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Ned Rorem: Flute and Violin Concertos Pilgrims, Flute Concerto, Violin Concerto

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 Chosen in 1988 as Composer of the Year by Musical America and now recognized as one of the finest song composers in America, Ned Rorem has also written a significant body of music for orchestra, including three Symphonies (Naxos 8.559149).

Written in a refined tonal idiom like so much of Rorem's music, the 1985 Violin Concerto is notable for its elegiac lyrical invention. The recent Flute Concerto, the first in a series of Philadelphia Orchestra commissions for its principals, was described at it's premiere as 'not so much a concerto as a surpassingly imaginative fantasy for flute and orchestra'. It is performed on this world premiere recording by its dedicatee, Jeffrey Khaner.

Ned Rorem (b. 1923) holds dual citizenship: in the realm of words and the realm of music. In the first, he has produced a notoriously frank multivolume diary; in the second, numerous symphonies and chamber music works. But it is his hundreds of songs that make him famous, for this is where his two worlds meet and merge. However, this disc, celebrating his approaching 82nd birthday, presents three of his instrumental works.

Spanning four decades, they vary greatly in style and content, but have in common a singing, sometimes almost spoken quality; Rorem calls this 'a setting of words that aren't there'.

Indeed, both concertos have six movements whose descriptive titles strongly imply a narrative thread. Those of the Violin Concerto (1984) are thematically connected; they begin with Twilight and end with Dawn. Soft, slow, lyrical passages alternate with busy running ones; timpani crash, woodwinds sing, the violin converses with the orchestra. The very difficult, brilliant solo part, played with easy virtuosity and a gorgeous tone by Philippe Quint, exploits every instrumental resource: the orchestration is masterful.

The Flute Concerto (2002) was commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra for its principal flutist, Jeffrey Khaner, who plays it splendidly on this premiere recording. It features violent dynamic contrasts and imaginative orchestral sound effects; the flute adds color and rhythmic verve, acting more like a partner than a soloist.

Pilgrims for string orchestra is slow, lyrical, warm, tonal, with lovely soaring melodies. The title refers not to America's founding fathers but to a biblical quote: '...strangers and pilgrims on the earth'. Though written in 1958, it too has never been recorded.

Review by Edith Eisler