Benjamin Lees: Symphony No. 4 "Memorial Candles"

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Benjamin Lees has taken on a formidable task here, attempting to memorialize victims of the Holocaust in a symphony. Using the poetry of Nelly Sachs was an inspired idea, as she treats the subject in the only way it can be treated effectively--obliquely, focusing on details rather than the overall horror. But the three long movements, lasting more than an hour, don't maintain the same viewpoint; the music is unremittingly somber but lacking in distinctive elements. It winds up sounding like a soundtrack for a documentary, despite the eloquence of all the performers involved. Naxos's presentation (including poetry texts) and recording quality are excellent. --Leslie Gerber

Tracks:

Alexander's Ragtime Band
Beside a Babbling Brook
You Gotta See Mamma Every Night
Old Reliable March
Missouri Waltz
Beer Barrel Polka
Yes, We have no Bananas
Barney Google
Boston Commandery March
When My sugar Walks Down the Street
Oh Katherina
Paddlin' Madeline Home
Always
Alley Cat
Doo Wacka Doo
King of the Air March
Show Me the Way to Go Home
I Love My Baby, By Baby Loves Me
Me and My Shadow
Louise
American Patrol (March)
All Alone
Bye Bye Blackbird
The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down
Agravatin'Papa
Yes sir That's my Baby
Roses From the South
Ja Da
Heaven's Artillery March
Waltz
Goodnite Waltz

Album Description

Old-fashioned Merry-Go-Round music including favorites such as "The Beer Barrel Polka", "Bye-Bye Blackbird", "The Missouri Waltz" and 28 others.

Customer Reviews:

This Merry-Go-Round Doesn't Break Down!.......2005-04-12

Since several other reviewers have given very good descriptions of this CD, I won't re-hash here, but simply say I agree with what they've said. I will add my two cents on a few points not mentioned, though.

Since the Wurlitzer 165 band organ upon which these musical selections are played is in such good condition, we get a musically idealized version of what we once heard at the merry-go-round. The sonic reality often was quite a bit less, with imperfectly working instruments and the sound of the drive motor as it pumped away to turn the carousel, not to mention the noise of the crowd and the children shouting and squealing. This is no criticism of the CD, though, since it only purports to present the music; it would take a lot more than a CD to present a realistic facsimile of the total experience.

The liner notes are brief, but provide some interesting background on the origin of carousels and the words themselves. I think the writer, Tupper L. Turner, deserves credit for his/her efforts.

I was surprised to see Track #30 listed as "Waltz (Title unknown)" when opera lovers will immediately recognize it as two tunes from Verdi's opera "Il Trovatore" (The Troubadour). The first tune is the soprano/tenor duet in the Miserere scene of Act IV; the second is the baritone aria "Il balen del suo sorriso." In any case, neither is a waltz proper, for both are in 6/8, not 3/4 time.

The selection of tunes, of course, depends on availability of the paper rolls which encoded them. I liked most of the tunes, familiar and otherwise, pretty well, and with 31 tracks there's quite a bit of all kinds there, including "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down."

Overall, then, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the CD and the appropriateness of its content. There are several other CDs of this nature available, I know, but I'm not familiar enough with them to offer any comparisons. I just know that I like this one and am happy to have it in my collection. And I suspect that little children will love it!

Saluting the Wurlitzer 165.......2004-12-30

It's a toughie reviewing this album - I don't know quite how to rate it for the everyday listener, seeing as how band organ music is definitely an acquired taste. However, that said, if you happen to be a band organ nut, you're in for a treat with this CD. It's about as good as it gets.

Kudos to Klavier records for making a recording of this wonderful Wurlitzer 165 band organ - it sounds like a dream, and has transferred relatively well to CD format. My only complaint is that the glockenspiel sounds rather abrasive, and gets really grating when recorded onto a cassette tape. Otherwise, the album is pristine.

The tunes featured are all classic band organ offerings, and the rolls used are in splendid shape. The organ's mechanism performs beautifully - whatever "prominent Midwestern collection", as the liner notes read, it comes from is taking very good care of it.

Basically, this, alongside its sister album "Catch Another Brass Ring", stands as an ideal representation of what a Wurlitzer 165 should sound like. Band organ lovers will adore it. The average Joe? Hard to say...but it's certainly worth a try.

A must-have for anyone who loves band organs!.......2003-05-17

This is the real thing,not some [poor],boring pipe organ imitation.You'll feel like you're really at the fair again when you listen to this CD!

For certain ambient moods...........2002-10-13

Play this CD on a system in another room, at low volume, for that ineffable feeling that there's a tumble-down old-fashioned trolley park just over the next hill.

The happiest music on earth!.......2002-09-17

This is the perfect antidote for the blues! It is absolutely impossible to feel down once you begin listening to this CD! I use it to give me a lift whenever I need it. I DARE you to not giggle with glee upon pressing the "play" button! If you have fond remembrances of carousel music as a child, you will get goosebumps and feel warm and fuzzy all at once when you listen to this! Why take anti-depressant drugs when you can cure the blahs quickly and naturally with this CD? An exceptionally clear recording, I bumped it down to four stars ONLY because I liked the musical selection slightly better on their follow-up album, "Catch Another Brass Ring."

Average customer rating:

Crisp & Coherent
Two Treasures, Two Trifles

American Contrasts

Manufacturer: Delos Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00009MGFI
Release Date: 2003-05-27

Tracks:

Benjamin Lees: Passacaglia for Orchestra
Persichetti: Symphony No.4: I
Persichetti: Symphony No.4: II
Persichetti: Symphony No.4: III
Persichetti: Symphony No.4: IV
Daugherty: Philadelphia Stories for Orchestra: Sundown on South Street
Daugherty: Hell's Angels

Customer Reviews:

Crisp & Coherent.......2004-03-18

Enjoying Classical music for over 50 years, I find it stimulating to listen to a body of work that captures your attention without offending. "Contrasts" is an excellant CD!
To the Classical Purist blending different musical period styles is for the most part an uncomfortable experience. However, from the Composer's point of view, it is a much more difficult task to be able to combine musical/period/styles and pull off a cohesive entity. "Hell's Angels" qualifies, with ease, as one of those rare orchestral pieces. Being a "Classical Purist" makes one content to whirl around in an eddy as opposed to enjoying the whole river and its many currents which freely intertwine. Dom's view

Two Treasures, Two Trifles.......2003-08-26

The real find here is the 'Passacaglia for Orchestra' by a genuine master of American music, the under-appreciated Benjamin Lees, now in his 80th year. The muscular 11-minute 'Passacaglia' is based on a disjunct 24-note quasi-atonal cello theme that strikes me as a deconstruction of the theme from Bach's 'Art of Fugue,' although I have no idea if that was Lees' intention. It consists of the theme followed by nineteen variations and a coda. Lees' mastery of orchestration and compositional inventiveness get a real work-out here. There is metrical and rhythmic diversity (e.g., one of the variations is in 5/8), creative orchestration (one variation has growling trombone/tuba flutter-tonguing, another has hypnotic, but humorous, use of temple blocks), augmentation and diminution of the theme, brass chorales, leap-frogging strings, all leading to the coda for full orchestra with triumphant pealing bells, a joyous conclusion to a short but densely constructed piece that has been played many times by American orchestras but never, to my knowledge, recorded before. It is played brilliantly by the Oregon Symphony under its outgoing music director, the hugely talented James DePreist (the most misspelled conductor in recent memory), a man who has given many of us many memorable performances of 20th-century music. [As if happens, I have another DePreist/Oregon recording in my review pile, a collection of music by Oregon composer Tomas Svoboda.]

The Passacaglia is followed by a classic of American symphonic composition, the Fourth Symphony of Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987). It was composed for and premièred by Eugene Ormandy's Philadelphia Orchestra in 1954 and recorded by them shortly afterward. That mono recording, coupled with an effective suite by Louis Gesensway called 'Four Squares of Philadelphia,' was a staple of the old Columbia catalog for many years. Those performances have been transferred to CD on the Albany Label (and coupled with William Schuman's 'Credendum'); I don't have that CD but a quick listen of my old LP reveals that the Ormandy/Philly recording is more immediately effective that this DePreist/Oregon version. The current recording seems a bit recessed, particularly in the first movement. Also, the whirling violins in IV are a bit covered in the current recording, robbing the exciting finale of some immediacy. I can't say enough for the Oregon winds and brass, however, and suspect the covered strings are the result more of the CD's sound production than the orchestra or conductors doing. This symphony has long been a favorite and you owe it to yourself to familiarize yourself with it, either from this CD or the one on Albany.

The final two pieces here are by Michael Daugherty (b. 1954), who has had a run of recordings recently. I will say up front that I've yet to hear anything by Daugherty that made me want to hear it again. And that goes for these two pieces--'Sundown on South Street' from his Second Symphony, and 'Hell's Angels.' Daugherty's style tends to borrow a good deal from vernacular music--jazz, pop, rock--and frankly it seems to me that he makes a dog's breakfast of it all. Others, obviously, feel much more positive about it. 'Hell's Angels' is a concerto of sorts for bassoon quartet (three bassoons, one contra-bassoon) and it certainly is well-played by the soloists. However, there is such vulgarity and triviality inherent in the piece that I think it is better if I say no more.

Suffice it to say, I recommend this CD for the Persichetti and especially for the Lees. They account for about 38 minutes of the CD's total of 61 minutes.

One final note: I have indicated in some earlier reviews (primarily of re-releases on Naxos of pieces previously released on Delos and featuring the Seattle Symphony under Gerard Schwarz) that I thought the Delos label had gone belly up. Obviously I was wrong. I not only apologize for having suggested it, but hasten to add that I'm delighted to hear that they still exist. They have given us many fine recordings of American music over the years. I hope they continue to do so for many years to come.

Tracks:

Symphony No. 4 'Memorial Candles': I. Visitations: 'Someone Blew The Shofar'
Symphony No. 4 'Memorial Candles': II. Manifestations: 'Footsteps'
Symphony No. 4 'Memorial Candles': III. Transcendence: 'But Who Emptied Your Shoes Of Sand'

Amazon.com

Benjamin Lees has taken on a formidable task here, attempting to memorialize victims of the Holocaust in a symphony. Using the poetry of Nelly Sachs was an inspired idea, as she treats the subject in the only way it can be treated effectively--obliquely, focusing on details rather than the overall horror. But the three long movements, lasting more than an hour, don't maintain the same viewpoint; the music is unremittingly somber but lacking in distinctive elements. It winds up sounding like a soundtrack for a documentary, despite the eloquence of all the performers involved. Naxos's presentation (including poetry texts) and recording quality are excellent. --Leslie Gerber

Customer Reviews:

A profound and moving meditation on the Holocaust.......2000-03-16

Naxos is to be praised for bringing us so much otherwise unknown American music. I was knocked out by this symphony the first time I heard it and have listened to it now perhaps 15 times. I keep finding new things in it. Structurally it's as tight as anything I've ever heard from Lees, whose music I've explored for thirty years now. (I hope to God his new Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra are recorded soon; talk about a knockout!) I disagree with the preceding reviewer who complained about Kimball Wheeler's voice. It sounds luscious to me and perfect for the Jewish cantillation of the vocal part. Buswell is his usual sterling self. I heartily recommend this piece for its emotional wallop.

For Me, Disc is Disappointing in One Respect.......1999-12-26

There's so much to like about this CD - great piece of music, superbly played and well-conducted. James Buswell giving his all on the violin. A painful message to contemplate in those dark nights of the soul. It's all there -- BUT the mezzo-soprano solo. Sadly, Ms. Wheeler's voice is weak, at times to the point where one long-held note does not sound stable. She has her moments (where she sounds like the old British contralto Gladys Ripley, a voice of infinite sadness at "what-might-have-been"), but these are not enough to carry the day. It may be Ms. Wheeler had a bad cold the days they recorded (or got a Ukrainian version of Montezuma's revenge, who knows?). Well, given the price and unavailability of any other recording of the work (and the fact that the mezzo part is less than 50% of the symphony), I'd say buy it and experience the good music. (As you can see, no one else thought Ms. Wheeler was a liability.) But if at any time another recording comes along, you may want at least to compare the two.

A deep, powerful work.......1999-02-10

I have listened to other works of Benjamin Lees, but feel this is one of his finest achievements. The work is deep and powerful, and I found I definitely needed more than one listening to gain all the insight into its intricacies. The time spent was well worth it. This is a magnificent symphony and the composer should well be proud of what he has done. He has given another voice to the horrors of the Holocaust. The recording is terrific, well-played and sonically excellent. I realize I'm a layman, not a professional, but I would recommend this recording to anyone.

A master of tension and pathos.......1999-01-02

As I am allowed 1,000 words about this composition, I shall be brief. Mr. Lees has done in one symphony what has taken other composers in this century many compositions to attempt an overview of a period in history. He fills this wonderfully played recording with a constant tension of sounds that kept this listener with a tight grip on my chair. So many details in the Symphony. There is no point to delve. Oh well, the solo playing and singing, the texts all work. The orchestra, unknown to me, played with dedication as if they were living every moment. Give Mr. Lees credit for sounds of the truth that occurred in the darkest time in our century if not all history.

Track Listings:

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

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