An American Port of Call

Albumbeschreibung

The music of composer Adolphus Hailstork tends to reflect his African-American heritage not in direct quotation of melodic or rhythmic material but in structural elaboration of features common in African-American tradition. When he does quote familiar materials, as in the Three Spirituals or Fanfare on Amazing Grace (both orchestral works) here, he treats them in unusual ways, assembling in the latter work, for instance, that most famous of all American hymns toward the end of the piece out of fragmentary introductory material. Hailstork is a stylistic conservative whose broadly appealing music incorporates a good deal of craft, and this collection from the Virginia Symphony and Virginia Symphony Chorus under JoAnn Falletta offers a good introduction to his work. The most successful work on the album is probably the finale, Whitman's Journey, with its elegant choral writing and lofty performance of Walt Whitman's words by bass Kevin Deas. Only the first movement of the piece is heard here; Hailstork asserts that it can stand alone (which it does easily), but it makes the listener want to hear the other two, and the music holds its own against the various better-known Whitman settings from through the history of 20th-century American music. An American Port of Call, depicting the city of Norfolk, VA, is a festive blast of music in an elaborated pentatonic harmonic idiom also used in the Three Spirituals, which neither abandon the seriousness of the originals nor allow themselves to be restricted by them. The opening Symphony No. 1, a short piece written for a Haydn-sized festival orchestra, is perhaps the least distinctive work. With vivacious performances, this is a worthy entry in Naxos' American Classics series.
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