Fashion
5 Classical Music Albums You Can Listen to Right Now
A new take on Wynton Marsalis’s “Blues Symphony,” a piano cycle by Gregory Spears and Rosa Feola’s solo debut are among the highlights.
Marsalis: ‘Blues Symphony’
Detroit Symphony Orchestra; Jader Bignamini, conductor (Pentatone)
I love when a new recording changes my mind. Previously, I had considered Wynton Marsalis’s Second Symphony (2009), known as the “Blues Symphony,” to be the least persuasive of his orchestral works. In 2019, he suggested that he felt similarly in an interview, saying, “It wasn’t played a lot, justifiably.” A revised version of the symphony was released by Blue Engine Records in 2021, but I found that to be tough listening. The first movement’s bevy of string motifs wasn’t exultant. Instead, it all sounded labored — offering an aesthetic that stopped well short of the finesse required by the blues tradition.
Enter the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. This is a group with a history of investigating serious jazz-classical crossover, as in its 1992 recording of Ron Collier’s orchestration of a suite based on Duke Ellington’s “The River.” Their new rendition of the “Blues Symphony” is just what the piece needed. Winds, strings and percussion all hit their marks with confidence during the first movement. And the conductor, Jader Bignamini, keeps things sprightly; when the movement’s climax wants extra dynamic punch, his players still have something to give. That high level of execution is evident throughout this performance of the hourlong work. Now, to my ear, the piece sits more comfortably alongside Marsalis’s most engaging classical efforts. SETH COLTER WALLS
Gregory Spears: ‘Seven Days’
Pedja Muzijevic, piano (Bright Shiny Things)
Gregory Spears’s beguiling new solo piano work began life in fall 2021, as an app produced by 92NY. Users could hear one piece for each part of the day (morning, afternoon, evening) for an entire week. Now available in Pedja Muzijevic’s scrupulous and thoughtful recording, the piece can be experienced either day by day or as a self-standing, 21-movement cycle.
I tried both and found different things to marvel at in this openly expressive music. Spreading the experience over a week allows the music to structure the day, harking back, as Spears notes, to the liturgical tradition of singing the hours, such as Vespers and Lauds. There is some wonderful tone painting: the first rustling of dawn in “Monday Morning” and rays of light streaming through the windows in “Tuesday Afternoon.” The ticktock rhythm of “Friday Afternoon” must seem familiar to anyone who has felt impatient for the end of the workweek.
