What the critics are saying about Aaron Jay Kernis COLOR WHEEL, Symphony No. 4 'Chromelodeon' from Nashville Symphony and Giancarlo Guerrero
PRESS HIGHLIGHTS
Aaron Jay Kernis
Color Wheel, Symphony No. 4 ‘Chromelodeon’
Nashville Symphony
Giancarlo Guerrero (Naxos 2020)
All Music Guide
https://www.allmusic.com/album/MW0003378619
“The two Aaron Jay Kernis works on this album were recorded at different times, three years apart, by the Nashville Symphony and its conductor, Giancarlo Guerrero, but the pairing makes an unusual amount of sense. Both works were recorded at Nashville's acoustically strong Schermerhorn Symphony Center. More important, as Kernis argues in his notes, the two pieces, although different in mood and written 18 years apart, have a great deal in common. Both are colorful pieces with structures built on contrast. Color Wheel (2001) is a kind of concerto for orchestra, with numerous instrumental solos originally intended to showcase the players of the Philadelphia Orchestra; the work was composed for the orchestra's new Verizon Hall. The three-movement Symphony No. 4 (2018) is likewise color inspired; the "Chromelodeon" subtitle refers not to some antique musical instrument but to the chromatic scale (the word itself means "colorful"), to melody, and to "-eon," one who performs. The second movement begins with a riveting chorale that is less Baroque in its implications than the rather Handelian music that follows. Kernis, as ever, is consistently lively, and he's a perfect match for Guerrero, a specialist in just this kind of accessible music, extended and flexible in tonality but not atonal. The album would make a good starting point for listeners wanting to get at the essential stuff of this composer.”
Classical Candor
https://classicalcandor.blogspot.com/2020/08/kernis-color-wheel-cd-review.html
“How do the more modest Nashville forces measure up to the challenge of performing music written especially for the formidable Philadelphians? In my estimation, they do themselves proud… Bravo to Naxos for letting us hear interesting music we might never get to hear otherwise!”
Music Web International
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Sep/Kernis-sy4-8559838.htm
“The Nashville Symphony give confident, finely-tuned accounts of both works – one would certainly not argue if this was the Boston Symphony or the Philadelphia Orchestra itself; Giancarlo Guerrero has a convincing command of the fine symphony in particular. As for the recording, the Naxos sound opens out pleasingly at the loudest climaxes and allows Kernis’s detail to emerge unsullied. Naxos’s continued commitment to this composer is most commendable, and this premiere recording of his Symphony No 4 will surely win him new friends.”
Crescendo Magazine*
https://www.crescendo-magazine.be/musique-orchestrale-daaron-jay-kernis-la-passion-de-la-couleur/ *Translation:
“The music of Aaron Jay Kernis is seldomly played in The Netherlands, a faith he shares with many of his fellow citizens (countrymen) aside from the renowned Philip Glass and John Adams… The prestige of Kernis becomes evident when we look at ‘Color Wheel’: he wrote it in honor of Philadelphia Orchestra setting up its new residence in Verizon Hall in 2001. The commission was also special for Kernis personally, since he is from Philadelphia himself, and has visited many concerts in the old building. For this piece, Kernis was inspired by many things: the acoustics of the hall, his memories on the concerts he had visited in Philadelphia, but also by what we call a ‘kleurenwaaier’ (a color wheel), which the piece is named after. This is fitting, because the piece is very dynamic, effervescent, and colorful, in which Kernis alternates clear melodic and often rhythmic fragments with more abstract clouds of sounds. Like no one else, Kernis is able to fascinate the listener to his beautiful sound creations/findings. The same is true for his fourth symphony, which was named ‘Chromelodeon’, a combination of three words that according to Kernis refer to: “Chromatic, colorful, melodic music performed by an orchestra.”
“Beautiful pieces, beautifully played by Nashville Symphony, led by Giancarlo Guerrero.”
ConcertoNet
http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/cd.php?ID_cd=4557
“Nashville Symphony’s recording of two works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis comes with the sad news that they have canceled all live performances until July 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. So this superb recording of the Kernis Color Wheel and Chromelodeon, led by musical director-conductor Giancarlo Guerrero, is a chance to appreciate and support this vital orchestra and its furloughed musicians.”
“Precision sound engineering on this recording by Gary Call (Color Wheel) and Trevor Wilkinson (Chromelodeon) captures Nashville Symphony’s radiant interpretive artistry in the environs of the orchestra’s home, the acoustically fine Laura Turner Concert Hall. Let’s hope they get to return there soon.”
Music City Review
“Maestro Giancarlo Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony prove themselves up to the task. Ever the master of articulating the subtle reprise, Guerrero led the Nashville Symphony from the terrifying opening chords through the piece’s kind of circular form in which these chords (and motives derived there-from) return over and over again.”
Gapplegate Classical-Modern Review
https://classicalmodernmusic.blogspot.com/2020/06/aaron-jay-kernis-color-wheel-symphony.html
“‘Color Wheel’ gives us twenty-some-odd minutes of brightly shimmering concerted dazzle and depth for orchestra. It bursts forward like a rapidly soaring bird. The music has endless energy and expanded harmonic declamation one gladly surrenders to with a sense of surprising inevitability. Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony play this music like they were born to it… Anyone who loves music that is "ahead" in the most interesting senses will find in this volume a source of considerable interest. Kernis deserves your attention, especially this one! Highly recommended.”
Musical America
“Naxos and Kernis are very well served indeed by the Nashville Symphony under Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero, a conductor unafraid to make a splash, yet with a keen instinct for dynamic contrasts and an excellent ear for internal textures. Given the Nashville Orchestra’s recent bad news, with operations suspended, this might be the last we will hear from them for some time. Grab a copy now.”
For more information or to purchase click here.