Composer: John Corigliano, Vincent Ho
Performer: Laura Hynes, Mary Sullivan, Cédric Blary, Kyle Eustace, Land’s End Ensemble
Conductor: Karl Hirzer
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Naxos
Catalogue: 8579160
Release: 2024
Size: 1.03 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Corigliano: Mr. Tambourine Man (Version for Soprano & Chamber Ensemble)
01. No. 1, Prelude. Mr. Tambourine Man
02. No. 2, Clothes Line
03. No. 3, Blowin’ in the Wind
04. No. 4, Masters of War
05. No. 5, All Along the Watchtower
06. No. 6, Chimes of Freedom
07. No. 7, Postlude. Forever Young
Ho: Gryphon Realms
08. I. Serpentile
09. II. Gryphonsong
10. III. War Dance
John Corigliano is one of America’s most distinguished composers whose music, as Leonard Slatkin writes, ‘belongs to the world’. Corigliano originally conceived his setting of Bob Dylan songs Mr. Tambourine Man for voice and piano, then orchestrated it (this version can be heard on 8.559331) and some years later transcribed it for chamber forces. The performance heard here is the first recording of this final version. The cycle traces a dramatic journey, from exuberance to premonition, and finally to a vision of the victory of ideas. It is coupled with Vincent Ho’s Gryphon Realms, a virtuosic and mystical work for piano trio, coursing with serpent-like motifs and primal energy.
John Corigliano’s Seven Poems of Bob Dylan (2000) are just that: they are not adaptations or classical arrangements of Dylan’s songs but fresh settings of his texts, akin, Corigliano says, to pieces in which several generations of German composers approached the poetry of Goethe anew. The work has rarely been recorded, and this version — with the soprano amplified lightly and an accompanying sextet — receives its world premiere here. Corigliano claims that he had never heard the Dylan songs themselves. This is a bit hard to believe in the case of Blowin’ in the Wind and Forever Young, but the songs raise fascinating issues. Consider “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Part of the enduring power of Dylan’s music is that he managed to fit poetry of depth into plain-spoken folk forms, and whether or not Corigliano had heard this song in its rendition by Peter, Paul & Mary or anywhere else, his melody doesn’t seem entirely unrelated to Dylan’s; the text seems to call forth a certain kind of melody. Each of the seven Dylan songs has a different relationship to the text, depending on the nature of the Dylan lyrics. Soprano Laura Hynes strikes just the right tone here; she doesn’t affect rock or folk flavors, but she also has an attractive directness. A trio by Vincent Ho, certainly a potential successor to Corigliano, makes an effective conclusion. Fans of either Dylan or Corigliano, or both, owe it to themselves to hear this release.