Nocturne on an Impossible Dream

Written in memory of my mother, this work was inspired by the great void left by her absence in my life. What occupied my mind in the final days, were her unfulfilled dreams. A warm, sensitive, artistic and creative person, she could never quite realize her artisic vision. Political turmoil, emigration and an energetic husband did not allow her own potentials in design, embroidery, lute and dance to develop. There simply was not the time or space her talents deserved. The piece is as much a portrait of her, as it is of my thoughts about her. It attempts to convey the perfect island of peace and love she created, around which we could always gather and find comfort. – Gerhard Samuel

Concerto for Guitar and Chamber Orchestra

…was originally composed as a chamber concerto for guitar and wind ensemble, written at the request of randall Adkins for the Ohio Northern University Wind Ensemble who was seeking a new work for premiere at the Ohio Private College Instrumental Conductors Association’s 5th Annual Honors Festival. Written for Lynn Harting-Ware as soloist, I began the concerto during a residency at the Atlantic Centre for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida where I was working with Russian composer, Rodion Shchedrin. The work proceeds in the traditional fast-slow-fast tempo scheme with similar motivic ideas unifying the three movements. It is essentially tonal with constant meter changes. The first movement is expository, while the second movement communicates a sense of beauty and sadness. The driving finale evokes a flamenco character. – Richard Jordan Smoot

Kabah

… was commissioned for the Pan American Games, Festival of the Arts with a Canada Council grant and premiered at the Indianapolis Museum of Art in a special gala concert. Inspired by Indian mysticism, the work is named after a Mayan ruin in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. In Kabah, Ware climbs inside his source creating an organic rather than narrative musical style. Expressionistic with driving rhythm and intense dissonance, it evolves through long-breathed melodies, spun out almost endlessly in a free-flowing contrapuntal texture. The musical structures develop naturally from motivic cells that seem to grow and mutate in an evolutionary sense. that communicates directly with the listener on a purely spiritual level. For this reason, its meaning can be interpreted and understood emotionally, but the message is encoded outside the realm of language. – Ira Liebermann

What the critics say
about the recording:

« This is an interesting collection of some real forward-thinking music….a highly adventurous and strangely beautiful recording. » – The North Jersey Herald and News

« Lynn Harting-Ware gives a finely nuanced performance of the solo part in the Smooth Concerto. Her playing is remarkably clean, with all details audible. This is a fine disc, one that repays close and repeated hearings. » – American Record Guide

About the works:

« The Nocturne on an Impossible Dream, with its soaring, plaintive violin, its gently interminglings of clarinet and piano, and the quiet intimations of mortality emanating from tam-tam and low clusters, is one of the most sensuous works of our era. With its ensemble of nine, its twelve wistful minutes suspend all sense of the passage of time. One senses the effect of a masterpiece. » – Harold Blumfield, composer/critic

« Kabah is an exotically evocative piece, describing the atmosphere and spirit of the place with eerie harmonics, long-held notes and often sparse harmonies conveying a sense of vast emptiness and antiquity. » – The Washington Post

GERHARD SAMUEL

1. Nocturne on an Impossible Dream

RICHARD JORDAN SMOOT

2. Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra

PETER WARE

3. Kabah