The Horn Call (Journal of the International Horn Society); October 2019
Recording Reviews:
A Warm Day in Winter. Laurel B. Ohlson, horn; Alice Kogan Weinreb, Aaron Goldman, Carole Bean, and Leah Arsenault Barrick, flutes; Nicholas Stovall, oboe; Paul Cigan, clarinet; Truman Harris, Sue Heineman, and Steven Wilson, bassoons; Audrey Andrist, piano; Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, Sylvia Alimena, conductor. Naxos, 8.559858
Truman Harris: Rosemoor Suite for woodwind quintet; Aulos Triptych for four flutes and piano; Concertino for Horn and Chamber Orchestra; Flowers for woodwind quintet; Sonata for Two Bassoons and Piano; Concertino for Flute and Chamber Orchestra.
All of the pieces on this album were composed by Truman Harris (b. 1945) between 2001 and 2015 for his colleagues in the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC. Harris has a very impressive resume as both a bassoonist and a composer. He was a member of the NSO for more than 40 years. His music has been performed by the NSO under the baton of Leonard Slatkin, and he was the composer-in-residence for the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra from 2004–2014. He writes in a style that is very engaging; it sounds modern and fresh, and is accessible to a wide audience.
Laurel Bennert Ohlson has been the Associate Principal horn of the National Symphony Orchestra since 1980. On this album, she plays on two pieces for woodwind quintet, and she is the soloist for the Concertino for Horn and Chamber Orchestra. All of the wind players are members of the National Symphony Orchestra; this is chamber music playing of the highest caliber!
Rosemoor Suite for woodwind quintet (2015) is in five movements. Each has a descriptive title and is meant to depict scenes from the composer’s old neighborhood. Harris writes subtly for the horn, especially in the context of the woodwind quintet, where the horn is too often treated like the big, clumsy oaf. The horn parts here are challenging, and just as interesting as the more agile woodwind instruments, yet they remain hornistic. The fourth movement, Charleston, has some especially fun, showy parts for the horn. All of these movements are effective at telling their stories.
The other piece for woodwind quintet is Flowers (2006), which is comprised of six very brief movements totaling less than eight minutes. Each movement is named after a flower, and the notes say: “These short movements describe human reaction to six different flowers, rather than attempting to characterize the flowers themselves.” The fifth movement, Kudzu, features the horn in a short, menacing march. Overall, this is a delightful work that is sure to please any audience. The movements are full of character.
Concertino for Horn and Chamber Orchestra (2001) begins with a heroic solo fanfare that is reminiscent of the opening of Strauss’s Don Juan. Although the title suggests a shorter, lighter piece, this is a substantial work lasting over 16 minutes, which requires technical and musical mastery from the soloist.
The second movement, the longest of the three, is titled Arias and Recitatives: Andante. Indeed, it is a beautiful and dramatic operatic showcase for the horn soloist. Ohlson makes the horn sing with gorgeous lyrical lines and a tasteful vibrato. The third movement is a short, playful rondo, with plenty of quick running notes, syncopated accents, and acrobatic leaps.
Ohlson’s horn playing on this album is impeccable, elegant, and a joy to listen to. Her tone is warm, rich, and even-sounding throughout all registers. It never sounds forced, even in the highest tessitura, and she has the utmost smoothness in her slurs. This recording is highly recommended, both for the delightful compositions and inspiring performances.
Travis Bennett, Professor of Horn, Western Carolina University
MaestroSteve
"The album opens with a delightful five-movement woodwind quintet, Rosemoor Suite (2015). This is a chance to enter into Harris’s musical style which is a blend of light neo-classicism and modernism blending the likes of Francaix and Poulenc with Hindemith. One gets a sense of the composer’s wit in the 'On the Trampoline' movement with thematic material recurring through the work. A filmic sense is also part of the work with the way certain instruments come into the foreground to be spotlighted."
"The music has a great sense of wit and humor throughout with idiomatic writing for each instrument."
Ear Relevant
"The entire program is graced by a winsome ease of manner, is always engaging, and benefits from a composer whose orchestral experience enables him to write for all the instruments with idiomatic confidence. All of the music is grateful to the players." --Karl Henning
American Record Guide
"We can’t pick out standouts. It’s all to a quality, though the opening piece Rosemoor Suites captures the imagination straight away. It’s all evocative; there are moments of modernism but Mr H is always thinking of his audience, so there’s nothing even remotely scary on here." --Jem Condiffe
Gramophone
"Indeed, the appeal of this music to wind musicians everywhere can hardly be doubted."
Music Web
"There is a beguiling humanity to the programme. It is invidious to pick out a favourite, but I very much enjoyed the Aulos Triptych for four flutes and piano, whose three movements, ‘Light and Color’, ‘Dreams of Fancy Places’ and ‘A Warm Day in Winter’ are lyrical and very evocative." --Michael Wilkinson
Music Web International
"This is a real find for those who, like me, approach contemporary classical and jazz with extreme caution." --Brian Wilson
Records International
"The composer’s idiom is tonal and neoclassical, with impeccable craftsmanship and a deft, light touch, often with touches of humor."
David Denton (for Naxos)
"Born in 1945, the present disc is dedicated to the music he has composed in the Twenty-first century, and though it has its roots in the post-Copland era, it avoids today’s experimentalist American music in its likeable disposition."
Art Music Lounge
"American composer and bassoonist Truman Harris (b. 1945) is one of those writers whose work can best be described as light and witty without being mundane or cloying. It’s essentially tonal with harmonic twists and turns, the rhythms are generally straightforward, but at no time is any of it predictable." --Lynn René Bayley
InfoDad.com
"All six Harris works on a new Naxos CD are interestingly scored and written to intrigue and challenge the performers – indeed, the players on the disc are the ones for whom Harris wrote the pieces. But all the works also have much to recommend them simply as music and, on that basis, will appeal to listeners who enjoy woodwinds (which dominate these pieces) and are open to hearing some unusual instrumental combinations."
Amazon.com may have additional reviews of Truman's new CD here.
Older Reviews:
The Washington Post
"Eclipse Chamber Orchestra"
October 24, 2007
"Two contemporary pieces highlighted the opening of the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra's 16th season on Sunday, with both composers present. Largely made up of National Symphony Orchestra members (including conductor Sylvia Alimena), the Eclipse is one of the Washington area's leading chamber ensembles.
Flutist Alice Kogan Weinreb gave a stunning performance as soloist in Harris's capricious essay. Written for Weinreb (also a member of the NSO), the piece bubbles over with that whimsical wit typical in the flute's bag of tricks -- such as its capacity for cavorting throughout its range and for fleet tonguing in quasi-avian protagonist, often favoring the collective, cooling timbres of woodwind quintet writing -- the flute coupled with clarinet, oboe, horn and bassoon."
-- Celia Porter
The Washington Post
"Capitol Woodwind Quintet Romps Through the Flowers"
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
"The Capitol Woodwind Quintet conjured a good deal of sunshine on a rain-soaked Sunday at Temple Micah. The music on the program -- all rarely heard works and all worth the airing -- may have been stylistically diverse, but the selections shared a playfulness and breezy humor that complemented their expert construction and virtuosic writing.
Subtlest of the compositions was "Flowers," a 2005 piece by local composer -- and the quintet's bassoonist -- Truman Harris. Its six miniature movements, each dedicated to a type of flower, don't aim to aurally describe color and scent so much as they personify each blossom with sly wit in an appealingly off-kilter, neoclassical style (mock heroics and flatulent pratfalls for the "Pansy" movement, a quiet but inexorable little march for "Kudzu," etc.). It's a charmer, and it made this listener anxious to hear more of Harris's work."
-- Joe Banno
The Washington Post
"Eclipse Chamber Orchestra"
May 1, 2001
The Eclipse Chamber Orchestra premiered Truman Harris's cheerful Concertino for Horn Sunday afternoon at Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church in Bethesda. The work is conservative in the best sense, unabashedly melodic and cleverly assembled to challenge but not overwhelm the horn soloist. Aside from a few too-obvious sequences (you know where the music is headed well before it gets there), the piece has real charm. The last movement is a buoyant romp that took soloist Laurel Bennert Ohlson to the edge of her considerable abilities, but she played with firm technical command and obvious affection for Harris's ingenuity; the orchestra under Sylvia Alimena supported well." -- Ronald Broun