Ned Rorem: orchestral rediscoveries on Naxos
(January 2008)
The rediscovery of Ned Rorem’s music continues apace with the recent CD release of Piano Concerto No.2 and the Cello Concerto on Naxos (8.559315). This is the fourth Rorem orchestral disc on Naxos’s American Classics series, following the three symphonies, a coupling of the concertos for violin and flute, and the Double Concerto. The new disc was selected by Gramophone as an Editor’s Choice, with the comment: “Better late than never, these Rorem premieres are irresistible”.
Click here to purchase the new Naxos recording.
“How remarkable that two such delectable concertos should be receiving their world premieres on disc. The Second Piano Concerto (1951) was written for Julius Katchen… Since then it has lain dormant until its present revival by Simon Mulligan whose brilliance, ideally matched by José Serebrier, is worthy of Katchen himself. Here the ghosts of Ravel, Françaix, Gershwin, Stravinsky and, most of all, Poulenc, jostle for attention. Yet Rorem’s idiom is as personal as it is chic… The finale, ‘Real Fast’, is an irresistible tour de force.
“In the Cello Concerto Rorem happily eschews a conventional form, giving programmatic subtitles to each section… offering Wen-Sinn Yang a rich opportunity, whether playing primus inter pares or revelling in Rorem’s alternating nostalgia and effervescence. Finely recorded, it’s a clear winner.”
Gramophone
Rorem’s most recent opera Our Town, based on the play by Thornton Wilder, has been performed at five American opera houses since its premiere in 2006, and is awaiting its first European staging. The composer is collaborating again with Our Town’s librettist J.D McClatchey on a youth opera, Little Nemo, and is orchestrating a collection of songs for performance by Susan Graham, both due for premiere in 2009.
Click here for details of all Rorem recordings on Naxos.
> Further information on Work: Cello Concerto
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