Taylor: Through the Looking Glass - Griffes: Poem - The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan

Album review

This album of phantasmagoria by Deems Taylor and Charles Tomlinson Griffes may not trigger a serious revival for either composer's music, but it provides a representative sampling of early 20th century American music that is frequently overlooked. Of the two figures, Griffes is the best known, primarily for the Poem for flute and orchestra, The White Peacock, and The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan, three brilliant character pieces that are performed fairly often and used as examples of imaginative orchestration. Griffes' admiration for Debussy shows in his diaphanous tone colors and lush harmonies, and anyone who is familiar with the latter's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune will have no problem appreciating Griffes' evocative style. The Three Tone Pictures and the Bacchanale, which round out the disc, share with the above works the same atmospheric moods and colorful tone painting. Taylor is less familiar today, as a result of writing in a conservative and unprovocative style, though he was quite prolific and highly regarded in his time. (He is still remembered for his music criticism and his appearance in Walt Disney's 1940 film, Fantasia.) He is represented by one piece, the suite Through the Looking Glass, which is more post-Romantic in flavor than the Griffes selections, and sentimental in a manner reminiscent of Rachmaninov. Gerard Schwarz leads the Seattle Symphony in solid performances, and the music is played with delicacy and richness becoming such opulent scores. Naxos sound is clear and detailed, though it is a bit shallow in dimensions.
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