African Heritage Symphonic Series, Volume 3

Katinka Kleijn (Artist), Paul Freeman (Artist), Chicago Sinfonietta (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 28, 2003)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Cedille
• ASIN: B000083MGT
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #444,387 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Global Warming (8:18) - Michael AbelsCello Concerto (19:56) - David Baker

2. I. Fast (6:22)

3. II. Slow ŕ la recitative (7:17)

4. III. Fast (6:09)

5. Essay for Orchestra (10:33) - William BanfieldGenerations: Sinfonietta No. 2 for Strings - Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson

6. I. Misterioso -- Allegro (6:13)

7. II. Alla sarabande (5:35)

8. III. Alla Burletta (2:04)

9. IV. Allegro vivace (5:28)

Editorial Reviews

ClassicsToday.com

The Chicago Sinfonietta's amazingly assured performances of this wildly diverse assortment enjoy perfectly balanced, warmly focused recorded sound.

Product Description

Works by four leading Black American composers comprise the third and final installment of Cedille Records' acclaimed African Heritage Symphonic Series. Volume III features compositions from the last quarter of the 20th century performed by the Chicago Sinfonietta led by maestro Paul Freeman, "one of the finest conductors our nation has produced" (Fanfare). Freeman spearheaded the landmark Black Composers Series of Columbia LPs in the 1970s, which inspired the new undertaking. Renowned composer David Baker (b. 1931) performed and recorded as a jazz trombonist with Quincy Jones, Maynard Ferguson, and Lionel Hampton. He later became enamored of the cello but never abandoned his jazz roots, as his evocative and highly virtuosic Cello Concerto (1975) beautifully demonstrates. Soloist on the CD is the noted young Chicago Symphony Orchestra cellist Katinka Kleijn. Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004) studied with Earl Kim at Princeton and with expatriate African American conductor Dean Dixon in the Netherlands. He co-founded New York's Symphony of the New World and composed a tribute to Charlie Parker for the Alvin Ailey dance company. Perkinson's Generations: Sinfonietta No. 2 for Strings (1996) draws on a wide range of influences, displaying the composer's musical wit and uncommon ability to transform familiar melodies. William Banfield (b. 1961) is probably the most noted figure among the younger generation of African American composers. His music echoes his belief that the juxtaposition of styles in pop music has prepared listeners for similar explorations in art music. That credo is particularly evident in his eclectic, percussion rich Essay for Orchestra (1994). One conductor called the piece ". . . a huge, Wagnerian Jazz Romp." A genuine rising star, Los Angeles-based composer Michael Abels's (b. 1962) Global Warming (1990) has multiple meanings. Its opening passage suggests a vast, arid desert, but it soon moves on to lively Irish and Middle Eastern sounding themes. The jaunty congruence of these culturally disparate sounds connotes a very different kind of "Global Warming." The piece has received more than 100 performances and was the first work by a Black composer to enter the repertory of South Africa's National Symphony.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very enterprising issue: of regrets and of hope., February 28, 2004

By	David A. Hollingsworth (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

The regrets? That the exposure of Black American composers are not reaching it fuller bloom that it deserves. Other than the recordings made by Neemi Jarvi, Paul Freeman and about a handful of others, there are very few recordings of their music to be found, which is not quite easy to do in the first place. Scott Joplin's piano music is fairly well-known and pioneered. But even most of the music of William Grant Still failed to find more ardent of advocates and champions. Hence I only could find two symphonies of his recorded, one which is his first, entitled "Afro-American" (which also exist in an original piano version). But even I myself could not, until now at least, call myself a more forceful advocate. So with that, what's the hope? That more performers and listeners will dive right into the works of Black American composers and realize their important contributions in the development of American music. That even I would advocate their works as I do for works of Russian composers. That per se is not a hope but a promise.

This disc, Volume III of the African Heritage Symphonic Series, is the type that would prove the skeptics wrong in whatever misconceptions that may enter their minds. It is a very enterprising issue, with every works likeable in their own ways. I'm especially warmed to Michael Abels' "Global Warming." Composed in 1990, structurally it's sort of an ABCBA design, with a beginning that's mysterious accompanied by the violin playing that's folkloristic in character. The episodes that follow reminiscence the Irish and Middle-Eastern folkdances. The Irish dance is especially appealing and imaginative, and would have done, I would think, Sir Malcolm Arnold especially proud. But the Middle Eastern dance is barely less attractive, with an exotic coloring and instrumentation that reminds me of Kara Karayev (among the most important Azeri composers of the last Century). The Irish dance returns, but with the percussion writing that's more exotic and more rhythmically African in nature before the reprisal of the mysterious beginning of the score.

The other works of this likeable series are likewise memorable. David Baker's Cello Concerto (1975) is structurally straightforward, yet the mood has sort of an ambiguity about it. The first movement (tempo: fast) is more of a lento, temperamentally serious and reflective. It's meditative as in the case of the second movement (tempo: slow a la recitative), which is Avant Gardish in style. But turn to the last movement (tempo: fast), and the writing becomes more extroverted. But, much of the quiet, elusive disposition of the piece can be found in William Banfield's Essay for Orchestra (1994), an otherwise interesting work, an abstract piece of musical art. Not quite as abstract in Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's Generations: Sinfonietta no. II for Strings (1996), which is nostalgic yet visionary and dignified. The Allegro that followed the misterioso in the first movement have sort of the Dvorakian sweetness about it. Even the Alla Burletta third movement is playful and something even Still would have been proud to claim as his own. But, the Alla sarabande second movement captures me quite strongly. It's a very beautiful, elegant movement: a tad melancholic and searching in orientation, but with an abundance of dignity and gracefulness that shall generate no regrets.

And much praise is due to Paul Freeman and the Chicago Sinfonietta, who played the works with such pride and conviction. Their reading of Baker's Concerto is particularly gripping, thanks in large part to cellist Katinka Kleijn, who plays the work with convincing insightfulness. Dominique-Rene de Lerma program notes are excellent and the recordings are euphoniously realistic.

No doubt an issue that offers hope for greater exposure of these fine composers and less regression for having to enjoy it in all its full glory.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Here's hoping it's really not the final CD!, March 31, 2004

By	AfroAmericanHeritage (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This is the final release in an outstanding three-CD series devoted to twentieth-century composers of African descent. It presents four works by living composers working in the mainstream of contemporary music. Michael Abels (b.1962) wrote "Global Warming" in 1990, not long after the Berlin Wall fell. It reflects both environmental and international warming, incorporating folk music from various cultures. David Baker's (b. 1931) "Cello Concerto" is lyrical and jazz influenced. "Essay for Orchestra" by William Banfield (b. 1961) is from a larger work for percussion and orchestra, a blend of jazz influences and 19th Century Romanticism. The structure of "Generations: Sinfonietta No. 2 for Strings" by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (b. 1932) is "somewhat autobiograhpical" representing the composer's family relationships. It combines folk melodies, dances, and the B-A-C-H idea in what David Hurwitz called "a Bartókian synthesis." The program notes, written in an engaging style by Dominique-Rene de Lerma, provide a thorough introduction to the work of all four composers.