Metropolis Symphony For Orchestra
1.   		I. Lex 00:10:01
2.   		II. Krypton 00:06:46
3.   		III. MXYZPTLK 00:07:02
4.   		IV. Oh, Lois! 00:05:05
5.   		V. Red Cape Tango 00:13:41

Deus ex Machina For Piano And Orchestra
6.   		I. Fast Forward (Di andata veloce) 00:07:40
7.   		II. Train of Tears 00:14:17
8.   		III. Night Steam 00:11:22 

Terrence Wilson - piano
Mary Kathryn van Osdale - violin
Erik Gratton - flute
Ann Richards - flute
Nashville Symphony Orchestra
Giancarlo Guerrero - conductor

Inspired by the fiftieth anniversary of Superman’s first appearance in the comics, Metropolis Symphony has been performed by orchestras all over the world. Hailed by the London Times as a “Symphonie Fantastique for our times,” Metropolis Symphony is a musical response to the myth of Superman, expressing the energies, ambiguities, paradoxes, and wit of American popular culture. Deus ex Machina is a piano concerto inspired by trains of the future and past: Fast Forward re-creates the machine-like rhythms of modern trains admired by the Italian futurists; Train of Tears recalls Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train; Night Steam evokes O. Winston Link’s historic photographs of steam locomotives rumbling and whistling their way into extinction. ---naxos.com

Daugherty holds the evangel for melody and rhythmic vitality without any hint of minimalism. He emerges from the epic American high plains of Harris and 1940s Copland yet strides with confidence amid the language of high culture, popular music and classic film score. It’s a volatile brew transcending any fears of comic book trivia.

The Metropolis Symphony is a big burly phantasmagoric romp of a symphony. That it was inspired by the fiftieth anniversary of Superman’s arrival in the pages of DC Comics is consistent with the work’s riotous primary colours and indefatigable rowdy energy. We are assured by the composer that the five movements are not narrative. They’re a series of bold mood pictures with the neon brashness and whole spectrum gaud of the pulp magazine covers. Interesting the sleeve illustration affectionately parodies the genre as well.

It’s not all scorching Sabre-Jet ascents and dives. Much of it revels in closely recorded soloistic episodes including warm and hoarse violin writing, skittering bell-bright percussion and gannet-diving flutes duos: MXYZPTLK (III). The horns step up the plate in an exultant golden roar as if in tribute to Bernard Herrmann’s Death Hunt. Krypton (II) makes howling-growling and minatory use of the motor siren and the wailing string ululations we associate with Penderecki and Hovhaness. The writing then becomes psychedelically evocative of Tippett and Silvestrov in its dense and slowly writhing richness. Yet there’s also sufficient brightly imagined gravamen to give the work a huge shot of symphonic weight. It was quite a coup to make the dynamo finale a tango with its delicious shiver of Shchedrin meets Dies Irae meets Totentanz. The Schuman-like kinetic charge of the final pages is radiant with optimism. This adds up to a deeply enjoyable symphony with enough of the cinema about to make it often confident and exciting. Great stuff!

The dedicatee of the Metropolis Symphony is David Zinman who encouraged its writing. He gave the world première at Carnegie Hall in January 1994 with the Baltimore Symphony.

Deus ex Machina for piano and orchestra was a collegiate commission from the orchestras of Charlotte, Nashville, New Jersey, Rochester and Syracuse. This three movement piano concerto can now join the list of musical works linked to railroads and trains. Fast Forward is a storm of rhythmic sound recalling Mossolov, Honegger and Markevich. This is linked in the composer’s mind with futurism and the role that trains played in that movement - breathless stuff. Train of Tears marks a shift of mood: elegiac and more musical and engaging than the visceral blast of Fast Forward. Noble Americana is the engine for this piece which leans on the image of the train that carried the corpse of Abraham Lincoln from Washington to his final resting place in Springfield, Illinois. The piano writing is distinctive - my closes approximation would be a sort of blend of Rachmaninov and pastoral Copland. The finale is Night Steam. Here Daugherty pays exciting tribute to the coal-burning steam locomotives that survived into the early 1960s in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland. Each grand colossus was documented in the monochrome photographs taken by O. Winston Link. These smoke belching dreadnoughts of the rails live again in Daugherty’s jazzy-bluesy kaleidoscopic and brakeless careering hayride.

Both works are played to the hilt and the recording - especially in the case of the symphony - is the modern equivalent of Decca’s best analogue vintage. ---Rob Barnett, musicweb-international.com

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Trail of Tears
1.   		I. Where the wind blew free 00:10:00
2.   		II. Incantation 00:06:06
3.   		III. Sun dance 00:06:45
Dreamachine
4.   		I. Da Vinci's Wings 00:09:26
5.   		II. Rube Goldberg's Variations 00:04:56
6.   		III. Electric Eel 00:10:32
7.   		IV. Vulcan's Forge 00:09:01
Reflections on the Mississippi
8.   		I. Mist 00:05:33
9.   		II. Fury 00:03:43
10.   		III. Prayer 00:06:43
11.   		IV. Steamboat 00:04:39 

Amy Porter (flute)
Dame Evelyn Glennie (percussion)
Carol Jantsch (tuba)
Albany Symphony
David Alan Miller (conductor)

GRAMMY® Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty explores the relationships between machines, humanity and nature in three unique concertos. Dreamachine for solo percussion and orchestra is a colourful tribute to the imagination of inventors who dreamed of new machines, both real and surreal. The flute concerto Trail of Tears dramatizes the tragic governmental forced relocation of Native Americans in 1838 and meditates on how the human spirit discovers ways to deal with adversity. Reflections on the Mississippi for tuba and orchestra is a musical voyage down the legendary Mississippi River from Iowa to Louisiana. The Albany Symphony, conducted by David Alan Miller, delivers mesmerizing performances by three outstanding women soloists: GRAMMY® Award-winning percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, flutist extraordinaire Amy Porter, and Carol Jantsch, the remarkable principal tuba of The Philadelphia Orchestra. ---Editorial Reviews, naxos.com

Michael Daugherty is one of the more engaging and imaginative composers now operating in the US – or anywhere else, for that matter. He first piqued my interest with Sunset Strip, which headlined a terrific BIS collection, American Spectrum. After that came a couple of Naxos issues, among them Mount Rushmore and Tales of Hemingway. With their focus on landmarks and their references to pop culture – superheroes, celebrities, the cinema – these albums are most entertaining. And no, that’s not damning with faint praise for the quality and range of Daugherty’s writing is never in doubt; all these performances are pretty good, too.

What we have here are three spanking new concertos, for flute, solo percussion and tuba respectively. Of the soloists, Dame Evelyn Glennie is probably the best known. I last heard her in The Conjurer, an extraordinary work by John Corigliano (Naxos). In a two-handed review, John Quinn and I agreed to make that a Recording of the Month. Flautist Amy Porter, who premiered Trail of Tears in 2010, is new to me, as is Carol Jantsch, principal tuba with the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2005. Ditto the Albany Symphony and their conductor, David Alan Miller, so this really is an ‘innocent ear’ review.

In his booklet notes, Daugherty explains that Trail of Tears is a ‘musical journey’ that charts the removal of Native Americans living east of the Mississippi, a process that began with the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This shameful period in American history saw the relocation of the Cherokee, who were forced to march 800 miles to Oklahoma in the winter of 1839. Nearly 4,000 of them died during the five-month trek, which has become known as the ‘Trail of Tears’. The composer writes movingly about this event, which has powerful resonances with other times and places in more recent history.

The title of the first movement is a poignant quote from the Native American leaser, Geronimo: ‘I was born on the prairies where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun.’ Porter’s opening solo – mournful, yet strangely uplifting – is greeted by an expansive orchestral riposte that speaks of big skies and wide horizons. It seems Daugherty insists on every flute technique available, a challenge to which this flautist responds with fluency and feeling. That said, she – and the piece – wear their virtuosity quite lightly, so the deeply expressive nature of this music is never compromised. As for the orchestral writing, it’s both eloquent and forceful, and that creates a compelling soundscape.

In my review of The Conjurer, I commended Naxos for their exemplary sonics, and I must do so here. This is a full, immensely dynamic recording that ekes out every last detail of Porter’s performance – the calls and cries of Incantation are especially well caught – not to mention the weight and warmth of the orchestra in the jubilant Sun dance. Miller directs it all with authority and insight. As so often with Daugherty, one is subliminally aware of a much broader musical/cultural influences – the work’s breath-taking vistas bring to mind the plains and rivers of Virgil Thomson and the unspoilt prairies of Aaron Copland – and yet his language is always arresting and original.

Dame Evelyn was the soloist in the 2014 premiere of the second concerto, with the WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln under Frank Strobel. Written for a festival that focused on humans and machines, the piece starts with Leonardo’s detailed sketches of bird and bat wings. The second delights in the weird ‘contraptions’ of cartoonist-engineer Rube Goldberg, and the third fixates on a surreal drawing by the artist-scientist Fritz Kahn. The fourth deals with the constant battle between logic and emotion that defines Mr Spock, the half-man, half-Vulcan from the iconic TV series, Star Trek.

As its conjoined title implies, Dreamachine is about fusions; in fact, Glennie’s marvellous marimba playing in Da Vinci's Wings is itself a hybrid, of forensic detail and undoubted feeling. As for the Goldberg Variations – Rube’s cartoons featured bizarre combinations of man, beast and machine – it demands quirky contributions from all concerned. Just like the syndicated strips, this is a pleasant diversion, designed to intrigue and amuse. Similarly, Kahn’s picture of a light bulb plugged into an electric eel gives rise to some very unusual sounds. And Trekkies will be thrilled by Daugherty’s rat-a-tat finale, which, tightly constructed, includes a nod or three to Jerry Goldsmith’s sweeping score for the original ST.

The third concerto, Reflections on the Mississippi, begins with a darkly resonant solo that recalls Paul Robeson’s Old Man River. Jantsch, who premiered the piece in 2013, is always full, firm and fearless – not a given with this instrument – and she’s wonderfully nuanced in Mist. In complete contrast is Fury, a reminder of 1927’s catastrophic floods; cue muscular writing and some highly virtuosic playing from Jantsch, who modulates from turbulence to sudden tenderness with ease. The pealing bells of Prayer are nicely done – the tuba part is suitably hymn-like – and Steamboat celebrates the vessels that once plied this great waterway. (As an aside, anyone interested in this bygone age should read Tim Gautreaux’s epic novel, The Missing.)

This is a splendid addition to Daugherty’s growing discography. Superbly played and very well engineered/edited by Silas Brown and Doron Schächter, it doesn’t match the musical or technical excellence of The Conjurer; that said, it comes tantalisingly close. My review is based on a 16-bit press download, although I did subsequently buy the 24-bit version from Qobuz. I was disappointed to find the latter is sampled at the basic 44.1kHz; not only that, the presentation now seems brighter, perhaps even a little hard edged. So, forget about the ‘high-res’ files and stick with the ‘CD quality’ ones, which are more than adequate here.

Daugherty at his inimitable and engaging best; don’t hesitate. ---Dan Morgan, musicweb-international.com

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1 	Route 66 (1988) For Orhcestra 	6:56

Ghost Ranch (2006) For Orchestra 
2 	Bone 	6:07
3 	Above Clouds	8:36
4 	Black Rattle 	9:27

Sunset Strip (1999) For Orchestra 
5 	7 PM 	4:46
6 	Nocturne	3:15
7 	7 AM 	9:08

Time Machine (2003) For Three Conductors And Orchestra 
8 	Past 	7:09
9 	Future 	13:24

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Conductor - Marin Alsop
Conductor – Laura Jackson (tracks: 8, 9), Mei-Ann Chen (tracks: 8, 9) 
Horn – Andrew Jones, Ed Lockwood, Kevin Pritchard, Richard Vaughan Thomas, Robert Harris (track 3)
Percussion – Matt King, Oliver Yates (track 6)
Trumpet – Denis Curlett, Peter Turnbull (track 6)

This recording is a musical road trip from the unique creative world of Michael Daugherty, one of America’s most performed composers, and the visionary conductor Marin Alsop, who has championed his music for over 20 years. The music takes off with Route 66, a high-octane nostalgic drive from Illinois to California through ‘Main Street America’, as seen through Daugherty’s rear view mirror. Along the way, we stop at Ghost Ranch, where Georgia O’Keeffe created her brilliant paintings inspired by the open skies and bone-parched earth of New Mexico. Arriving in Los Angeles, Daugherty takes us for a tuneful spin down Sunset Strip where anything can happen, and it usually does. Our journey concludes as we travel into the fourth dimension with Time Machine, an adventure in rhythm, sound and space for three conductors and orchestra. ---naxos.com

Michael Daugherty manages to have his musical cake and eat it too. His music’s eclectic “pop” elements rub shoulders with thoroughly modern compositional techniques. Time Machine, for example, requires three conductors, but its various textural layers and rhythmic complexities never sound confused. Indeed, its ticking woodblocks sound very much like Daugherty—something similar occurs at the start of Ghost Ranch, inspired by paintings by the always marvelous Georgia O’Keefe. Both this latter work and Sunset Strip are triptychs in the grand tradition of Ives (Three Places in New England) and Debussy (La mer).

Route 66, by contrast, is a seven-minute cross-country travelogue, and one of Daugherty’s best-known works (after the expansive Metropolis Symphony). Marin Alsop has established herself as a champion of Daugherty’s music, and performs all of it with obvious commitment. The Bournemouth orchestra, particularly its brass section (horns and trumpets), makes the most of the numerous solo opportunities that Daugherty offers the players. Naxos’ engineers do an excellent job capturing the music’s wide range of colors and, in Time Machine, its spacial elements. No reservations whatever—this is just excellent. ---David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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