Husa / Koplow / Martinu / Penderecki: For the Peace of Cities
Ravello Records

“With the arts we can keep faith with our ancestors, speak for justice, and even address the most tragic and painful issues.” These words by composer Philip Koplow (1943-2018) relate not only to the two orchestral works by him on this collection but the three others by Karel Husa, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Bohuslav Martinu, too. All five were created in response to events of wartime suffering and express the desire for peace, hope, and healing. In doing so, the five perpetuate a longstanding tradition that's witnessed composers embracing life-affirming values over destructive urges.

Naturally, the pieces are marked by dramatic contrasts of mood and dynamics when their contents deal with violence and peace. While Penderecki's Threnody: To the Victims of Hiroshima (1960) presents a particularly extreme statement in that regard, it's hardly the only time the recording ventures into daring sonic territory. Koplow's 1998 title composition deals with the human casualties of the Bosnian War at the end of the twentieth century, Martinu's Memorial to Lidice remembers the victims of a 1942 massacre in Czechoslovakia, and Husa's Music for Prague 1968 deals with the crushing of the Prague Spring reform movement by the Soviet Union in the composer's homeland.

Recorded in 1999 by the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra with Paul Nadler conducting and Jorja Fleezanis and James Braid as violin soloists, Koplow's For the Peace of Cities weaves Bosnian folk material into its expansive design, including “Kad ja podjoh na Bembasu,” which has been referred to as the national anthem of Sarajevo. In threading its melody into the composition as well as elements from other folk tunes, Koplow proffers a direct connection to the Bosnian people and in incorporating village dance material emphasizes hope and resilience. Over the course of thirteen minutes, the material advances through multiple contrasting sections, some marked by quietude and others by outpourings of intense energy. The violinists are prominently featured, of course, but the piece also calls upon the resources of the orchestra to an equal degree.

Koplow's humanitarian values come fully to the fore in How Sweet the Sound, which, as it's title intimates, draws for inspiration from “Amazing Grace.” Recorded in 2001 by the Hamilton-Fairfield Symphony Orchestra with Paul John Stanbery conducting, the slow, stately work was originally written for solo cello and thus retains some echoes of its earlier incarnation. The tune's familiar melodies emerge as variations throughout, touchingly so, and, consistent with a hymn that's provided succor to generations, are given heartfelt voice when they do. By design, Koplow chose to have each variation appear in a new key, the move intended to emphasize the belief that God's love and inspiration are available to everyone always.

The only multi-movement work on the recording, Husa's four-part Music for Prague 1968 receives a powerful reading by the Rutgers Wind Ensemble and conductor William Berz. Similar to Koplow's pair, Husa's piece references material from the fifteenth-century Hussite song “Ye Warriors of God and his Law,” which emphasizes resistance and hope. The turmoil of 1968 Prague is effectively communicated by the work, with horns and percussion evoking the obliterating power of the Soviet forces and a fragile piccolo solo suggesting a bird call symbolic of freedom. As if to accentuate the indomitability of those confronting decimating powers, moments of calm appear during the “Interlude,” though they're soon overwhelmed by the relentlessly hammering rhythms of the rather Shostakovich-like “Toccata and Chorale” that follows.

Conducted by Antoni Wit, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra recorded Penderecki's Threnody: To the Victims of Hiroshima in 1998, the piece still startling to the ear almost sixty years after its creation. If those high-pitched violin squeals, haunting glissandos, and sustained tone clusters still have the capacity to unsettle today, imagine the effect the work must have had on listeners in its initial performances. There's nothing gratuitous, of course, about the tone of Penderecki's creation: its harrowing character is fitting, given the event that inspired its writing.

August 2019