MORAN Points of Departure. Angels of Silence.1 Frammenti di un’opera barocca perduta.2 Star Charts and Travel Plans I. Yahrzeit3 • James Allen Anderson, cond; 3 Maria Rusu (va); 2 Daniel Bubeck (ct); 3 Zachary James (bs); University of Delaware SO • NEUMA 123 (53:52  )

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“If you drew a Venn diagram showing the overlap of Handel, Pachelbel, Haydn, Wagner, Feldman, John Luther Adams, Philip Glass, and John Cage, it would have only one name in the middle: Robert Moran.” Thus reads the opening of the promo sheet I received in conjunction with the review copy of the disc under review. I’m not sure if Robert Moran, a respected composer to be sure, would be the only composer in this imagined Venn diagram, but his musical style surely does admit to influences from a vast array of earlier composers. These he has successfully integrated into a style that is uniquely his own. The concert here contains a good sampling of this composer’s orchestral music, given that its works span the years 1973 to 2018. Additionally, it displays the talents of the University of Delaware SO, its conductor James Allen Anderson, and several fine soloists: violist Maria Rusu, countertenor Daniel Bubeck, and bass Zachary James. I could stop the review here and say, “grab a copy of this stellar CD before it disappears,” but I shall duly substantiate my rationale for that exhortation.

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Points of Departure which opens the concert is what one might expect if a truckload of Minimalism collided with a freight train full of tunes, none of which survived the collision intact. Yes, the pulsating rhythms are present through much of the piece, but they are never allowed to sequence themselves into obnoxiousness. Interjections of melodic fragments are ubiquitous, and so are sudden outbursts from the timpani and various groups of instruments, all of which serve to weave together a work that is nothing less than palpably exciting. This purely orchestra piece was extracted by the composer from a larger dance work. Its firm tonality convinces the listener that there is much yet to be said in the tonal idioms.

Angels of Silence constitutes the earliest work heard here, and forms an elegiac work of 22 minutes’ duration for viola and chamber orchestra. A somber introduction sets up a rather eerie and static mood that eventually allows the soloist to sneak in with her own series of extensively sustained pitches. In contrast to the opening work, there are no tunes (or snippets thereof) at all in this work. Its effect, which is considerable, comes from the series of mood-inducing chords and sonorities, some more, some less “tonal,” although any sort of true functional harmony is also absent in this work. You will also listen to a lot of works for solo instrument and orchestra before you find one with so few notes given to the soloist, who fades in and out of prominence with sustained tones. In fact, I doubt the solo viola part has any more notes in it than the ensemble parts do; had the tray card not given Maria Rusu credit, I might have listened to the entire work without realizing there was even a soloist present. I do not deny the effectiveness of the piece even given this fact. I think it’s safe to state that Morton Feldman has had more influence on this work than on any of the others, and this work should appeal especially to his fans. Like other works from this era, the score is written in graphic notation rather than with traditional notes, measures, and the like.

Frammenti di un’opera barocca perduta from 2017 looks back to the Baroque era, not to the pious Germanic academic composers, but to the fantastical realm of 17th-centuray Italian opera. Its texts are drawn from those of several librettists from the era and shaped into a three-part meditation on love. Countertenor Daniel Bubeck floats his lovely voice over the ensemble, emphasizing the beautiful lyric lines found in this indescribably gorgeous work. Bubeck, originally a native of Delaware, attended the University of Delaware for his undergraduate studies, before moving on to Indiana University’s renowned Jacobs School of Music for his Masters and Doctoral degrees. He now teaches at the University of North Texas at Denton. His solid technique and impeccable intonation won him the attention of John Adams, with whom he has toured in the composer-conducted performances of El Niño and The Gospel According to the Other Mary. In Moran’s work, Bubeck well captures and projects the varying moods to be found among the movements of the suite.

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The Romantic aesthetic of Frammenti continues in Star Charts and Travel Plans I, a strictly orchestral work. In it, Moran takes the indeterminate patterns of the stars and seeks to translate these into a musical tapestry that draws upon the relationship of performer and listener. The score is itself not indeterminate, and evokes beauty and mystery throughout its brief (four-minute) duration. It seems to form an introduction to the CD’s closing work, Yahrzeit, scored for basso profundo, who (counter-intuitively) sings in his upper register throughout; I don’t believe he goes below the C an octave below Middle C in the entire work, in fact. The work is a beautiful elegy for Michael Neal Sitzer, who was a victim of AIDS in 1995, and whose friends commissioned the work from Moran, who set a text by author James Skofield, Sitzer’s partner. Its title refers to a Jewish custom of lighting a candle each year on the anniversary of a loved one’s death. Bass Zachary James does a splendid job in presenting the beautiful text and music that Moran has used in its setting and strikes a perfect balance between simplicity and profundity.

Throughout all of the pieces, the University of Delaware Symphony Orchestra under its conductor James Allen Anderson maintains the highest high professional and artistic standards, and the rich recorded sound enhances both the music and the sublime performances it receives.

As I said earlier, grab this while you can. University releases are often short-lived.

David DeBoor Canfield