Willem Jan Keizer
The Hague, Netherlands, based string orchestra Ciconia Consort is a recently founded ensemble centred around young professional and newly conservatory-graduated musicians. Active only since 2012, they have established a homebase in the Nieuwe Kerk (the New Church) in central the Hague as well as the honourable position of being the second orchestra after the acclaimed Residentie Orchestra. Right from the start founder and conductor Dick van Gasteren has been entertaining their swiftly growing audience with clever programming around a central theme while digging up unknown and unexpected repertoire of a surprisingly high quality. Apart from this, mr. Van Gasteren is deeply involved in so-called El Sistema (The System), the Venezuelan organisation that gives the poorest of children a chance to develop themselves and be educated by giving them a musical instrument and subsequent training, allowing them to participate in a classical orchestra. With some stunning results: conductor Gustavo Dudamel, the now principal conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, rocketed to fame after having received his training within El Sistema.
During the covid-19 crisis, the Ciconia Consort survived the lockdowns by recording a cd, being a good example of their musical style. American Pioneers is focussing on the first American classical composers of significance, Arthur Foote, George Antheil, Charles Ives and Aaron Copland and is the outcome of a number of concerts commemorating the Pilgrim Fathers leaving the Netherlands 400 years earlier. The premiere of this programme therefore took place in the Pelgrimvaderskerk (Pilgrim Fathers Church) in Rotterdam-Delfshaven, indeed the very spot from where the Founding Fathers of the United States once set sail to find the New World.
Arthur Foote’s Suite in E, op. 63 (1907) is s fresh, still European oriented three-part composition with witty and bright themes. Foote was a high-profile composer being educated by John Knowles Paine at Harvard College and an organiser of concert life in the United States. While George Antheil’s Serenade for string orchestra (1948) is a strikingly sweet work — remind: his Ballet Méchanique was a wreaking havoc-type of composition as played in Paris in the 1920’s — the Hymn: Largo cantabile for string Orchestra (1904) by Charles Ives has more of the pioneering spirit of the New World. Ives was a composer that experimented with a new musical language within old musical forms. He wrote symphonies and chamber music just as much as marching bands. But all of Ives’ music is written on typical American themes like the Holidays Season, sporting games and even boy scouting. Also typical American towns, regions and landscapes are described in his highly original music.
The real blockbuster on this cd though, is Aaron Copland’s suite from the ballet commissioned by choreographer Martha Graham, Appalachian Spring (1943-44). It is played in the original orchestration: a double string quintet and only flute, clarinet, bassoon and piano added. While the music sounds easy to play, it is not at all actually. The space between the musical lines is treacherously wide, allowing any mistake to be heard. With this music, including music for other ballets like Billy the Kid and Rodeo, Copland established the final soundscape of the American national music. In Appalachian Spring, Copland orchestrated-in multiple folksongs and traditional hymns like The Gift To Be Simple to describe a countryside wedding. This music was widely influential, no John Wayne western-classic without this invention of sound. Although the word Americana was only used since the early 1990’s, we’d have to look back at Aaron Copland — and his Parisian teacher Nadia Boulanger — for its origins.
The recording was done in the Paleiskerk (Palace Church) a bit further downtown, with more sumptuous acoustics than the homebase of the orchestra. Sound engineer Peter Arts has done a very fine job indeed. Despite a more spacious sound, the strings are audible in all the fine details. Also the placing of the individual musicians is correct in the over-all sound landscape, the concertmaster indeed plays from the left-front side, the solo violoncello from the right and there’s a subtle distinction between the low piano strings and the double bass in Copland’s Appalachian Spring. This might seem a bit meticulous but too often precisely this goes wrong in the final sound result streaming through the speakers, thus causing a cluttered sound-blob. The space of 1,5 meters between the musicians also caused more depth in the sound, particularly since the conductor sometimes tends to wish to have too much control over the ensemble during performances. In this recording, the orchestra sounds loose, relaxed and the musicians appear to appreciate the space they’re given. The atmosphere of the historical area of the United States, roughly from Philadelphia up north to the Canadian border, was caught very precisely in this recording.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5)
Ciconia Consort, cond.: Dick van Gasteren – American Pioneers: music for string orchestra by Antheil, Copland, Foote, Ives (Brilliant Classics 96086) https://ciconiaconsort.nl/
Foto Ciconia Consort © Elisabeth Beelaarts
© willemjankeizer 2020 nothing may be re-publised or used otherwise without prior consent
