Seattle’s wonderful Benaroya Hall, and the Reduta Hall in Czechoslovakia. The halls sounded […]

Charles IVES: Three Places in New England; Orchestral Set No. 2; New England Holidays – Seattle Symph./Ludovic Morlot – Seattle Symphony Media

Charles IVES: Three Places in New England; Orchestral Set No. 2; New England Holidays – Seattle Symph./Ludovic Morlot – Seattle Symphony Media

by | Jul 23, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

Charles IVES: Three Places in New England; Orchestral Set No. 2; New England Holidays – Seattle Symphony/Ludovic Morlot – Seattle Symphony Media SSM1015 (6/02/2017) 78:08 ****: Fresh readings of this American iconclast’s well-known music. Charles Ives, the insurance man and amateur musician turned revolutionary composer remains an “American original” whose music concert goers either greatly enjoy or not so much. He would probably have it no other way. Ives was, by all accounts, someone in love with the sights and sounds of his country but who was also deeply amused by the cliché of tradition and by what he considered the boredom of traditional concert hall music and a disdain for what—in the early third of the twentieth century—was a form of contemporary composition that Ives found, basically ‘too European.’ So, he became very well known for taking the sights and sounds of very idiomatic American, ‘New England’ holidays and park bands and festivals and creating his own absolutely unique sound. Both Ives and his father were in the park band scene and Charles grew up participating in church music as well. With Ives there was no formal book for harmony and invention. He used texture, orchestration, dissonance and consonance […]