Gloria Coates - Symphony No. 15; etc. (Various Artists)

Information

Composer: Gloria Coates

• (01) Symphony No. 15 'Homage to Mozart'
• (04) Cantata da Requiem 'WWII Poems for Peace'
• (10) Transitions

Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Michael Boder, conductor (1-3)

Teri Dunn, soprano
Talisker Players (4-9)

Ars Nova Ensemble Nuremberg
Werner Heider, conductor (10-12)

Date: 2007
Label: Naxos
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.559371

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

Maybe too much anguish for one sitting but these are impressive works

Slow glissandi figure prominently in Gloria Coates’s music, as Kyle Gann points out in his perceptive notes to this disc. In the first movement of the Symphony No 15 (2005), these slides are expressive tendrils that grow from long, aching tones; in the second, they’re thick, sinewy vines that envelop and overwhelm a tonal chorale quotation (adapted from Mozart’s motet Ave verum corpus, K618); and in the finale, they vaporise, taking to the air like a cloud of insects. The result, in all three cases, is a feeling of unnerving dislocation. Then, in the “Illumination” movement of Transitions (1984), creeping slides entangle yet another quotation (“Dido’s Lament” from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas) to similar effect.

In fact, listening to the disc straight through, I was somewhat perplexed by the music’s narrow emotional range. I expected such unrelenting bleakness in the Cantata da Requiem (1972), with its mournful, bitter verses, but I hoped for some relief over the course of the hour-long programme – a dramatic change of colour or texture, perhaps. Having said that, however, each work is effective when taken on its own. Both the Symphony and Transitions have strong, dramatic profiles and make their points with impressive concision. The performances, recorded live, are all thoroughly professional. Teri Dunn screeches a bit in the opening aria of the Cantata, but this seems to be what the composer intended, and it certainly fits the anguished tone of the text.

-- Andrew Farach-Colton, Gramophone

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gloria Coates (born October 10, 1938 in Wausau, Wisconsin) is an American composer who has lived in Munich, Germany since 1969. She studied with Alexander Tcherepnin, Otto Luening, and Jack Beeson. Her music is postminimalist, featuring canonic structures and prominent glissandos. In Kyle Gann's article "A Symphonist Stakes Her Claim", Gloria Coates was crowned, "the greatest woman symphonist", for her passionate pursuit and persistence in a domain that is dominated by men. Besides composing, Gloria Coates also paints abstract expressionistic paintings that are often used as the covers for her albums.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Coates

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!