Musical Offerings Strike a Familiar Note

If you’re running short on holiday gift ideas, here are three CDs with an Orange County angle to consider.

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Michael Torke’s “Color Music”

Baltimore Symphony--David Zinman, cond.

Argo

Orange County has heard Torke’s “Color Music” in several installments. San Francisco Ballet danced James Kudelka’s “Terra Firma,” which is set to three of the five pieces on the disc, last month at the Performing Arts Center.

New York City Ballet danced Peter Martins’ “Ecstatic Orange,” to a different set of three sections (the two ballets have only one section in common), at the center in 1990. “Purple” is the common movement. The others are “Ash” and “Bright Blue Music” for Kudelka; “Green” and “Ecstatic Orange” for Martins.

To add to this history, Carl St.Clair led the Pacific Symphony in “Bright Blue” on a pair of concerts in December 1992.

At that time, this reviewer wrote: “This attractive if simplistic 10-minute minimalist work, scored for large orchestra, opens with arresting, recurring fanfares interrupted by sliding, looping strings and passages of airy textures. The combination suggests Sibelius venturing to Hollywood to score an Alpine travelogue.”

Hmm. Well, I stick to (most of) the first sentence. And if it is Sibelius--the patron saint of this and many other minimalist pieces--and a Hollywood travelogue, it’s a very good movie and a very good score. Now, I’d also cite “Carousel” and wax happily.

Torke was born in 1961 in Wisconsin and is too young (or regarded as too insignificant) to have made it into Baker’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, at least the seventh edition, a standard reference work.

But he is one of several important native young Turks who have reconnected to American music of the ‘30s and ‘40s, a period when American composers were writing vibrant, dynamic, rhythmically exciting music that now looks like a national school. Unfortunately, it and other national styles soon got buried beneath international academic serialism that stifled so many composers and alienated so many audiences.

Minimalism, now at least 25 years old, brings back tonality, consonance and beauty of sound with a vengeance, recalling Freud’s notion of the return of the repressed. People want consonance, and audiences are flocking to this music. “No fair,” cry the neglected serial composers. “Too late,” the minimalists reply. Listen and enjoy.

* “Stephen Paulus: ‘Voices’; James Hopkins: ‘Songs of Eternity’ ”

Pacific Chorale and Pacific

Symphony--John Alexander, cond.

(Albany)

The only thing Christmasy about the latest Pacific Chorale CD is its release time. This is the fourth recording by the chorale, and it is a splendid record of highly serious, if not always appealing, works, both of which were recorded at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

“Voices” was recorded under the supervision of the composer, following performances in May. “Songs” was commissioned for the chorale and was recorded following the world premiere at the center in 1993. It has been in the can ever since.

“Voices” sets poems by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated from the German by Albert Flemming and Stephen Mitchell. The cantata was commissioned by a

religious association that ministers to people in prisons, rehabilitation centers or on the streets.

“The most difficult part of this commission,” the composer writes in the program notes, “was finding words which would impart a spiritual message with power and purpose while not alienating anyone because of his or her own particular religious faith.”

But in trying to be ecumenical and offend no one, Paulus has written a rather characterless piece that amplifies the quiet and personal voices of the dispossessed in Rilke’s poems (Beggar, Drunkard, Suicide, Idiot, Leper) to huge and loud proportions.

Moreover, the abstract concepts and internal rhythms of the poet’s lines present immense problems in fitting words to music. Consider setting this: “To work with Things in the indescribable relationship is not too hard for us.” Tough.

Hopkins’ “Songs” had been commissioned by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County for the 25th anniversary of the chorale. The commission came from Edward and Helen Shanbrom, who also helped underwrite the CD, in memory of their son David Lee Shanbrom, who was killed in a traffic accident in 1986. He was 27.

The work falls into three sections, in each of which the orchestra is as much a participant as the chorus. But it’s mostly the final section, “Peace, My Heart,” that provides a sense of comfort for the bereaved.

A spacious recording, with words remarkably clear.

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‘A Toast to the Holidays” The Overture Company of Opera Pacific

(no label)

This self-produced CD has the feel of a group of friends gathering around the piano to sing carols and holiday favorites. As you might expect from a group of such friends, even aspiring professionals, the vocal standards vary. This probably wouldn’t be your first choice for this music, but if you want to support the home team, why not think about it?

Founded in 1985, the Overture Company is Opera Pacific’s educational and community outreach troupe. It is made up of local singers who present programs--including some commissioned operas for children--to Orange County schools and civic groups. Henri Venanzi directs the group. He also is chorus master for Opera Pacific. Here he plays piano accompaniment and provides overall artistic direction.

There are 20 selections, including a short medley of several tunes. Carols include “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “Joy to the World” and “Good King Wenceslas.” Pops favorites range from “Jingle Bell Rock” to “Mele Kalikimaka” (with ukulele) and “Feliz Navidad.”

Most of the singing, however, is a cappella, with styles ranging from straight caroling to light rock and gospel. Several of the arrangements could sound right at home in those fuzzy-warm Hollywood holiday films of the ‘40s and ‘50s. The arranger credited most frequently on the disc is Kevin St. Clair, although Venanzi also was involved.

The eight singers on the CD are Mark Beckwith, Anne Dugaw, David Kim, Dyan McKinney, Max Mendez, Robin Lee Parkin, Steve Parkin and Kathryn Stewart.

“Feliz Navidad,” sung in Spanish and then English, is one of the more spirited and successful selections. Sometimes note values are oddly regularized and clipped, as in “Angels We Have Heard on High,” which also marches along a bit stiffly.

Recorded in a Fullerton studio, with close miking, the sound is clear but not terribly spacious.

The CD was produced by Kevin Crysler, director of Opera Pacific community programs. The disc is available only through Opera Pacific, 9 Executive Circle, Suite 190, Irvine, CA 92714. (714) 474-4488.