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BLESSINGS FROM CHRISTOPHER SMART
"Bizarre, and beguiling, beauty
Next on the program came Oregonian Jacob Avshalomov's Blessings From Christopher Smart, a poignantly expressive work commissioned by Volti for this series of concerts. Smart, an 18th century English devotional poet known for his beautiful, mystical, and somewhat deranged-sounding verse, wrote a group of enigmatic, single-line meditations first published in 1939 under the title "Rejoice in the Lamb," some of which were later set by Benjamin Britten.
Avshalomov culled texts of varying moods from this collection and set them with extraordinary aptness, bringing out their often bizarre beauty and their sad, joyful, and perplexing range of emotions, while unifying them and making them cohere in a way that they often do not on the printed page. This is a masterly achievement by the 86-year-old composer, who was on hand to say something about the piece, his interesting career, and his relationship with Volti, which goes back for some years. His talk had the same kind of naturalness and unforced eloquence as his musical settings, and was a delight to hear."
-Jules Langert, San Francisco Classical Voice
SONGS
The
Journal of Singing featured a review of music by Jacob
Avshalomov: "American Song - Part VI," by
Judith Carman, Nov/Dec 2000.
TOM
O' BEDLAM
"Mr.
Shaw and his beautifully trained and intelligent ensemble
of singers and instrumentalists charmed our ears and
moved our spirits with master works from the past
and piqued our imaginations with a striking new work,
"Tom O'Bedlam," which won the Music Critics Circle
Award in new York in December, 1953 as the best choral
composition presented in that city last season."
-Boston
Herald
TOM O' BEDLAM
"...I
must tell you that this was one of the most rewarding
experiences our singers and our audience have ever
had - one of our finest successes. But most of all,
the work is a masterpiece in the modern idiom. The
oboe and percussion give such a sense of Tom's madness,
and the chorus express so clearly his fever and pathetic
frailty, that one almost forgets the brilliance with
which you have embodied these qualities in your music."
-Hugh
Ross, Tanglewood Report
INSCRIPTIONS AT THE CITY OF BRASS
"Last
night the composer was guest conductor of the first
Boston performance of this masterly and exciting score...Avshalomov's
'Tom O'Bedlam' a few years ago indicated that he is
among the most gifted and imaginative writers of choral
music. 'City of Brass' underscores the fact. This
is a truly superb oriental fantasy, large in subject
and scope though by no means long. It is wrought with
a fabulously skilled technic and a sense of choral
and instrumental colors altogether rare."
-Cyrus
Durgin, Boston Globe
CITY UPON A HILL
"In
his 'City Upon a Hill,' the ensemble's conductor has
composed a work of moving beauty. Being a singularly
literate and articulate man, a poet with words, he
was by nature equipped to synthesize these words with
climaxes of language and of music. One of these was
the passage, 'Let your light shine before all men.'
It virtually glowed and filled the mind with images
of hope. "But the culminating and climactic beauty
came with the flowing ode by James Russell Lowell,
which sped with the force and sparkle of a mountain
stream - lovely in sound, compelling in sense and
a thrilling finale to a work of absorbing beauty.
"Gov. Tom McCall as the speaker, was a splendid protagonist
of the lines that John F. Kennedy spoke in the Massachusetts
capital that are the poetic and inspiring verbal skein
that runs through the entire work and holds it in
consistent and logical form."
-Hilmar
Grondahl, The Oregonian
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 SYMPHONY:
THE OREGON
"Mr.
Avshalomov's symphony, commissioned by the Oregon
Centennial commission, is large in achievement. "The
composer, who conducted, once again demonstrated his
mastery of orchestral effects and his skill in constructing
a work of large proportion....The first movement,
inspired by the Columbia River and subtitled 'The
Fog Serpent' is remarkably realistic in its eerie
evocations of the moving fog. The second movement,
'The Mountain'...(is succeeded by) 'The Rose,' which
is filled with engaging and persuasive themes and
has the charm and sensitivity which is characteristic
of the subject. "The fourth and last movement 'The
Glistening City,' celebrates the Oregon Centennial
by the inclusion of the 'Happy Birthday to You' theme,
slyly emerging from a mass of complex rhythms and
harmonies and finally triumphing in a rousing finish
which greatly pleased the large audience. Mr. Avshalomov
revealed himself once more as a serious and distinctive
composer."
-Clayton
Hare, Portland Reporter
PHASES
OF THE GREAT LAND
"Composer
Jacob Avshalomov took the podium himself to conduct
his two-movement evocation of the Alaskan frontier,
"Phases of the Great Land," a sprawling and expertly
crafted piece which has what may be one of the most
clever quodlibets - here an amalgam of American folk-tunes
in high polyphony - that has been penned to date."
-News
& Courier, Charleston, SC
PHASES
OF THE GREAT LAND
"The
music is, to put it succinctly, terrific....The first
movement is made of tunes that are familiar - and
rather common - "And the Band Played On," "After the
Ball," and "She's Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage." Now
if baroque composers could use popular tunes of the
day or other familiar strains, why cannot our composers?...Well,
Avshalomov has take some tunes and given them a working
over that is clever, musically exciting, and highly
listenable."
-The
New Records
EVOCATIONS
FOR CLARINET AND CHAMBER OCHESTRA
Evocations...seemed
the most substantial work of those played....The slow
movement, which was heard twice, has a poise and tranquillity
that bespeak the presence of that deeper spring from
which a real creative gift draws life. Avshalomov's
style is both eloquent and austere."
-Peggy
Glanville-Hicks, New York Herald Tribune
CD:
24 SONGS
"Jacob
Avshalomov (b.1919) is approaching 80, and this recording
brings together songs from most parts of his career.
From the Chinese includes his first acknowledged song
while the Songs for Alyce, written for the present
performer, dates from 1976. Avshalomov has a good
ear for the English language, and a lot of the writing
is very beautiful. The serious songs to words by Blake,
Dickinson, Pound, Li Po, and the Bible, among others,
all combine a certain ecstasy with a powerful sense
of rhetoric, and would be a welcome addition to any
recital. I would love to hear Renée Fleming
sing any of them. I am surprised Leontyne Price, with
her devotion to American song, has never discovered
them. The Biblical Songs is terrific, as are a number
of the other works here."
-John
Story, Fanfare
UP
AT TIMBERLINE
'"Jeepers,
Creepers' and 'I've Only Got Eyes For You' swirled
lazily through the lobby of Timberline Lodge Sunday
afternoon, "'Up At Timberline,' a 20-minute classical
composition written by Jacob Avshalomov to celebrate
Timberline's 50th anniversary. "The tunes from the
'30s didn't come until the last of the work's three
movements, but they were worth waiting for and provided
the most inspired moments. Avshalomov wove each tune
in and out of the sonic tapestry with great skill,
creating in effect, a dreamy reminiscence, now sharply
in focus, now fading in the haze."
-David
Stabler, The Oregonian |
