Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
The Tender Land Suite (1958)
Paul Creston (1906-1985)
Saxophone Concerto, op.26 (1941)
Ulysses Kay (1917-1995)
Pietà (1950)
Walter Piston (1894-1976)
The Incredible Flutist Suite (1940)
Anna Mattix (English horn), Timothy McAllister (alto saxophone)
National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic/JoAnn Falletta
rec. 2022, Elsie and Marvin Dekelboum Concert Hall, The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, College Park, USA
Naxos 8.559911 [65]
Aaron Copland composed his only full-scale opera The Tender Land between 1952 and 1954; his companion, artist Erik Johns, wrote the libretto. The commission came from Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the League of Composers. The opera is set on a 1930s midwestern farm. Copland suggested that the plot is “baby-simple, dealing with familiar family situations”. The score nods to his popular Appalachian Spring. Stylistically, it is “plain […] comparatively uncomplicated and slightly folksy – direct and approachable”. It was premiered in New York on 1 April 1954 but was not an immediate success.
The Tender Land Suite, in three movements and eighteen minutes long, has an almost symphonic feel. The liner notes claim that it is not a collection of “best bits” strung together, but “is a carefully worked-out, independent composition that restructures, re-orchestrates and, to some small extent, even re-composes important passages from the opera”. To be sure, a contemporary programme note insists that this Suite “stands as a lyrical distillation of the opera’s essence”. Much of it is slow and introspective, and only in the middle movement does the vivacious dance music come to the fore.
I was expecting Paul Creston’s Saxophone Concerto to be something post-Gershwin, with nods to jazz, swing and big bands. Disappointingly, this is a neo-classical concerto more akin to French models. The movements are Energetic,Meditative and Rhythmic. The finale comes nearest to my expectations, and there are bluesy moments in the slow movement. There is nothing dull in these pages: plenty of beguiling tunes and fetching harmonies, especially in the more relaxed passages. Timothy McAllister’s playing is perfectly judged and emotionally diverse, ranging from humour to profound reflection. This is the premiere performance of a version for full orchestra, rather than for a concert band.
African-American composer Ulysses Kay’s Pietà, for English horn and strings, is a deeply felt elegy, inspired by Michelangelo’s sculpture in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Vatican. As the notes explain, pietà can also mean mercy or compassion. This music is not religious or liturgical: it is a “freely structured cantilena without obvious form”. A persistent melodic motif supplies audible structure. Unbelievably, it has had few performances in the past 70 years. Anna Mattix, the woodwind soloist, gives a moving performance in this concertante piece. One hopes that the premiere recording of this beautiful, tragic composition will make it better known to the public in the concert hall and on the wireless.
I have known about Walter Piston’s The Incredible Flutist for a long time but have never knowingly heard it. Conceived as a ballet score, it was first performed on 30 May 1938 by Hans Weiner and his Dancers with the Boston Pops Orchestra. Shortly afterwards, Piston extracted a concert suite, premiered on 22 November 1940 by the Pittsburgh Orchestra under the baton of Fritz Reiner. The ballet is about “a marketplace pulsating with activity and made colourful by the arrival of a circus”. Vendors and customers appear, we hear a Tango, and then the flutist arrives. A widow flirts with a merchant, faints when she is discovered by her lover, but the flutist’s playing revives her. There are several amusing types among the characters danced: Picture Peddler, Merry Dame, Busybody and Blowzy Belle. Piston has often been accused of writing academic music. It is fair to say that there is not a hint of the conservatoire here. This witty score is colourful and entertaining.
Frank K. DeWald’s liner notes (quoted here with thanks) give all the biographical and contextual detail required to enjoy the programme. The well-illustrated booklet includes a production picture from The Tender Land and a rehearsal shot of The Incredible Flutist. There are resumes of the performers.
Both soloists, conductor JoAnn Falletta and the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic give sterling accounts of all four works, which express both their Americanism and universal appeal. The recording is vibrant and atmospheric. The liner notes correctly suggest that in the 2020s it is possible to look back “at much music that failed to find traction with critics, academia, record companies and radio networks during those turbulent days” when the correct “ism” mattered more than the finished product.
John France
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