Naxos CD Features Zwilich Rituals and Violin Concerto

The affordable worldwide record label Naxos has come out with a CD (#8.559268) containing two highly differentiated works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Rituals for 5 Percussionists and Orchestra (2003), and the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1998). Michael Stern conducts both pieces, the former with the spectacular Toronto-based percussion ensemble NEXUS and the IRIS Chamber Orchestra of which he is music director, and the latter in a breath-taking live performance by violin soloist Pamela Frank with the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra.

About Rituals, the composer has written: "In recent years, many of us have become more aware of the musical world outside the Western tradition—of musics that follow different procedures and spring from other aesthetics. And contemporary percussionists have opened many of these worlds to us, as they have ventured around the globe, participating in Brazilian Samba schools, studying Gamelan and African drumming with local experts, collecting instruments from Asia and Africa and South America and the South Pacific, widening our horizons in the process. …

"After long consideration, I decided that it would not only be impossible, but even undesirable for this Western-tradition-steeped composer to attempt to use [Nexus's exotic array of] instruments in a culturally 'authentic' way. My goal was an existential kind of authenticity: searching instead for universal ideas that would be true to both myself and the performers while acknowledging the traditional uses of the instruments."

Rituals is in four movements, each issuing from a ritual associated with percussion, but with the orchestral interaction providing an essential element in the musical form. I. Invocation alludes to the traditions of invoking the spirit of the instruments, or the gods, or the ancestors before performing. II. Ambulation moves from a processional through march and dance to fantasy based on all three. III. Remembrances alludes to traditions of memorializing. IV. Contests progresses from friendly competition—games, contests—to a suggestion of a battle of "big band" drummers, to warlike exchanges.

How different a work is the 1998 Concerto for Violin and Orchestra! Commissioned by Carnegie Hall, it was first heard there with soloist Pamela Frank and the Orchestra of St. Luke's conducted by Hugh Wolff. Zwilich writes in a program note: "For me, the soul of the violin shines through in the repertoire it has inspired, revealing a nature both sensuous and intellectual. While the tremendous athleticism of the violin can sometimes overshadow its deeper nature, the violin has shown itself capable of expressing the most profound aspects of music. And this is what drew me, as a young composer, to play the violin." For Zwilich, it is "important that the orchestra play a crucial role in the dialogue, but I also want the violin to be free to be expressive in its mezzo piano range. So, achieving good balances in a rich musical setting is a major challenge in writing a violin concerto." That she succeeded in this challenge is evidenced by the critical reaction to the work's premiere, The New York Times's headline reading "With Warmth and Lyricism, A Love Song to the Violin." And the late Shirley Fleming, reviewing in the New York Post ("Straight-from-the-heart strings solo") called it "a wonderfully engaging work.…Zwilich's tour de force is the second movement, taking Bach's great solo violin Chaconne as its point of departure and transforming Bach's opening notes into a motif that grows almost menacing—a theme of fate—towards the end. The movement's emotional tension, building slowly, takes one by surprise and lingers in the mind long afterward."

The new CD has drawn lavish praise for both works as well as for performances and expert mastering. About Rituals, the reviewer for the Memphis Commercial Appeal wrote: "The percussive palette is extraordinary; Rituals creates a parade or exotic imagery inspired by the Japanese finger bells and temple bowls, gongs from Thailand, drums from Africa and much more." And, awarding Amazon.com's five-star rating, J. Scott Morrison quotes prior press notices of the Violin Concerto, adding his own appraisal: "Apt words. This is a meltingly beautiful work. I unreservedly recommend this disc."