William Bolcom - Chamber Works (Steven Gross; Philip Ficsor; Constantine Finehouse)

Information

Composer: William Bolcom

• Trio for Horn, Violin & Piano
• Suite No. 2 for Solo Violin

Steven Gross, horn

Philip Ficsor, violin

Constantine Finehouse, piano

Date: 2021

Label: Naxos

https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.579102

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

Review

The two works on this album, appearing on record for the first time, are typical of the stylistic versality of William Bolcom’s music. The Trio for horn, violin and piano was commissioned by the American horn player Steven Gross as a response to Brahms’s Horn Trio of 1865, and is similarly structured in four movements. Composed in 2016 and described by the composer as being ‘profoundly marked by the dark times we are living in’, the Trio’s opening movement communicates a weary tread and a sense of struggle, followed by a short but vitriolic second movement. Contrast is provided by the wistful and evocative horn melody that opens the third movement, although even here a sense of unease is not far away. The final movement, a sardonic march with moments of mystery, does little to alleviate the pervading sense of disquiet. Despite the work’s unremitting darkness, I found it an inventive and rewarding listen.

Although a longer work than the Trio, the Suite No 2 for solo violin is for the most part a lighter and more relaxed one. Composed in 2011, the writing in all nine movements has an improvisatory air, bookended by the rhapsodic opening ‘Morning Music’ and the similarly peaceful ‘Evening Music’. In between come a variety of moods, ranging from the whimsically humorous ‘Lenny in Spats’ portrait of Leonard Bernstein to the bleak and melancholic ‘Fuga malinconica’, with its echoes of late Shostakovich.

The performance of the Trio by Steven Gross, Philip Ficsor and Constantine Finehouse is splendidly intense and involving. Ficsor, who previously recorded Bolcom’s works for violin and piano with Finehouse as the ensemble American Double (Albany), provides a similarly impressive account of the Suite No 2. The recording was made in Martinů Hall in Prague and presents the performances with an ideal combination of warmth with transparency.

-- Christian Hoskins, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://artmusiclounge.wordpress.com/2022/11/13/bolcoms-horn-trio-violin-sonata/

https://www.allmusic.com/album/william-bolcom-trio-for-horn-violin-and-piano-suite-no-2-for-solo-violin-mw0003605763

https://www.thewholenote.com/index.php/booksrecords2/moderncontempo/32230-william-bolcom-trio-for-horn-solo-violin-suite-no-2-the-complete-rags

https://www.naxos.com/Review/Detail/?catalogueid=8.579102&languageid=EN

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

William Bolcom (born May 26, 1938 in Seattle, Washington) is an American composer and pianist. He studied with Darius Milhaud at Mills College, with Leland Smith at Stanford University, and with Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire. Bolcom has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, a Grammy Award, the Detroit Music Award and was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. He taught composition at the University of Michigan from 1973 until 2008. As a pianist, Bolcom has performed and recorded frequently with Joan Morris, whom he married in 1975.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bolcom

https://www.williambolcom.com/

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

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!