It's time for a CD review!

I don't recall, again, where I bought Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's Symphony No. 2, "Cello", probably the last of the items purchased at the going-out-of-business sale at Tower Records or else I bought it at ArkivMusic.com, which explains a lot about why Tower went out of business... Aw, maybe it was a gift from a friend or family member who bought it off my Amazon.com wish list. As always, it's easier to remember why I chose this disk. I've been listening to Ms. Zwilich's works for some years now--and she's a friend of trombonists, having composed a concerto each for both the tenor trombone and the bass trombone. Mostly, I like her music, even if I don't know how to pronounce her name.

The disk not only features Ms. Zwilich's Second Symphony, it contains her Chamber Concerto and a Double Concerto for Violin and Cello. That's a lot of string works. The Chamber Concerto is not quite in the mold of the famed concerti for chamber groups by Arnold Schoenberg, using a larger group and a conventional chamber orchestra string section (Schoenberg and those who followed his example used one musician per part only, not multiple string players). The other two works use fairly unremarkable forces: the modern full orchestra, with some featured soloists.

Sadly, as we usually find with contemporary composers, the orchestra performing on this disk is not a top-notch group: The Louisville Orchestra. They may not be the Boston Symphony Orchestra, but they are well-rehearsed and up to the task. The main drawback is that the string and wind sections lack the polished sound that comes from polished intonation and better-quality instruments; the unity and precision of a top orchestra also allows for more powerful accents and fortissimos. The works rely on fairly standard language, a good illustration of Ms. Zwilich's approach. While complex, she doesn't use vast bunches of chaotic cross-rhythms and super-abstract rhythmic and harmonic concepts. Instead, she relies on melodies, but eschews the simplified harmonies favored by some more-tuneful composers and keeps her signature string sound at times in the Double Concerto and Symphony: dry, atmospheric and spare.

Ms. Zwilich also manages soloists and orchestras extremely well, allowing the featured instruments to change their relative sonic positions in relation to the larger group: now hidden, now interwoven, now standing in the foreground. Meanwhile, the chamber work shows her ability to manipulate smaller forces in a handful of interesting ways--again, with interesting harmonies and tunes. She's a darned good composer and this recording is as good as any I've heard from her.

7 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• Libby Larsen: Solo Symphony
• Moodswings: Moodfood by Moodswings
• Jesus Guridi: Sinfonia Pirenaica