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REALE: Hexlet (2017). Caldera Wih Ice Cave -
Piano Concerto No. 2.
Dancer's Dream (2018 version). Concerto Grosso (2015).(2002
/ 2012). American Elegy with Chims REALE: Children's Palace - Sonata for Flute and Piano. Sonata
for Oboe and Piano. Transfiguration for Clrinet and Piano. Horn
Call for Horn and Piano. Sonata for Bassoon and Piano "Dies Irae."
Eleven Miniatures
for Wind Quintet. REALE: "Chopin's Ghost." - Wors for Cello and Piano American composer Paul Reale (b. 1943) is enjoying a distinguished career. He studied with Otto Luening, George Rochberg and George Crumb. Since 2004 he has been Professor Emeritus at UCLA. Reale has composed profusely, his works including 12 piano sonatas, 3 piano concertos,concertos for many other instruments, chamber music and song cycles. He also is known as an author, his writings including a treatise on 2-th Century composers. Here are three CDs of his music. Obviously Reale has imagination and a sense of humor. Many bf his works often seem to have little to do with what inspired it. Chopin's Ghosts features works for cello and piano, the title of Cello Sonata No. 2. None of this music suggests Chopin. The four German folk songs and Wexford Carol all are based on folk tunes—what has this to do with Chopin?. Cellist Kim Cook assisted by pianist Christopher Guzman perform all this with dedication, but it is unlikely any of this music willl have a prominent spot in the repertory The MSR CD called American Elegy contains some oddities. The progtam opens with the title work, a 5-minute soft dirge that to me does not sound prticularly "American." Hextet has three brief movements and is meant to suggest Halloween horrors but does so in a gentle, unconvincing way. Piano concerto no. 2, " Caldera with Ice Cave" hardly suggests the imposing image of the Bandera Volcano and Ice Cave that inspired it. And it is hardly a piano concerto. It surely does not display the soloist, and the final second movement ends softy. Dancer's Dream is supposed to be a "faux Viennese ballet without choreography," but only occasionally slips into that mood. The major and most convincing work on this disk is Concerto Grosso, which has three sections: Overture, Lord of the Flies, and Dies Irae. The composer wrote program notes showing what he intended the music to represent but does not explan why he called the second movement Lord of the Flies. The third CD displays the composer's interest in wind music. A Sonata for flute and piano is called Children's Palace. We also have Sonatas for Oboe and Bassoon both with piano. Transfiguration is for Clarinet and piano, eleven very brief Miniatures are for Wind Quintet, and we have the brief Horn Call. All of this music finds the composer in a light often whimsical mood. As the composer said in his program notes that the Horn Call was inspired by horn calls in Siegfried, I expected more than what is heard here. All of the performers are excellent and the stereo captures their sound realistically. Pleasant listening, but there is nothing here I expect to listen to again. You can check Paul Reale's music on You Tube. You might find it more interesting than I did. R.E.B. (August 2019) |