Eidelman, Cliff / Symphony No. 2
| Album: | Symphony No. 2 | Collection: | A-File | |
| Artist: | Eidelman, Cliff | Added: | Nov 2024 | |
| Label: | Cliffnotes Publishing - BMI | |||
A-File Activity
| Add Date: | 2024-11-18 | Pull Date: | 2025-02-17 | Charts: | Classical/Experimental |
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Album Review
Gary Lemco
Reviewed 2024-11-17
Reviewed 2024-11-17
Soprano Jessie Shulman and pianist Michael McHale, with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Edelman’s direction, perform in a 30-minute symphony composed by Cliff Edelman. Edelman created a theatrical-style work that resulted from his thoughts during the pandemic. Its stated optimism filters through the symphony, based on motives expressed early and maintained and transformed throughout.
1. Movement 1: Repeated piano and string ostinatos in varying dynamics lead to an animated section, rhythmic and percussive. The music remains tonal, colorful, dreamy, and then martial in spirit. The vocalist enters last for the two minutes, quietly repetitive, but no text is offered.
2. Movement 2: The vocal solo enters immediately, Adagio, the colors bright with glockenspiel and strings. The music swells, Hollywood fashion, the strings repetitive but with somber accompaniment from brass and timpani. Distant fanfares over bass chords and pedal move to a sustained, eerie mood until 6:09, when mocking brass. and percussive elements enter, scherzando.
3. Movement 3: Strings enter with a soft hymn, the words, “All is calm,” discernible. A surrogate Broadway-aria effect emerges, the lyrics intentionally meant to drive away shadows. At 3:18 a more exotic color is employed, using the piano and selected winds and low strings. The repetitions seem minimalist, and the mood resembles “space music.”
4. Movement 4: Twittering effects in the orchestra battery, brass, strings, and piano break out into a more expansive, volatile mood. Various choirs in the orchestra compete. At 2:17 the strings gain prominence, supported by ostinato and instrumental slides. More colors appear over modal, sustained pedal points. The flute makes some points that lead to another period of pedal tension. The rhythm and dynamics pick up, the sonority a bit reminiscent of Sibelius. At 5:48 the serenity returns, a violin solo with the piano and strings, cello, and then piano and orchestra in scalar patterns. The voice returns at 7:18, reassuring in tone. A sudden rush to the coda sweeps to a final chord.
1. Movement 1: Repeated piano and string ostinatos in varying dynamics lead to an animated section, rhythmic and percussive. The music remains tonal, colorful, dreamy, and then martial in spirit. The vocalist enters last for the two minutes, quietly repetitive, but no text is offered.
2. Movement 2: The vocal solo enters immediately, Adagio, the colors bright with glockenspiel and strings. The music swells, Hollywood fashion, the strings repetitive but with somber accompaniment from brass and timpani. Distant fanfares over bass chords and pedal move to a sustained, eerie mood until 6:09, when mocking brass. and percussive elements enter, scherzando.
3. Movement 3: Strings enter with a soft hymn, the words, “All is calm,” discernible. A surrogate Broadway-aria effect emerges, the lyrics intentionally meant to drive away shadows. At 3:18 a more exotic color is employed, using the piano and selected winds and low strings. The repetitions seem minimalist, and the mood resembles “space music.”
4. Movement 4: Twittering effects in the orchestra battery, brass, strings, and piano break out into a more expansive, volatile mood. Various choirs in the orchestra compete. At 2:17 the strings gain prominence, supported by ostinato and instrumental slides. More colors appear over modal, sustained pedal points. The flute makes some points that lead to another period of pedal tension. The rhythm and dynamics pick up, the sonority a bit reminiscent of Sibelius. At 5:48 the serenity returns, a violin solo with the piano and strings, cello, and then piano and orchestra in scalar patterns. The voice returns at 7:18, reassuring in tone. A sudden rush to the coda sweeps to a final chord.
Track Listing
| 1. | Movement I (7:52) | 3. | Movement III (5:50) | |||
| 2. | Movement II (7:35) | 4. | Movement IV (8:47) |