Fuchs: Eventide; An American Place;

COMPOSERS: Fuchs
LABELS: Naxos
ALBUM TITLE: Kenneth Fuchs
WORKS: Eventide; An American Place;
PERFORMER: Thomas Stacy (cor anglais), Timothy Jones (horn); LSO/JoAnn Falletta
CATALOGUE NO: 8.559224
Kenneth Fuchs intended his 2002 orchestral score An American Place to reflect ‘the palette of musical sounds that have developed in the United States during the last hundred years’. Juddering minimalist rhythms at the outset, an open-prairie Copland soundscape, and the argumentative stringency of a Schuman or Harris can all be discerned in the composition, but it is no mere cut-and-paste assemblage. Its 19 minutes are cogently argued, tuneful, and bear a strong individual imprint. More pastoral, more alluringly sensuous in its gestures is Eventide, a concerto for English horn, creamily played here by New York Philharmonic principal Thomas Stacy. Out of the Dark, a chamber piece, draws on a more self-consciously modernistic idiom, but has the same fluidity of communication. An interesting account of how this CD came to be recorded is at www.kennethfuchs.com/lso.htm – it is worth reading. The LSO does a splendid job of basically sight-reading this unfamiliar music. Terry Blain