Christopher Rouse: Der Gerettete Alberich; Rapture; Violin Concerto

I have always been a huge fan of Christopher Rouse's work. This recording contains a few of his most important and recent compositions, and is a great introduction to his music. I have heard all of these pieces in concert, and this recording does an excellent job of bringing the live experience to your living room or headphones.

Rouse often gets pegged as a "loud" composer, one who lacks sensitivity and who cannot write soft music. This might be due to some early works he wrote, which are quite powerful (Infernal Machine comes to mind). However, nothing could be further from the truth. His music spans the emotional gamut from exquisitely sensual and deeply sad--sections of his recent Requiem, Flute Concerto and the first movement of his Violin Concerto on this recording--to fast, loud and aggressive, such as his works Bump, Bonham and his recent band work Wolf Rounds.

The first work on this recording, Der Gerettete Alberich, fantasy for Solo Percussion and Orchestra, is written for and dedicated to world-famous percussionist Evelyn Glennie, who has commissioned more percussion concertos than anyone in the history of music. It is inspired by Alberich in Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle, and is wonderfully puckish and full of humor, invention and inside meanings. If you know Wagner's work, you'll get a kick out of this piece. In a word, it just rocks.

The concerto begins with an exciting, showy first movement, then moves to a tragic-sounding second movement full of sadness and gloom, colored by marimba and steel drums, but the last movement of this work will surely blow the roof off any concert hall. Rouse, who taught composition, orchestration and the first ever History of Rock and Roll course at the Eastman School of Music--he is currently on the composition faculty at The Juilliard School--infuses his love for and knowledge of Rock and Roll in this work, particularly in the beginning of the last movement. You would expect a percussion concerto to end with a bang, and many do, but he ends the third movement with a guttural groan from the basses and a large raspy-sounding guiro.

Throughout the entire work, you just can't miss Rouse's sense of humor, whether it's with a subtle allusion to another work or his choice of instruments. His breadth, whether emotional or compositional, is unparalleled.

Ratpure, the second work on this recording and his most recent in this collection, is an affirmative, earnest, serious work that should put to rest, once and for all, the idea that he can't write slow, beautiful music. This is an ecstatic work, full of carefully blended melodic lines, sweeping harmony and colorful timbres. The work builds to a climactic pitch, a brassy climax two-thirds of the way through that simply leaves you feeling glorious and happy and to be alive.

The last work is Rouse's Violin Concerto. This non-programmatic, two-movement work is similar in form to Bartok's First Violin Concerto, but contains a barcarolle and toccata. An enlarged percussion section gives this work a special sheen that separates it from other masterworks in the same concerto genre.

Cho-Liang Lin, the violin soloist for whom the work was originally written, plays with exquisite precision. It is only a matter of time before every violin soloist finds it necessary to tackle this work.

The recording as a whole is also excellently recorded and produced on Ondine, a label well known for producing high-quality classical recordings.

Very few modern composers really have a handle on--or a love for--writing for orchestra. They pretend they do, but they don't. Rouse is a composer who focuses on writing for large forces, and his music is imbued with subtle influences from great composers throughout history. His music is accessible, yet it contains incredible depth and passion--it is not trite in the least bit. His style is refreshing and wholly his own.

When all is said and done, after many of the composers of today whither away and are relegated to minor historical footnotes at best, Rouse's music will remain. He is a colossus in the history of American classical music.

I love this whole CD. Rouse's violin concerto is soulful and satisfying, and that's rare. Lin plays it beautifully and I will look for other violinists to add it to their rep in the future. Glennie is always fun, and Rouse has given her a whimsical rollick to work out on in Alberich. Even the wonky rock drum solo. But RAPTURE! Oh dear! It is so incredibly sensual and sexy. The orchestration is stunning, the colors alternately vivid and melting. Yeah, definitely get some champagne and some chocolates and take this one to bed. Oooh!

Six stars! No, seven! It is simply impossible for me to recommend a release more highly. Why? All I can do is count the ways:

1. I have personally heard all of these pieces in concert, multiple times. Every single performance I've heard has received a standing ovation, many of them wildly enthusiastic. In Los Angeles, they practically knocked the roof off the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion. All three works are first recordings.

2. Yet this is not watered-down, pandering stuff. The Violin Concerto in particular is a serious, superbly constructed, highly dramatic masterpiece that I predict will rank with the Prokofiev, Barber and Berg concertos long after John Adams' concerto disappears from the repertory.

3. Everyone interested in the musical current of neotonalism and probably its greatest living exponent must have this CD in their collection. Rouse shows that one can write effective concert music without sounding like a movie composer or condescending to popular tastes.

4. Students of orchestration, especially percussion, will have a field day with the "Alberich" concerto. Rouse's was one of the first of a wave of such concertos starting in the mid-90s. It remains the best.

5. That is, if you have a sense of humor! The Postmodernist element rears up hilariously in a send-up of Wagnerian pomposity as Alberich, personified by the world-famous percussionist Evelyn Glennie, gets revenge on Wagner's "Ring" gods by turning the sunrise music from "Gotterdammerung" into a rock concert.

6. "Rapture" is a phenomenal piece that hit the concert stage in a whirlwind of performances and rave reviews. I believe at least 18 different orchestras played it over the course of a year. Why it's taken this long to come out in recording is a mystery. But I am grateful, I hear can hear it now all I want instead of having to fly across the country to hear it live. Think of how much less you're spending than I did when you buy this CD!

Performance by Leif Segerstam conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic is fine, if a little slow in the Violin Concerto. Sonics are particulary excellent. Get ready to jump out of your chair from time to time.

So don't hesitate, join in the Rapture!

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