New Schifrin Is Colorful and Exotic

Schifrin, who in his five-decade career has deftly straddled the worlds of jazz, classical and cinematic music, has now created his own “Alpensinfonie.” Like Richard Strauss’ outsize tone poem, “Lili’oukalani” is a giant mural of a work--colorful, exotic, emotionally kaleidoscopic and close to an hour in length. Encompassing the history of the Hawaiian Islands, it takes as its main subjects Queen Lili’oukalani and the shameful U.S. actions that removed her from the throne of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Schifrin paints stunning aural pictures of nature, thrilling in their descriptive power and lushness and, in the final minutes of the work, he creates a touching set of variations on the queen’s own song, “Nani Na Pua Koolau.” Still, in the end, this is a work of shallow sophistication, more color than substance.