WALKER: Leaving (arr. Dossin). Piano Concerto.* Piano Sonatas Nos. 4 & 5. Guido’s Hand: 5 Pieces for Piano / Alexandre Dossin, pno; *Univ. of Oregon Philharmonic Orch., David M. Jacobs, cond / Naxos 8.559942
In a world where classical music by black American composers is defined—I would say, set in concrete—by the generic late-classical works of Florence B. Price, it is immensely refreshing to see recordings dedicated to the work of a truly outstanding African-American composer whose work is rarely performed because it is modern and thorny. But this was the battle that George Walker (1922-2018) fought throughout his long life. While the far less approachable music of Elliott Carter was pushed down people’s throats for decades, Walker generally toiled in obscurity except for his one moment of international recognition, winning the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1996 for but ONE piece, the song Lilacs, which opens this CD in an arrangement for piano only.
It seems to me a bit ironic that these two CDs are played not by an American-born pianist but a Brazilian one, but I’ll take what I can get; and, as I mentioned in my review of Vol. 1, Dossin plays Walker’s pieces like “real music,” with a legato flow and an exhilarating grasp of the musical line that even Walker’s own recordings of his music sometimes overlooked. It is similarly ironic that we have another foreigner, conductor Franz Welser-Most, to thank for his recordings of Walker’s voice-and-orchestra setting of Lilacs as well as his Sinfonias Nos. 4 (“Strands”) and 5 (“Visions”). Apparently, Walker is much more appreciated by foreign-born musicians, being something of a prophet without honor in his own country. When Walker turned 80 in 2002, there were no major celebrations of him or his music; it was only in 2019, a year after he died at age 98, that musicians started paying attention to his music. Yeah, that sure did him a world of good, but in a way it was his taciturn and abrasive personality that put people off. Having had to fight and claw his way to respectability in the classical world made him a bitter old man, as I had a personal interaction with him which proved this.
Regarding Lilacs, it is atypical of Walker’s music in that it contains strong jazz elements and even swings a little. It is also more harmonically consonant than the majority of his music, having a melodic line that listeners can follow easily, but I’m sure he took what he could get and was pleased, if not thrilled, by the Pulitzer committee’s recognition of at least this one work. If anyone new to Walker’s sound world were to listen to this CD as his or her first exposure to his music, they might be misled into thinking that all of his music was like this, but immediately following it is his densely-textured Piano Concerto, written four years later (1975). Even so, the way Dossin plays it and David Jacobs conducts it, this music, too has a rhythmic swagger that suggests a jazz influence the way they play it. But this time there are no pretty melodies to be heard although Walker’s solid sense of musical architecture is apparent throughout. Not a single note or phrase sounds awkward or superfluous; he knew what he was about and thus created a true masterpiece. I defy anyone to show me another modern American piano concerto from the 1970s on that comes anywhere close to this in both its structure and emotional power. It is the kind of music that, as long as you are open to new music without immediately closing your mind, cannot fail to intrigue you and hold your interest from beginning to end. Even the keyboard runs in the first movement have a musical purpose; they are not just thrown in to show off the pianist’s technique; and the orchestration is fascinating in the diverse way he uses the various instruments of the orchestra, moving the sounds around from section to section although I felt that there was just a bit too much tympani in the first movement.
In the slow second movement, Walker used open harmonies in the strings that reminded me of early Aaron Copland before he softened his composition style and started writing pleasant tonal music like Rodeo and Appalachian Spring. Although the music tends towards A major, the vacillating chord positions keep moving in and out of the minor, which gives the music an unsettled quality. Yet again, both Walker as composer and these specific performers maintain a smooth musical line which keeps the music moving forward despite its slow pace. The overall vibe of this concerto seems to me not simply “dramatic” in the sense that so much modern classical music is dramatic, but somewhat ominous. Its unsettled and unsettling mood keep the listener from ever getting comfortable or “settled in” when listening to it, even in the last movement where, despite the abrasive harmonies, the rhythm and melodic line seem a bit lighter in tone. I also liked the way Walker pitted the piano part against the orchestra, not merely as an antagonist but also as another orchestral “voice” which plays against the music written for the strings, winds and brass. About two-thirds of the way into this movement, the tempo picks up and the music does indeed become more ominous. Even the piano cadenza sounds ominous and, following this, Walker uses even more diverse orchestration to emphasize the rhythm of the music as well as the interplay between soloist and orchestra.
Dossin also makes much of the alternately moody and energetic first movement of the Piano Sonata No. 4. I’m sure that by this time the reader is sick of reading this, but his ability to grasp the long line of Walker’s music is a really big factor in one’s enjoyment of his performances. Purely from the standpoint of musical style, not musical content, Dossin plays Walker as if he were Beethoven, and that is all to the good.
The five pieces which comprise the suite Guido’s Hand refer, according to Dossin’s liner notes, “to Guido d’Arezzo, the 11th-century Italian monk who developed a solfège method later known as the Guidonian Hand,” but unlike Stravinsky’s music based on older styles this music is in Walker’s resolutely modern style. Nonetheless, the music is extremely well-crafted, mixing elements of études in with his own imaginative themes.
The CD ends with the enigmatically brief fifth sonata, which here runs only five and a half minutes. As an example of how different Dossin’s approach to these works is when compared to others, I have a CD on Bridge 9554 (issued three years ago) on which the first two sonatas are played by Walker himself, Sonata No. 3 by Leon Bates, No. 4 by Frederick Moyer, and No. 5 by Richard Valitutto, and every one of these performances are considerably faster than Dossin’s. My readers know that, normally, I dislike slower performances of all music, classical and otherwise, but in this case it is exactly Dossin’s ability to use “space” in his interpretations that makes his performances so fascinating. Thus I urge you to own both. You won’t be disappointed.
—© 2024 Lynn René Bayley
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