Four recent works by Scott Lindroth, a 41-year-old composer on the faculty of Duke University, are offered on a new recording, "Human Gestures" (CD 808), from the invaluable CRI label. Clearly, being orginal for originality's sake is not Mr. Lindroth's purpose. Each of these works is steeped in some older music that fascinates him. Yet his ear and mind are so keen that he cannot help being fresh.
In "Light," which sets excerpts from a text by Hildegard von Bingen, the vocal line, sung here with shimmering presence by the mezzo-soprano D'anna Fortunato, is arching and urgent. But it is folded into an ecstatic instrumental piece where skittish lines chase one another impishly, and the game comes close to getting out of control. The Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble, conducted by Scott Wheeler, give a vibrant performance.
Mr. Lindroth consciously tries to pay homage to the past in his 1997 String Quartet. If you listen just to its surface, it may sound like Janacek or Ravel. But the music is filled with quirky touches and pulsating figures that display Mr. Lindroth's inventiveness. "Terza Rima" for oboe (Libby Van Cleve) and electronics finds Mr. Lindroth in a more spacious and roomy mode. The duo for Violins (played by Curtis Macomber and Veronica Macchia-Kadlubkiewicz) has echoes of the Italian Baroque, with its playful hocketing between the violins. This is engrossing music, but only for listeners who can forget about placing Mr. Lindroth in some compositional category.
American Record Guide
Scott Lindroth might not be a renowned composer, but these works are the product of a remarkable imagination and excellent craft. A former stuents at Eastman and Yale -- of Schwantner, Adler, and Druckman -- Lindroth now teaches at Duke University.
I cannot imagine a more absorbing Violin Duo than this one, which Lindroth says was influenced by a Rainer Maria Rilke elegy, the Italian baroque, and Janacek. Intricate, intense, full of wonderful sounds, the work draws incredible solo and ensemble virtuosity from violinists Veronica Macchia-Kadlubkiewicz and Curtis Macomber. The Quartet has a lyrical, sad-sounding Lento with air-brushed string sonorities and a slowly unfolding melody -- a beautiful sound-world that seems too short at seven minutes. It gives way to a 'Fluid, quietly urgent' second movement where intricate patterns are spun into sections either dissonant or lovely. Duke University's Ciompi Quartet gives this wonderful piece a superb reading. I will return to it often.
Terza Rima is for solo oboe with synthesizer. While I have grown disenchanted with the thinness and cheapness of electronically generated sound, I greatly enjoyed this ethereal, expressive, and interesting piece. Perhaps the oboe's thin tone is a good match for electronic sounds. Libby Van Cleve is the excellent oboist.