Moravec: Violin Concerto - Shakuhachi Quintet - Equilibrium - Evermore

Paul Moravec is one of America's treasures. Great recording.

The violin cries a lament in the opening bars of Paul Moravec's romantic Violin Concerto [2010/2013]. The mood becomes more intense and then shifts to a jagged, angry, fiery scherzando; with a swelling theme, the violin relaxes and quickly completes the first movement. The lyricism of the soaring violin comes forth in the inner two sections, with the composer borrowing from his Pulitzer Award-winning Tempest Fantasy. Violinist Maria Bachmann meets the technical challenge of the cadenza that leads to the final movement, built upon the familiar B-A-C-H (Bb-A-C-B) motive, with its power and growing rhythmic base. The concerto, a tour de force, concludes exultantly. Behind Bachmann is Symphony in C [the name of the orchestra] led by Rossen Milanov. What attracted me to this recording was the Shakuhachi Quintet [2012]. Aside from Japanese classical composers who incorporate the instrument in some East-West classical fusion works, few American classical composers, such as Robert Carl and Elizabeth Brown, play and write for the instrument. In the quintet with the Voxare String Quartet, James Nyoraku Schlefer performs on shakuhachi, but he needed to adapt to Moravec's own chromatic style over the traditional breathy bamboo form with glissando microtones and silent air. Still, the timbre of the flute makes an interesting addition, and indeed Moravec later developed the quintet to a shakuhachi concert with string orchestra. The beginning of the final movement resembles gagaku with its slow stateliness and harmonies; however, the section soon speeds up and becomes an energetic romp. From 2015, the duo Equilibrium features Stephen Gosling at the piano and Bachmann, violin. The chamber abstraction has the two instruments at odds, going their own way at first, but with the piano finally settling on cycles of chords, a dynamic equilibrium is attained. The encore piece for piano and violin, Evermore [2004], is a sweet major-minor song. The album is a satisfying collection of recent Moravec works, which demonstrate his inheritance of the romantic tradition. There is nothing edgy or avant-garde about his approach. I am especially impressed by Bachmann's violin performances.