Frost Symphony Orchestra & Chung Park - Visions of the East: Music of Alan Hovhaness (2006)

The diversity found within the four works by Alan Hovhaness recorded here (three for the first time) represents a microcosm of the dilemma posed by his oeuvre: a disconcerting juxtaposition of music of intoxicating beauty and originality with mediocre material of questionable taste. Some of the composer's work escapes this inconsistency; Symphony No. 2, "Mysterious Mountain," rightly his most popular and enduring piece, is exquisitely effective in its strangeness. The works here show the unmistakable influence of his intense study of the musics of India, Japan, and Hawaii. Ode to the Temple of Sound, which the composer describes as a "festive overture," begins with an inchoate, atmospheric haze of ethereal loveliness: shimmering, sparkling, mysterious sounds heard as if from a great distance. The remaining sections of the piece, however, are blandly pentatonic exercises in Orientalism, which, though doubtless are the result of the composer's serious study of the music of Japan, sound clunky when played by a western orchestra. Symphony No. 10, "Vahaken," was undertaken after the composer's immersion in Armenian and Indian musics. In the outer movements Hovhaness heavily relies on unison melody, often with little or no harmonic accompaniment, and on the occasional use of canon, one of his favored compositional devices. The piece at least has stylistic coherence, but it's not hugely compelling musically. Floating World and Meditation on Zeami are the most successful works on the album. Here the composer uses Japanese stylistic elements with considerable sophistication to create meaningful large structures and a variety of fascinating, complex textures. Chung Park conducts the Frost Symphony Orchestra, the student orchestra at the University of Miami, in committed performances. The playing may lack the polish of a professional orchestra, but is overall very fine. Centaur's sound is clear and clean.