Three concertos by David Amram, for violin, cello, and bassoon, are recorded by the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, a fine ensemble, well directed and with a diverse and rich palette of tone color and style.
Amram is at his best in the sparsely orchestrated and simply quoted styles. For example, the second movement of the violin concerto is a gentle, haunting blues sax solo with lovely brass pads. By the time the violin arrives and the orchestration thickens, the blues feel is in trouble, although the sax tune does reappear and take it back again.
Similarly, in the cello concerto, the introduction is effective as a building unison quote of the "Honor Song for Sitting Bull". Later, when the dialog between the orchestra and the solo builds and the orchestra density again increases, the orchestra color is less successful and becomes strident at times, as in the Alla Marcia variation.
The successful parts of these works lie with the pure and simple sources. "Celtic Rondo" (3rd movement of the violin concerto) is great in its opening statements. The orchestra does a terrific "howling of hounds" section and the horn and piccolo (or is it a fife?) are a delightful grounding. This is followed by harp and violin, which play beautiful traditional Celtic tunes. It's also wonderful to hear the bodrahn and spoons!
All in all, this CD is fun to hear for the variety of well-quoted styles, even though parts suffer from being too serious. This is in contrast to another Amram CD, Pull My Daisy.
James free-lances in Toronto (the third busiest recording city), teaches at York University, and is a member of the award-winning jazz big band Boss Brass.