Our CD under consideration today, a live concert recording of the Hamburg State Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Ingo Metzmacher, is titled "The Millennium Concert --Who is Afraid of 20th Century Music?" Of course, the answer, however unfortunate, is that many people are--or if they are not actually afraid of it, they take whatever opportunity they can to avoid it. But the pieces selected for this disc suggest that, like the Big Bad Wolf, although Twentieth Century Music may be full of hot air, it isn't necessarily to be feared!

Track 8, complete

That was the Overture to Der Silbersee by Kurt Weill, and this piece is typical of the works on this disc. When Twentieth Century music is as tonal and tuneful as this, or as Leonard Bernstein's Overture to Candide, the opening piece on the concert, what is there to dislike? All fifteen pieces on the disc are fairly conventionally tonal, at least for the most part, and conventionally rhythmic as well. The composers' names are well known: Ravel, Katchaturian, Schostakovitch, Prokofiev, Hindemith, and Stravinsky; and many of the pieces are modern "War-Horses"--in addition to the Overture to Candide, the disc includes La Valse, the March from the Love of Three Oranges, and the Sabre Dance. This is not at all a sampler of Twentieth Century technique--there isn't a moment of aleatory chaos or, to use Katchaturian's phrase, "the hackneyed schemes of dodecaphony or serial anti-music." The ommissions seem to speak volumes--wasn't there a single piece by Arnold Schoenberg or his disciples that was likeable enough to include? Apparently not--and Berio, Boulez, Stockhausen, Cage, and Crumb find no representation here either. Perhaps we shouldn't leap to conclusions; neither Bela Bartok nor Aaron Copland made the cut, and Stravinsky is represented solely by his Circus Polka for a Young Elephant. True, it is a charming and amusing little "ditty", but hardly among his best work; scarecly of "Millennial" scope!

Band 6, beginning to 58"

What is on this disc is easily accessible music, fairly short pieces by six Germans, four Russians, two Americans, and a single Frenchman, with one or two pieces from each decade of the century, excluding the 80's--in which, apparently, nothing of worth was written. Those conversant with Twentieth Century music will find only a single unfamiliar name, the German composer Anton Plate. Plate's inclusion is due to a commission for this concert from the Hamburg State Philharmonic Orchestra. The piece, entitled You Must Finish Your Journey Alone is an evocative work, rather delicate for the most part, and somewhat reminiscent of Ravel's La Valse. Let's listen to the opening of these two compositions back-to-back to hear how they both emerge and grow in a similar way. First, the Plate:

Track 9: beginning to 2:22

Now Ravel:

Track 7: beginning to 1:12.

In the context of this concert, I found myself hearing the Ravel very differently than I had ever heard it before. Here it seems a much more forward-looking piece than when it is paired with older, more conventional works or with other works in the impressionistic vein. And as you can tell, the performances are very well done indeed--the strings are suitably lush, the winds full-bodied without being overwhelming, tempi, dynamics and balance all appropriate, and the percussion section get to hit and shake all manner of things throughout the evening's concert. Let's close with Hans Werner Henze's exciting Dance of the Menads.

Track 2, complete.