Langrée's Inaugural Release with the CSO Powerful
Louis
Langrée: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Aaron Copland, “A Lincoln Portrait.” David
Lang, “mountain.” Nico Muhly, “Pleasure Ground.” Dr. Maya Angelou, narrator.
Nathan Wyatt, baritone. Fanfare Cincinnati.
Louis Langrée’s first CD as music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra stems from two important events during his inaugural season: his official debut as CSO music director in November, 2013 with Dr. Maya Angelou narrating Copland's "A Lincoln Portrait" and a collaboration in March, 2014 with Cincinnati’s MusicNOW Festival.
Music performed on both concerts highlighted the CSO's history of experimentation and innovation. Copland’s “A Lincoln Portrait” was given its world premiere by the CSO in 1942. The March MusicNOW concerts featured the world premieres of David Lang’s “mountain” and Nico Muhly’s “Pleasure Ground." All three works were recorded live at Music Hall.
As the cover title indicates, all three also deal with “hallowed ground”: the battlefield at Gettysburg, remembered in "A Lincoln Portrait” (the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address fell just one week after Langrée’s debut with the work in November); New York’s Central Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the subject of Muhly’s “Pleasure Ground”; and the majestic mountain pictured in Lang’s tone painting.
Adding to the significance of the album is the narration by Dr. Angelou, who died in
May. The combination of her authoritative voice with the powerful playing of
the CSO creates a stirring impression (one likely to become a classic).
Lang’s “mountain,” a metaphor for Copland, was inspired by time Lang spent viewing a mountain in Vermont. It is an arresting work, about twelve minutes long, suggestive of the mountain's unchanging nature. Lang achieves this through repetition of majestic chords accompanied by strokes of bass drum. The chords alternate with silences at first, then by held pitches and slowly changing details. Taken together, they create a powerful, mesmerizing effect.
Muhly’s “Pleasure Ground” features baritone Nathan Wyatt singing the words of Olmstead (who was also a journalist). In three parts, it is extremely colorful and expresses a wide range of emotions. Part one is bright and optimistic, as Olmsted reflects on the wonder of creating beauty from nature. Part two turns dark as Olmstead recalls the devastation of the Civil War, with mournful passages broken by stabs of brass. The mood continues in part three, where Olmsted, who spent his last years in a sanatorium, despairs at what becomes of a man’s (his) work. The mix of light and dark, even downright horror in part three, is conveyed vividly and directly by Wyatt and the CSO, from Olmsted’s questioning -- "If man is not to live by bread alone, what is better worth doing well than the planting of trees?" -- to the music’s abrupt, unresolved end.
Release date is September 9 on the CSO’s in-house label Fanfare Cincinnati, distributed by Naxos of America, Inc.