CORIGLIANO, J.: Phantasmagoria Suite / To Music / Fantasia on an Ostinato / 3 Hallucinations (Tampere Philharmonic, Klas)

Album review

Few can challenge John Corigliano's mastery of orchestration and his fertile musical imagination, which encompasses all styles and techniques and brings the most diverse elements together into fluid, coherent pieces that almost always work. However, Corigliano's virtuosity as a composer may seem to some too much for show, and his eclecticism a slick gambit to hide an expressive shallowness. Corigliano's coy Classical references in Phantasmagoria (based on his opera The Ghosts of Versailles), his dramatic manipulations of Schubert's An die Musik in To Music, and his quasi-minimalist toying with Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in the Fantasia on an Ostinato are effective "handles" that give audiences something solid to grasp. Yet when taken as a whole, these clever displays of postmodern appropriation seem too calculated for effect, and little of emotional value can be found behind their brilliant surfaces. Excluded from this criticism, though, are the Three Hallucinations from Altered States, drawn from Corigliano's first film score; these may be judged separately, for their effectiveness as soundtrack music mitigates their quotations and borrowings, and genuine expression is less of an issue. The Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Eri Klas, plays these scores with fine color and verve, and Ondine's sound quality is exceptional.

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