Search - Stefania de Kenessey, John Sichel, Newton Strandberg :: The Orchestra According to The Seven

Some hidden gems in here

David Bratman | San Jose, CA United States | 05/25/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Seven widely-varying living composers won't all be for everybody, but two of these works were absolute gems, enough to give this disk the highest rating.Starting from the bottom up, we have Krumm's dire "bleeps and whispers" modernism, van Appledorn's default "heard a million of 'em" semi-modernism, and Sichel's colorful, amusing modernism. F. diArta-Angeli is a sort of wayward Romantic who wants to be Kancheli with a consonant palette. Strandberg sounds pleasant enough, but has nothing much to say.That leaves Michael Dellaira's "Three Rivers", which is a very fine work, and Stefania de Kenessey's "Wintersong", which is a six-minute masterpiece. Dellaira's work uses some of the ostinato effects of minimalism in a free post-minimalist manner, playing his rhythmic motifs with a sense of pacing reminiscent of Sibelius and an open, clean, American populist orchestration."Wintersong" is quiet and somber, and absolutely beautiful without ever touching on the vapid. It gives off a sense of rock-solid surefootedness and tight construction rare in modern music of any kind. If I'd been played this piece blindfolded, I'd have guessed the composer to be Lars-Erik Larsson, the most self-contained of the great modern Swedes; and if told it was an American I'd wonder if it were a wayward escapee from Henry Cowell's pastoral period, or perhaps an homage by someone to Howard Hanson. De Kenessey is an aggressive reactionary in compositional politics, and never has the argument been made with more talent."