JAVS Fall 2012

seconded by the excellent quality of the recording, made at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. None of these pieces is a first recording (even the Walker has been recorded before, in—of all places—the Soviet Union), so they are not strictly “rediscovered,” but “gems” they all certainly are. Night Strings . Music by Bill Dobbins (arr.), Manuel de Falla, Samuel Adler, Radamés Gnattali, and Michael Kimber. George Taylor, viola; Nicholas Goluses, guitar. Albany TROy 1257. Bill Dobbins’s arrangements of standards by Thelonious Monk ( ’Round Midnight ), Wayne Shorter ( Night Dreamer ) and Dizzy Gillespie ( Night in Tunisia ) were conceived independently but brought together under the title Night Suite ; they add up to a nicely satisfying whole. Therein, George Taylor extracts from his viola sounds more redolent of smoky jazz dens than of the hallowed halls of the Eastman School of Music, where he teaches (as do Dobbins and guitar player Nicholas Goluses, as well) and where the recording took place. Indeed, such is Taylor’s canny use of portamento and vibrato that one could be forgiven for once in a while thinking one was listening to a saxophone. In Falla’s Suite pop ulaire espagnole , Taylor brings to the fore his consid erable lyrical gift, so much so that I even fancied hearing the songs’ words! And, of course, the guitar accompaniment sounds ideally appropriate for this geography lesson in music (the songs stem from dif ferent regions of Spain, from Asturias to Andalucía), although it could have been even more percussively handled in the concluding Polo . An original work for this combination dating from 1993, Samuel Adler’s Into the Radiant Boundaries of Light is very well writ ten for both instruments, which are treated as equal partners engaged in a heady dialogue. Brazilian com poser Radamés Gnattali’s Sonata from 1969 is audi bly influenced by his country’s folklore, its harmonies redolent of samba and bossa nova . Gnattali ingeniu osly blends both instruments, having the viola play pizzicato for long stretches to beautiful effect. It’s back to Spain (sort of ) for the concluding composi tion, Michael Kimber’s Hispanic Fantasie from 1995, a piece that sounds like Fritz Kreisler’s espagnolades

THE AMERICAN VIOLA SOCIETy: A HISTORy AND REFERENCE SECOND EDITION

By Dwight R. Pounds

$24 Spiral Bound $28 Hard Cover (recommended for library use)

Dwight R. Pounds 651 Covington Grove Blvd. Bowling Green, Ky 42104-6601 dwight.pounds@insightbb.com

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