BROOKLYN BRIDGE

University of Michigan Symphony Band
Michael Haithcock, Conductor

Michael Haithcock, Director of the University of Michigan Symhony Band puts forth another astounding recording project with newly commissioned works of University of Michigan composers and other significant composers for the Symphonic Band medium including. University of Michigan Composers: MacArthur Fellow, Bright Sheng, who is the Leonard Bernstein Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan. Susan Botti the third Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellow with the Cleveland Orchestra. Recent awards include the Rome Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Michael Daugherty, one of his generation's most performed and commissioned American composers. Brooklyn Bridge (2005) for Solo Clarinet and Symphonic Band was commissioned by the International Clarinet Association, with the assistance of ten institutions from the College Band Directors National Association. In addition to these fine Michigan composers, this remarkable CD includes fine performances exhibiting Percy Aldridge Grainger's technical facility and rugged individualism, heard regularly in his piano performances, became an integral part of his compositions, particularly Lincolnshire Posy. William Schuman composed extensively for all media, while focusing primarily on large-scale symphonic works. His familiar New England Triptych is based on the work of American composer William Billings (1746-1800), a colonial New England tanner who was also a singing master. Chester is a patriotic tune written by Billings during the American Revolution. Solo Clarinetist, Michael Wayne, has enjoyed success as an orchestral, chamber and solo musician performing throughout North America, Europe and Asia. After finishing his studies at the University of Michigan in 2003, he became the youngest member of the Kansas City Symphony and is also a member of the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland under the direction of James Levine.

REVIEWS

This CD by the University of Michigan Symphony Band combines two classics of the band repertory with creations by several of the stars of the university's composition faculty; it's of interest far beyond the Big Ten and shows something of the continuing vitality of the symphonic band tradition. The disc opens with a short, appropriately overture-like work by Bright Sheng, for "orchestra without strings." Called "La'i," it is loosely inspired by the mood of a type of Tibetan love song. Over nearly five minutes it moves from passages of dissonant, highly expressive evocation of the romantic feelings embodied in the Tibetan form to more transparent textures in which the basic pitch materials of the work are clarified; the effect is that of a feeling springing into clear definition.

Susan Botti's "Cosmosis for wind ensemble, soprano, and women's voices" sets diverse poetry by May Swenson; the texts do not fully hang together, but Botti's dual treatment of the voices – at times they converse in a disorganized crowd, while elsewhere they sing sweetly – is compelling, and is integrated well into the textures of the band. Perhaps the disc's highlight is the album's title work, by Michael Daugherty, a fine example of his unique mixture of Stravinskian techniques with vernacular materials.

The four-movement work depicts views in four directions from the great New York bridge and at the beginning uses the clarinet and full band in a wonderful evocation of the bridge's combination of delicacy and bulk. There seems to be less popular material here than in other Daugherty works, but he is just setting the listener up for the rollicking jazz of the Ivesian final movement, a piece of fun as infectious as anything in the recent concert repertoire. The University of Michigan Symphony Band under Michael Haithcock smoothly executes the pastoral textures of Percy Grainger's "Lincolnshire Posy" and the final fantasia on "Chester" by William Schuman, and does not flag through a program of varied and fairly difficult music. – James Manheim From: Barnes & Noble – All Music Guide