Search - Philip Rhodes, Veblen Trio, Kathryn Ananda-Owens :: No Strings Attached: Music by Philip Rhodes

But lots of beautiful string music!

Daniel Trueman | Princeton, NJ USA | 04/06/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Full Disclosure: Phillip Rhodes (or Mr. Rhodes, as I still think of him) was my first composition teacher, approaching 20 years ago, and without his early guidance I doubt I would be a composer today. So, my impressions of this music are hard to separate from my knowledge of him as a teacher (and a terrific teacher at that). That said, this is a fascinating collection of music performed by a wonderful array of performers who have worked with Rhodes over the decades. In some ways, I feel like I can hear Mr.-Rhodes-the-teacher in the first few tracks; the very opening notes of Rhodes's take on the famous Gershwin Summertime reveals (perhaps) what his inner-ear constructs while listening. The violin sustain of the high E (on "time") is breathtakingly long (while the piano continues), lingering until it's place returns in the second part of the phrase (on "fish"); every time I hear this, I find it literally breathtaking, in part because I know how the song goes and can barely wait for the line to continue, but also because it is just terrifically beautiful.



At the other extreme of the CD and Rhodes's ongoing career is his String Trio, written in the mid-1960s and revised in the early `70s. This is vivid, dramatic, intense music that keeps you on the edge of your seat. While clearly "of its time" and full of modernist concision, it is also full of life and, in particular, wonderful sparsely drawn sonorities. While I always listen for the Appalachian influences in Rhodes's music, I suspect this came before they made their way into his concert music. But over the course of the pieces that come between the Gershwin and Trio bookends, especially later works like Shakespeare in Song, it's not hard to hear some of the tunefulness of Appalachia coming through. This is not crossover music or anything superficial; rather it is, at least to my ear, the deep love of the traditional music coming through the filter of a remarkably precise and sensitive ear.



Having performed some of Rhodes's music, I know it can present many challenges. The performances here, ranging over four decades, feature the legendary violinist Paul Zukofsky and a particularly compelling effort (to my ears!) by violist Ann Woodward."