Jan Järvlepp: Three Stories by Hans Christian Andersen and Other Pieces for Children
Navona Records

Any listener charmed by Skylark's Once Upon a Time and A Christmas Carol and the English Symphony Orchestra's Fiddles, Forests and Fowl Fables should find Jan Järvlepp's latest Navona Records release as appealing. With actor Rob Dean's narration bringing to life Three Stories by Hans Christian Andersen and the Stanislav Vavrínek-conducted Janácek Philharmonic and Moravian Philharmonic Orchestras augmenting the texts with sterling instrumental playing, Järvlepp's release is amply rewarding, especially when the story works are supplemented by two other pieces, Follow The Leader and Suite For Strings.

After completing his doctorate in composition and twentieth century music at the University of California in San Diego, the Ottawa native returned home in 1981 to become a member of the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra and establish himself as a freelance cellist, composer, teacher, and recording technician. Over the decades, Järvlepp's composing style has evolved into a personalized neo-tonal form that's both formally sophisticated yet accessible and resolutely open to the influence of pop, folk, and world music. He's also in excellent hands with Dean in the storyteller role. He's not only amassed a lengthy list of theatre—on Broadway and off—and TV show credits, the Yale School of Drama graduate has recorded nearly 1000 audiobooks. While Järvlepp calls Ottawa home, all three works on the album were recorded in the Czech Republic, though Dean's narration was laid down separately in Burbank, California.

Continuing the Ottawa association, Three Stories by Hans Christian Andersen was created for the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival at the request of its founding artistic director, Julian Armour, who asked the composer after the 2005 festival if he'd consider writing some children's music for the following year's presentation. After successfully completing "The Little Match Girl," Järvlepp decided to offset its tragic tale with livelier ones, "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" and "The Emperor's New Clothes" the result. Introducing the project is "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," with Dean's expressive reading of the text beautifully complemented by majestic strings. Structurally, the work alternates between two presentations: when voice is present, the orchestra adopts a restrained supporting role to reinforce the story content; when Dean's not speaking, the strings take the lead, at times delivering a punchy, march-like theme and elsewhere romantic and dramatic parts. Järvlepp's design seamlessly conjoins text and music, with the luscious latter consistently amplifying the twists and turns of the story. Adding to the performance's appeal, Dean uses different voices for the characters, with the Water Rat, for example, catching the ear for its snarl. As stated, "The Little Match Girl" occupies a forlorn centre to the trilogy in its recounting of the girl's woeful fate, and the composer's elegiac music is again complementary to the sombre character of the story. Järvlepp animates the enduring "The Emperor's New Clothes" with regal writing that effectively matches the wry hilarity of the story. In all three cases, one visualizes listeners captivated by Dean's smooth narration and Järvlepp's melodically enticing and texturally rich music.

The album's other two works have ties to Ottawa too, with Follow The Leader originating from the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and University of Ottawa's Making Music Project, and the four-part Suite For Strings written for the Ottawa Youth Orchestra Academy's Intermediate String Orchestra. The title of Follow The Leader derives from suggestions made by the music students Järvlepp consulted before creating the work that he include contrasts between different sections of the band and question-and-answer parts in the piece. At three minutes, it's over quickly, but the piece's spirited melodies and colourful percussion, horn, and woodwind timbres make it a memorable if fleeting ride. Each movement in Suite For Strings is designed to promote a particular skill, with “Changing Times” naturally geared towards helping students develop facility in moving between time signatures. Whereas the stabbing repetition of keening four-note figures lends “Shifting Cargo” a rather Herrmann-esque quality (think Psycho), the adagio-like “A Thoughtful Moment” is naturally the work's most pensive movement and the jubilant “Dance of the Monkey Man” its most rhythmically driven.

May 2022