Composer Edward Smaldone blends influences from the worlds of twelve tone music, jazz, and extramusical realms like architecture and poetry to write attractive, sophisticated works that highlight his penchant for vibrant orchestrations and instrumental virtuosity. What no one else sees... features two concertos, one for piano and the other for clarinet, alongside two programmatic works for orchestra and a wind quintet.
| # | Audio | Title/Composer(s) | Performer(s) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Time | 75:04 | |||
| 01 | Beauty of Innuendo | Beauty of Innuendo | Brno Philharmonic, Mikel Toms, conductor | 13:06 |
| 02 | Prendendo Fuoco (Catching Fire) | Prendendo Fuoco (Catching Fire) | Niklas Sivelöv, piano, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Mikel Toms, conductor | 21:09 |
| 03 | Murmurations | Murmurations | Den Kongelige Livgardes Musikkorps, Giordano Bellincampi, conductor, Søren-Filip Brix Hansen, clarinet | 12:46 |
| 04 | June 2011 | June 2011 | Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Mikel Toms, conductor | 8:34 |
What no one else sees... |
||||
| Opus Zoo | ||||
| 05 | I. Playful | I. Playful | 7:40 | |
| 06 | II. Serious | II. Serious | 6:29 | |
| 07 | III. Free Spirited | III. Free Spirited | 5:20 | |
Composer Edward Smaldone, heard here on his fifth full length album and second New Focus release, is omnivorous in his influences. He cites jazz musicians from Miles Davis to Joe Pass to Maria Schneider, late century twelve-tone modernist composers such as George Perle and Ralph Shapey, and the architects Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid as just some of his sources of inspiration. The composite result, heard in the five works on this recording, is an artist with a natural way of integrating different aspects of his own voice into an organic style, one that reflects these diverse influences without being restricted by their associations. Smaldone uses conventional materials of harmony, rhythm, and thematic development in a personal way. Smaldone's music balances a sense of inevitability borne from his fluency with the syntax of traditional vocabulary and surprising compositional turns that are the byproduct of his nuanced approach to invention.
The album opens with the energetic exuberance of Beauty of Innuendo for orchestra. The strings establish a taut harmonic frame through tremolo entrances that accumulate into shifting chords. The brass instruments provide splashes of color with fragmented fanfares, punctuated by swirling passages in the strings. After the powerful introductory section, individual wind instruments take the lead with a series of lyrical solos, first in the clarinet, then the flute, and finally an unaccompanied solo oboe turn. A bravura ascending theme in the strings propels the work forward, passed to the horns and low brass and eventually subjected to development and disseminated throughout the orchestration. Beauty of Innuendo climaxes with ferocity as the sections of the orchestra spar with each other before the orchestration gradually thins over the work’s final minute and a half to end on a single pitch in the violins.
Prendendo Fuoco (Catching Fire) for piano and orchestra is set in five movements (with its third movement “Fire Dances” itself divided into three parts) that are heard here in one track. The opening “Introduction: Smoldering” portends the breadth of the work with a pointed thematic fragment in the strings, expansive harmonies in the winds, subtle march-like rhythms in the percussion, and flights of virtuosity in the solo piano. In “Ballad, Singing,” a mournful melody in the strings provides the foundation for fleet trills and passagework in the piano marked by crotale accents that articulate arrival pitches. Smaldone traverses an engaging range of territory in his piano writing, from Rachmaninov-esque romantic largesse, to giddy virtuosic facility worthy of Oscar Peterson, to angular accents one might hear in Stravinsky or Bartok. “Fire Dances” pivots to a vigorous, muscularly rhythmic texture with figures that explode between soloist and orchestra before the movement moves to a playful spinning out of motivic material. The final movement, “Incendiary,” is divided into two sections: “Quiet Before the Storm” is an elegiac fantasy that explores lush harmonies with improvisational material in the solo part, culminating in a free cadenza. “Catching Fire” returns to the crackling energy of “Fire Dances” with blistering passagework in the keyboard that are marked by fierce tutti unison accents and jousting dialogue between soloist and orchestra.
Murmurations for clarinet and wind orchestra is inspired by the apparent improvisatory behavior of a flock of starlings. Smaldone’s clarinet solo part takes the role of the lead bird, with the wind orchestra following in elegant flight. The wind orchestra timbre is luminous and brilliant, at times evoking the shimmering ecstasy of a big band and at others the delicate precision of an orchestral soli section. Fluid, elastic lines in the solo clarinet are echoed with pastels of color in the winds, often shaded by an icy vibraphone arpeggio or ride cymbal pattern. Imitation is a key rhetorical feature in the unfolding of the piece, with the “flock” grabbing phrase ends from the clarinet and extending them in mid-flight. Brief moments of reflection feature the clarinet solo over less active accompaniment, a contrast to the multi-layered texture Smaldone has established for much of the work.
The album’s second orchestral work without soloist is June 2011, a piece that evokes a Bernstein-era ethos of American contemporary music. Towering chords open the work with urbane optimism, and a swung line in the ensemble featuring xylophone and glockenspiel evokes ambitious third stream works and forays into incorporating jazz into adventurous music theatre pieces. A wistful middle section features nostalgic melodic material, heard in rich, tutti string passages.
The title work, What no one else sees… for woodwind quintet, is a non-programmatic piece that revels in intertwined chamber dialogue and the joy of developing motivic material in a transparent context. The opening movement, “Playful,” features syncopated figures, interconnected hybrid melodies, and pointed tutti arrivals. After a series of accented chords, “Serious” is led in turn by solo lines in the individual instruments of the quintet that frame its thoughtful expression; of particular note is the beautiful English horn material. “Free Spirited” opens with an easy, moderate groove that supports fleet, virtuosic lines from the players, returning to the syncopated accents from the opening movement, with thoughtfully placed moments of reflective contrast in between.
– Dan Lippel
Beauty of Innuendo:
Jaroslav Zouhar, recording engineer
Douglas Knehans, producer
Silas Brown, mastering
Recorded at Besední dům, Brno, Czech Republic, June 2013
Prendendo Fuoco:
Hedd Mortlett-Jones, recording engineer
Douglas Knehans, producer
Jaroslav Zouhar, editing
Silas Brown, mixing and mastering
Recorded at Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Scotland, May 2024
Murmurations:
Torsten Jessen, recording engineer, editing, mixing
Edward Smaldone, producer
Silas Brown, mastering
Recorded at Stærkassen Theater, Copenhagen, Denmark, June 2021
June 2011:
Hedd Mortlett-Jones, recording engineer
Mathew Swan and Douglas Knehans, producers
Mathew Swan, editing, mixing and mastering
Silas Brown, re-mastering
Recorded at Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Scotland, January 2022
What no one else sees…:
Brian Santero, recording engineer
Silas Brown, mastering
Recorded in Odense, Denmark, April 2024
CD package design by Simone Caprifogli, simonecaprifogli.com
All compositions are published by American Concert Editions
Dr. Edward Smaldone (b. 1956) is Professor Emeritus of Music at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, City University of New York. He joined the full-time faculty in 1989 and was the Director of the School of Music from 2002 to 2016 and then Associate Director until retiring in Fall 2024. He is also an Alum of Queens College, Classes of ’78 and ’80.
Smaldone received the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1993, launching a steadily growing career that has garnered many other awards, commissions, performances, and recordings. Other awards are from ASCAP, The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo Corporation, the Charles Ives Center for the Arts, the Percussive Arts Society, American Music Awards, and the American Music Center. In 2016 he was named “Composer of the Year” by the Classical Recording Foundation at a ceremony at National Sawdust in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and in 2017 he was named a “Distinguished Alumnus” of the CUNY Graduate Center.
Smaldone’s music has been performed by the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Denver Chamber Orchestra, The Memphis Symphony, the Queens Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Oratorio Sinfonica Japan, Orchestra of the League/ISCM, Oberlin New Music Ensemble, the League/ISCM Chamber Players, the Peabody Camerata, the EOS Orchestra of Beijing, China, the Chicago Composers Orchestra, The New York Virtuoso Singers, the Brno Philharmonic, the Stony Brook “Premieres!” Ensemble, Royal Danish Academy of Music Winds, Idaho State-Civic Symphony and many other soloists and ensembles in the United States (20 of the lower 48 states), Canada, China, Japan and Europe (Scotland, England, Poland, Italy, Greece, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Serbia, Norway, the Czech Republic, and Croatia). An active composer for the dance, Smaldone arranged music by and attributed to Pergolesi which has been performed worldwide by Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project and was included in the New York City Center 2021 Twyla Tharp Celebration. Other collaborations have been with the Hartford Ballet, Jacobs Pillow, and the dancer-choreographer Yin Mei. His music is recorded on the CRI, New World, New Focus, Capstone, Ablaze, Sera, and Naxos labels and is featured on more than a dozen CDs, including five full-length recordings.
Recent reviews in Fanfare Magazine said, in part, “Smaldone has a gift for connecting one phrase with another, even one note with another, so that you get wrapped up in the music.” His music if published by the American Concert Edition.
https://edwardsmaldone.com/British conductor Mikel Toms has worked with many orchestras and ensembles throughout Europe and around the world. From 2019 to 2023 he served as Resident Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of India in Mumbai. He has recorded over 40 CDs for labels including Sony BMG (the world premiere recording of Philip Glass’s Saxophone Concerto), Decca, Métier, Quartz and ABLAZE. As a broadcaster, he recently appeared in the three-part BBC FOUR television series Romance and Revolution – Musical Masters of the 19th Century.
Mikel is closely associated with the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra in the Czech Republic with whom he has made over a hundred recordings of contemporary and classical repertoire. He has recorded over 100 new works for orchestra and has collaborated with major composers including Iannis Xenakis, James Dillon, Michael Finnissy and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
A leading Scandinavian pianist and composer, Niklas Sivelöv has an extensive catalogue of recordings for such labels as BIS, Caprice, DaCapo, Naxos, Toccata Classics and AMC Classical, some of which have been awarded the Diapason d’or, CHOK and the Penguin Rosette. His concert career spans four continents, including venues such as the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Barbican, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Tivoli Copenhagen and the Atheneum in Bucharest. His wide-ranging concert repertoire covers Bach to Skryabin, Scandinavian composers and beyond, and includes approximately 50 piano concerti including six of his own. As a composer of note, his catalogue of works includes six Symphonies, 24 Preludes for piano and several chamber music pieces. Niklas Sivelöv is also a notable improviser, with several successful recordings and collaborations.
Sivelöv grew up in Skellefteå in northern Sweden, first playing by ear and learned to read music at age 14. He studied with, among others, Gabriel Amiras and Maria Curcio Diamond, students of the famed Heinrich Neuhaus and Artur Schnabel.
He lives in Malmö and is professor at the Royal Danish Music Academy in Copenhagen. He was recently knighted by the Queen of Denmark as Knight of the Order of Dannebrog.
Formed in 1891 as the Scottish Orchestra, the company became the Scottish National Orchestra in 1950, and was awarded Royal Patronage in 1977 by the late Queen Elizabeth II. In 2024, His Majesty The King became the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s Royal Patron. Throughout its history, the Orchestra has played an integral part in Scotland’s musical life, including performing at the opening ceremony of the Scottish Parliament building in 2004. Many renowned conductors have contributed to its success, including George Szell, Sir John Barbirolli, Walter Susskind, Sir Alexander Gibson, Neeme Järvi, Walter Weller, Alexander Lazarev and Stéphane Denève.
The Orchestra’s artistic team is led by Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård, who was appointed RSNO Music Director in 2018. The orchestra is in high demand for recordings of all kinds, including Hollywood movie scores and is renowned for its vibrant sound and stunning musicianship. Their state-of-the-art recording facility and concert hall are a vital feature of cultural life in Glasgow.
The Royal Life Guards Music Band (Den Kongelige Livgarde Musikkorps, DKLM) is the foremost military band in the Danish Defense and the official regimental band of the Danish Royal Life Guards. The DKLM is based in Copenhagen and primarily participates in parades and ceremonies for the Danish monarch (currently King Frederik X) and the Danish Royal Family. In addition to regular public parades and special ceremonial concerts, the ensemble performs a wide variety of music in concerts across Denmark. For 10 years, they made their home in the beautiful Staerkassen Theater, directly adjacent to the Royal Theater, Charlottenborg Palace, and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and Kongens Nytorv (the “New King’s Square”), a landmark square (the largest in Copenhagen) dating to 1907.
Giordano Bellincampi is the Music Director of the Auckland Philharmonia as well as Artistic Advisor and conductor of the Royal Lifeguard Music Corps. Previously, he was General Music Director of the Danish National Opera, Aarhus from 2005 – 2013, Music Director of the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra from 2000 to 2006 and, between 1997 and 2000, he was also Chief Conductor of the Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen, the leading contemporary ensemble in Denmark.
Bellincampi enjoys regular relationships as a guest with numerous orchestras and musical institutions around the world with a repertoire embracing classical, romantic and contemporary music. His extensive discography includes Ross Harris’s 6th symphony for Naxos with the Auckland Philharmonia, numerous recordings for the Da Capo and Marco Polo labels of Danish composers from the classical era through to the present day.
Born in Italy and moving to Copenhagen at a young age, he began his career as a trombonist with the Royal Danish Orchestra before making his professional conducting debut in 1994. He is an Associate Professor at the Royal Danish Academy. In 2010 he was made a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog, an award bestowed by the Danish Royal Family for services to Danish culture, and he also holds the title of Cavaliere from the President of Italy for his international promotion of Italian music.
Clarinetist Søren-Filip Brix Hansen (1986) is concertmaster of the Royal Life Guards Music Band (Den Kongelige Livgardes Musikkorps) in Copenhagen since 2015. He has been soloist with the ensemble many times and has also been soloist with The Danish National Symphony Orchestra. He began his musical studies in the Tivoli Boys Guard in Copenhagen when he was 9 years old and has an artist-diploma from the Royal Danish Academy of Music where he studied with Jørgen Misser and John Kruse. He also studied one year with Charles Neidich at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College New York.
Søren-Filip has participated in masterclasses with Martin Fröst, Yahuda Gilad, Andreas Sundén and Wolfgang Meyer among others. He has worked with composers such as Edward Smaldone, Anders Koppel, Benjamin de Murashkin and Aya Yushida. He has played with all the Symphony Orchestras in Denmark, The Royal Danish Orchestra, The Danish Chamber players and Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. He also performs with the Opus Zoo Woodwind Quintet, and is the leader of a vibrant chamber music series in Copenhagen.
The wind quintet Opus Zoo was formed in 2013 by outstanding musicians from Danish orchestras. The quintet has a broad repertoire with a particular focus on new music and over the years has had works written for it by Benjamin de Murashkin, Jonathan Mesterton Pitter, Naja Scheel and by the American composer Edward Smaldone.
Opus Zoo has played concerts in churches and music associations throughout Denmark, and also in collaboration with accordionist Bjarke Mogensen.
The ensemble’s unusual name derives from a famous work by Luciano Berio: “Opus Number Zoo.”
New Focus Recordings is an artist led collective label featuring releases in contemporary creative music of many stripes, as well as new approaches to older repertoire. The label was founded by guitarist Dan Lippel, composer Peter Gilbert in 2004, and composer/engineer Ryan Streber in 2004, formed …Read More …
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