Gianandrea Noseda and his Washington based National Symphony have already given us a definitive and superbly recorded account of the first-ever cycle of the ‘Five Sinfonias’ by the iconoclastic African American composer George Walker Walker: Sinfonias 1-5 - Noseda. This new release entitled ‘Four Symphonic Works’ features the music of another African American composer, Carlos Simon, who is currently the Composer-in-Residence at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Simon’s music has a very different character from Walker’s. Where Walker’s compositions are often austere, Simon’s style is dynamic, instantly accessible, and infused with jazz, hip-hop, gospel, and cinematic influences – elements woven through each of the four pieces featured on this impressive multi-channel SACD.

The recording opens with ‘The Block’(2018) a colourful and exuberant orchestral study based on the visual art of Romare Bearden whose vibrant paintings of six buildings in Harlem inspired the piece. With more than a hint of John Adams’s ‘Short Ride in a Fast Machine’ it provides a thrilling and virtuosic curtain raiser to this programme.

‘Tales: A Folklore Symphony’ (2021) follows, with each of its four contrasting movements drawing on African American culture and folklore. Movement titles like ‘Motherboxx’, ‘Flying Africans’, ‘Go Down Moses (Let My People Go)’ and ‘John Henry’ highlight the rich narrative influences at play, while the music nods to well-known Negro spirituals, grounding the listener in a shared cultural history.

Simon’s ‘Songs of Separation’ (2023) a recent work for mezzo-soprano and orchestra was inspired by the work of the 13th century Persian poet and Sufi mystic Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi. This moving and deeply felt cycle is beautifully sung by J’Nai Bridges for whom the work was written. The four songs explore the experience of separation and loss The music ranges in mood from the intensity of ‘Burning Hell’ to the poignant ‘Dance’, a song that could almost be a number written for a piece of popular American musical theatre.

The SACD concludes with another work inspired by a literary source; in this case the poem ‘Awake, Asleep’ written by the Napali poet Rajendra Bhandari who as Simon says in his liner notes “warns of the danger of being obliviously asleep” in the face of societal issues. Titled ‘Wake up! Concerto for Orchestra’ It takes the form of a single movement of 20 minutes duration that uses a two-note rhythmic motive as a ‘wake up’ call to the listener. Simon provides a terrific ‘work-out’ for every section of the orchestra (and incidentally one’s sound system) in this orchestral tour de force.
The NSO play superbly throughout under Noseda’s alert and dynamic direction with both sensitivity and terrific punch in these four bracing and imaginative works.

The spectacularly vivid live recordings were made between September 2021 and January 2024 by the excellent Soundmirror team of Blanton Alspaugh (producer) John Newton and Mark Donahue (engineering, mixing and mastering).

The disc’s presentation is equally impressive: packaged in a beautiful hardback book format, it includes insightful notes by the composer, full-colour concert photos, and texts for the song cycle.

Highly recommended by me, but if you’re on the fence, sample the album atsample the album at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mcSdOMKK3Uj4iXIQnh13QH1PM5gH7I4bA.

Copyright © 2024 Graham Williams and HRAudio.net

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