BARNES Elegy.1 COOMAN Joy of Humankind.2 MCKINLEY April.2 VOLLRATH Siciliano.2 FARMER Quintet.3 BROWN About Time.4 WENDELBURG Warsaw Rhapsody.5 DIEHL Insiders.6 HOOSE A Pondering7 • Robert Stankovsky, cond;1 Vladimir Válek, cond;2,4 Vít Micka, cond;3,6 John Yaffe, cond;5 Marian Turner (fl);1 Michael G. Finegold (fl);4 Glenn Dicterow (vn);3 Margita Marková (org);7 Slovak RSO;1 Czech RSO;2,4 Prague CPlayers;3 Warsaw Natl PO;5 Moravian PO6 • MMC 2152 (76:05)

The record company MMC is to be congratulated on its unstinting championship of current American music. The current disc, Volume 20 of their “New Century Series,” is astonishingly varied.

Floyd Barnes, who studied composition at Queens and Old Dominion Universities, wrote his Elegy in 1985 as an in memoriam for his city’s arts chairman. It is a gentle piece, influenced (to my ears) by the English pastoral tradition. It is very beautifully played and recorded. The entrance of the solo flute is prepared to perfection. Marian Turner, principal flutist of the Slovak RSO, makes a simply gorgeous sound. Carson Cooman’s Joy of Humankind is subtitled, intriguingly, “Transport for Orchestra.” Early American hymnody dominates its middle section (“Holy Manna” from W. Moore’s The Columbian Harmony of 1825). Cooman’s work is brief and exhilarating. Válek’s players clearly relish the work’s energy. In gently pulsating contrast comes Elliot Miles McKinley’s April (A Meditation) of 1994. Chords shift into one another in a mesmeric tread of the utmost beauty.

Both Peter Bates in his booklet notes and Carl Vollrath in his brief note tell how the conductor of the premiere of Siciliano mistook the tempo and so the work lasted three times as long as intended on that occasion. Here it is, lasting the prescribed four and a half minutes and sounding appropriately siciliano-like in its gentle rocking rhythms. Peter Farmer’s Quintet is apparently subtitled, “Revisiting galloping dreams,” and alternates sleep (the slower opening section) and dream (the more active later section). Although Farmer has attended the famous Darmstadt Summer Courses and has worked with Stockhausen, his Quintet turns out to be a rather drab piece. The best I can find to say about it is that it is mindlessly pleasant—but even that has to be qualified by the fact that at nearly a quartet of an hour it does rather outstay its welcome.

About time is an accurate title for J. Windel Brown’s five-minute orchestral piece that plays effectively with pulse (again, there is a solo flute here). According to the booklet notes, “If you listen closely, you might find the staccato style of rap music, which has always fascinated Brown.” There is a tongue-in-cheek pun about the title, too, concerning Brown’s learning that the work was to be performed in Boston’s Symphony Hall! The rhythmic antics do indeed make this a rather interesting experience.

The bitter-sweet harmonies of Norma Wendelburg’s Warsaw Rhapsody are a notable feature of the most complex piece so far on the disc. This, of all pieces on the recording, rewards relistening. Conceived as a tribute to Warsaw and its people, it is inflected by Polish idioms without actually quoting Polish music itself. It is expertly scored. I for one would like to hear more of Wendelburg’s music. If the Wendelburg was the most complex work so far, Paula Diehl’s Insiders is the most overtly modern-sounding. The work is a series of three brief movements that seem to pose a string of questions. Fascinating. Finally, Alfred Hoose’s A Pondering, a slow, meditative work for solo organ with sweetly tonal references. The chorale “Schmücke dich, O Liebe Seele” is embedded within the musical surface but only occasionally surfaces obviously. Hoose’s work is beautifully and musically played here by Margita Marková, a Slovakian organist making her debut MMC recording here (unfortunately no details are given regarding the actual organ used).

As always from MMC, this is, stylistically, a laudably mixed disc. The standard of composition is perhaps not consistently excellent, but there is plenty here to stimulate.

FANFARE: Colin Clarke