Contemporary American Composers (Digital)

Chronique

Conductor Riccardo Muti has gained plaudits for his support of Chicago sports teams, and it is notable that his last release as permanent conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is devoted to contemporary composers linked to Chicago. He has sometimes been criticized for neglecting contemporary music, but in his last few years, he seemed to take the criticism to heart, and he goes out on a positive note. The Chicago-associated composers include Philip Glass, who attended the University of Chicago as an undergraduate. He is represented by an unusually strong entry in his catalog of symphonies, which now number 14. The Symphony No. 11, Glass told The New York Times, is about "taking little repetitions and making them into structural gestures." This works itself out in various ways over the course of the three movements, but particularly interesting is the finale, which opens with percussion (something unusual for Glass); the composer's trademark repeated orchestral figures seem at first to smooth out the percussion rhythms but then go on to interact with them to generate a finale that, in Muti's hands, is positively boisterous. This work has been recorded once before by the Bruckner Symphony of Linz, Glass' primary European champion, but this reading may be superior, and it will be worth the money or time for many listeners. The Glass is preceded by two smaller works, the luminous, COVID-inspired Hymn for Everyone by the Symphony's composer-in-residence, Jessie Montgomery, and a set of three dramatic, rather tumultuous orchestral song settings by Max Raimi, to poems by Lisel Mueller. The CSO Resound label captures the distinctive acoustic in the orchestra's hall, and its fabled brass still sound great. An honorable note for Muti's departure, although he'll still likely be around as a guest conductor on recordings.
© James Manheim /TiVo