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Born in 1954, Stephen Jaffe is an important emerging American
composer. This release coincides with the National Symphony Orchestra's
world premiere performance in January 2004 of Jaffe's new "Cello
Concerto", and brings to the catalog two major Jaffe scores from the
1990s--the thirty-five minute "Concerto for Violin and Orchestra" and
the more compact 20 minute "Chamber Concerto ("Singing Figures")
for Oboe and Five Instruments".
Jaffe's music is truly "American" in that it reflects a pioneering
spirit--a voice that resembles none of the "isms" that populate our
present day musical landscape. Composed for a large orchestra, Jaffe's
violin concerto begins with a simple diatonic melody which is soon transformed
and developed. The language of this work ranges from the most simple and
direct melodies to very dense clouds of sound in which the violin soloist is
temporarily enveloped. Violinist, Gregory Fulkerson and the Odense
Symphony Orchestra (Denmark) give a heroic account of this major work. As
sprawling and dramatic as Jaffe's violin concerto is in language and size, his
chamber concerto offers a more reduced presentation of equally beguiling
materials. This light and airy composition inhabits a world that is not so
far removed from an 18th century divertimento, with even its colorful
instrumentation (strings, piano, harpsichord and celesta) suggesting older
models. Jaffe's vivid and complex rhythmic materials, however, are
anything but "ancient," and Speculum Musicae with solo oboist Stephen
Taylor give this work a sparkling performance.
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