Also with the Chicago Sinfonietta on Cedille COLERIDGE-TAYLOR PERKINSON: A CELEBRATION “Carter Brey, Sanford Allen, Ashley Horne, Joseph Joubert, the Chicago Sinfonietta, and the New Black Music Repertory Ensemble Quartet all deliver eloquent performances. This is a worthy recording: 79 minutes of varied, expressive music by an undervalued composer.” — FANFARE AFRICAN HERITAGE SYMPHONIC SERIES: VOLUMES I, II & III Works by Michael Abels, David Baker, William Banfield, Roque Cordero, Adophus Hailstork, Ulysses Kay, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Hale Smith, William Grant Still, Fela Sowande, Samuel Coleridge Taylor, and George Walker “The Chicago Sinfonietta’s amazingly assured per- formances of this wildly diverse assortment enjoy perfectly balanced, warmly focused recorded sound. This is a very satisfyingly executed project that makes its points in the only way that ultimately matters: by offering excellent interpretations of interesting, thoughtful, and enjoyable music.” — CLASSICSTODAY.COM Producer James Ginsburg This recording is funded in part by Engineer Bill Maylone grants from New Music USA, Recorded June 19–20, 2012 in Wentz Concert Hall at The National Endowment for the Arts, and Cheri Chappelle. North Central College, Naperville, Illinois Cover Harem Dancers (the Jack Cole Group) performing at the Harem Nightclub in New York City, January 1, 1947 1 MICHAEL ABELS (Photo by Gjon Mili//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images) Delights & Dances for String Quartet and String Orchestra (13:03) * Cover Design Sue Cotrill Inside Booklet & Inlay Card Nancy Bieschke BENJAMIN LEES Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra (20:49) Publishers 2 I. Allegro con brio (7:42) Abels ©2007 Subito Music Publishing; Lees ©1968 Boosey & Hawkes 3 II. Andante cantando (7:32) Huang ©1975 An-Lun Huang; Bernstein/Fleischer: ©2011 Boosey & Hawkes 4 III. Allegro energico (5:28) Cedille Records is a trademark of Cedille Chicago, NFP (fka The Chicago Classical Recording Foundation), a not-for-profit 5 AN-LUN HUANG “Saibei Dance” from Saibei Suite No. 2 (4:08) organization devoted to promoting the finest musicians and ensembles in the Chicago area. Cedille Chicago’s activities LEONARD BERNSTEIN arr. RANDALL CRAIG FLEISCHER are supported in part by contributions and grants from individuals, foundations, corporations, and government agencies including Irving Harris Foundation, Mesirow Financial, the National Endowment for the Arts, NIB Foundation, Negaunee West Side Story Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra (25:47) * Foundation, New Music USA, Sage Foundation, and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. This project is partially 6 Mambo (2:06) bl Prologue (2:42) supported by a CityArts grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. 7 Cha Cha (2:02) bm America (2:56) 8 Maria (2:32) bn Quintet (3:18) CONTRIBUTIONS TO CEDILLE CHICAGO, NFP MAY BE 9 Tonight (3:17) bo Cadenza 2 (0:59) MADE AT CEDILLERECORDS.ORG OR 773-989-2515. bk Cadenza (4:44) bp Finale (1:07) Cedille Records trademark of CEDILLE CHICAGO, NFP TT: (64:10) *WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING 1205 W Balmoral Ave. Chicago IL 60640, USA 773.989.2515 tel - 773.989.2517 fax WWW.CEDILLERECORDS.ORG HARLEM QUARTET CDR 90000 141 P & C 2013 Cedille Records Ilmar Gavilán, violin • Melissa White, violin • Juan-Miguel Hernandez, viola • Paul Wiancko, cello All Rights Reserved. Made in U.S.A 2 3 DELIGHTS & DANCES and 18th centuries, when concertos Allegro for solo string quartet and the Composer (now New Music USA) Notes by Andrea Lamoreaux originated, they were quite different, string orchestra; and in the first half grants, one allowing him to work with The incomparable PDQ Bach — calling for a small group of soloists of the 20th century, prolific Czech young musicians through the Watts better known as composer and trading themes with a slightly composer Bohuslav Martinu created Tower Arts Center in Los Angeles, the classical music comedian Peter larger ensemble, about the size several works of the concerto grosso other providing a residency with the Schickele — once wrote a Concerto of a modern chamber orchestra. variety. On this album, the Chicago of Richmond Symphony (VA) and its for Two Pianos vs. Orchestra. The This genre, known as the Concerto Sinfonietta compiles three recent youth orchestra. His works include the spoof reflects on what would happen Grosso, was practiced by Handel, examples of this type of work, 1997 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. tribute if a pair of virtuoso soloists decided Telemann, Corelli, and many of their showcasing the virtuosity of the Dance for Martin’s Dream and 1991 to show off with no regard for what contemporaries. Bach composed Harlem Quartet, which performed composition Global Warming, which the orchestra was playing; and if the concerti grossi most often these works with the Chicago is not just a reference to climate the orchestra then decided to show heard today: the six Brandenburg Sinfonietta under the leadership change, but also to the thawing of off with no reference to what the Concertos. He was also a pioneer of of music director Mei-Ann Chen international relations Mr. Abels soloists were doing. It’s hilarious the solo concerto, having borrowed in concert prior to their recording hoped for after the collapse of the in performance, but it ignores the and expanded on the example of sessions. Berlin Wall. principle of concerto writing: the Antonio Vivaldi, who wrote hundreds Michael Abels composed his Delights & Dances, a single- term comes from the Latin word of concertos featuring a single soloist, Delights & Dances for string quartet movement work, often features “concertare,” which means “to sing although he also composed some of and string orchestra specifically for rapidly-paced chord patterns and together.” the concerto grosso variety. the Harlem Quartet. Born in 1962 16th-note runs for the solo quartet. Our image of a concerto today In the 19th century, with the solo in Phoenix, Arizona, Abels studied These are rhythmically varied by the posits a single soloist in front of an concerto firmly established as the composition at the University of insertion of triplet patterns, which orchestra, pouring out beautiful solo preferred musical idiom, only a few Southern California. Along with the tend to relax and slow down the pace. melodies. Of course, these melodies composers carried on the concerto standard curriculum, he explored The introductory section commences would be far less impressive grosso tradition. Ludwig Spohr was his African-American roots by at a measured pace, Largo, with without the contributions of all the one; England’s Sir Edward Elgar studying gospel music and African the further notation, molto rubato, supporting musicians. In the 17th composed his Introduction and drumming. Abels received two Meet indicating rhythmic freedom. Indeed, 4 5 the opening passage for solo cello Born Benjamin George Lisniansky in individualistic approach to music feel unsettled and more propulsive. sounds almost like a cadenza. The solo 1924, American composer Benjamin without reference to any prevailing Another characteristic is the repeated viola picks up the cello’s ascending Lees (d. 2010) came from Russian- “school” of composition. use of semitone intervals (e.g., C to seven-note motive and they combine Jewish parents who settled in San Returning to the U.S., he undertook C-sharp), either as reiterated thematic in a short duet, joined soon by the Francisco after Lees was born in teaching posts at the Peabody or accompanimental patterns, or as two solo violins. When the orchestra China. He served briefly in the U.S. Conservatory, Manhattan School dissonant chordal strikes. enters, it plays pizzicato, in short, Army during World War II. After the of Music, Queens College and, The orchestral winds and trumpets detached, syncopated patterns. war, Lees studied composition at eventually, Juilliard — continuing to open the Allegro con brio first This “Bluesy” first section has the the University of Southern California, compose all the while. Several movement with just such a passage smokey sound you would expect, where his teachers included Halsey works were commissioned by the of insistent semitonal chords. This but still manages to feel upbeat Stevens. His most fruitful student- Dallas Symphony: his Symphony is virtually a perpetual-motion and rhythmic. The blues theme is teacher relationship, however, was No. 4, “Memorial Candles,” a com- movement, with little slackening of reintroduced by the solo cello, then with the iconoclastic American memoration of the Nazi Holocaust, pace or lightening of texture. The solo viola and violins, and finally as a solo George Antheil. In a conversation and Concerto for Brass Choir and quartet enters as a body, with a short, for the first violin. Each instrument in with musical commentator and Orchestra among them. Lees wrote questioning theme. The only brief the solo group gets its own riff, and record reviewer Martin Anderson, a similar work for the Detroit Sym- moment of relaxation comes with a for the first time we hear the orchestra Lees recalled, “George never phony, using a wind-solo group. His cello solo, curiously marked Calmo playing bowed strings. The final considered himself a teacher per very first work in this concerto grosso ma inquieto (quiet yet restless) — section, “Bluegrassy,” begins with the se. His role was one of analyst.... vein was the Concerto for String the underlying tension remains even theme in the solo viola part, but soon It was a true master-apprentice Quartet and Orchestra of 1964. This where the sound is momentarily more all four soloists are engaged in a lively relationship.” Subsequently, Lees work exhibits several Lees trademarks mellow. Orchestral tutti passages hoedown. Eventually, the solo quartet received fellowships from the Fromm including vigorous rhythmic activity re-introduce the opening chord and the strings of the orchestra are and Guggenheim foundations, with frequent shifts of meter. Some pattern, this time with the addition united in a grand unison tutti for a which allowed him to travel and of the meters in the String Quartet of pounding tympani.