Todd Mason (born 1957) Lux Aeterna
Lux Aeterna (2023)
Jena Vondrů (soprano), Aneta Podracká Bendová (alto), Ars Brunensis Choir, Brno Philharmonic Orchestra/Pavel Šnajdr
String Quartet No. 3 (2022)
Zelter String Quartet
City of Angels (2024)
Budapest Scoring Orchestra/Peter Ilényi
Whern you are near (2020)
Anna Schubert (soprano), Budapest Scoring Orchestra /Zoltán Pad
Recording details not given. Texts included.
Ulysses Arts UA250070 [58]
Todd Mason is American, coming from Los Angeles. He studied at the Juilliard School, where his teachers included Elliott Carter, among others. However, his idiom is not nearly as challenging as that may suggest. In fact it is neo-Romantic, very accomplished and easy to listen to.
The main work here is Lux Aeterna, which is a cut down version of the Requiem. Mason acknowledges the requiems of Mozart, Berlioz and Verdi but actually his work owes more to Fauré, being predominantly gentle. Like Fauré he omits the Dies irae and adds the In Paradisum, but he also omits much of the rest of the standard text, drawing mainly on the Kyrie and Lux aeterna sections. The whole makes up a work of twentytwo minutes. The opening requiem section is quite mysterious and atonal, but this leads to a surprisingly brassy Kyrie. There are two duets for the soprano and alto voices, one on Lux aeterna and the other on In paradisum. These are nicely done by Jena Vondrů and Aneta Podracká Bendová .Despite Mason’s American background I seemed to hear echoes of Vaughan Williams and Holst in this work, and it is none the worse for that.
The string quartet, the third of five Mason has written, is in a more adventurous idiom, influenced, as so many more recent quartets have been, by Bartók, to the point of using the characteristic Bartók pizzicatos towards the end. It is a single movement in an expanded sonata form. The opening is mysterious – Mason clearly likes mysterious openings – but then the idiom becomes somewhat more traditional. This is a a recording of the premiere and applause is included. I really liked this and would be glad to hear more of Mason’s quartets.
City of Angels is an evocation of Los Angeles, Mason’s home, in three movements for string orchestra. Restless City starts with another quiet opening before speeding up. The slow movement, Dream City, evokes Hollywood, but Mason was also thinking of the Mount Wilson observatory and the discoveries of distant stars made there. The finale, Irrepressible City has a driving rhythm, which reminded me of Honegger’s second symphony, though this is a much more cheerful work than that.
Finally, When you are near is a setting for soprano and orchestra of a poem by the composer intended, he says, ‘as a remebrance for loved ones.’ The poem is not very good, but the setting is quite beautiful, as is the performance by Anna Schubert, a distant relative of the composer.
The performances here by all the various teams are good, and so are the recordings. The recording details are not given but Mason himself acted as producer for all the works here and the recordings match. This is a useful survey of the recent work of an interesting composer.
Stephen Barber
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