Jonathan Leshnoff: Symphony No. 4 “Heichalos” / Guitar Concerto / Starburst
Naxos Records

With three diverse pieces presented, this fifth release on the Naxos American Classics imprint devoted to the music of Jonathan Leshnoff provides a superb overview of the American composer's style and an excellent introduction for those encountering his work for the first time. Acclaimed guitarist Jason Vieaux guests as a soloist with the Nashville Symphony (conducted by music director Giancarlo Guerrero) on the world premiere recording of Leshnoff's Guitar Concerto, accompanied on the release by his two-movement Symphony No. 4 “Heichalos” and Starburst, a single-movement piece often used as an energizing concert opener.

That the fourth symphony arguably plumbs the deepest emotional depths of the three is consistent with the fact that it was written for (and performed with) the Violins of Hope, a collection of restored instruments played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust (more precisely, the composition was commissioned by the Nashville Symphony for its Violins of Hope Nashville community initiative). Restored by Israeli luthiers Amnon and Avshi Weinstein, the violins, survivors of concentration camps and pogroms and symbols of resilience and survival, are featured for the first time on a commercial album with this Leshnoff release. Speaking about the symphony, he sees “the Violins of Hope as the physical embodiment of Jewish survival. And I see my symphony as a representation of the spiritual and ethical embodiment of this Jewish survival.” No wonder, then, that the breathtaking twenty-two-minute work should assume the character of a wrenching meditation. Don't let its prosaic movement titles fool you either: as titles, “Fast” and “Slow” might seem like afterthoughts, but the material itself is hardly lacking in profundity.

The first part opens dramatically, the horns declaiming triumphantly before the onset of agitated strings accelerates the pace and intensity. Turmoil is intimated by the music's urgency, yet moments of calm emerge, too, to impose order and stability. At thirteen minutes the longer of the two movements, “Slow” is a classic Adagio in its slow, graceful, and alternately anguished and elegiac unfurl, the listening experience intensified by the awareness that the performance was realized using the Violins of Hope. Without wishing to suggest Leshnoff's music is overly derivative, don't be surprised if you find yourself thinking of Shostakovich and Mahler at various moments during the symphony.

A better classical guitarist than Grammy-winner Vieaux would be hard to find for the Guitar Concerto, which formally satisfies in its movements' fast-slow-fast design. Though Leshnoff had previously written twelve concertos, this one, originally a commission from the Baltimore Symphony and Marin Alsop, was complicated by the fact that he doesn't play guitar and so immersed himself in studying the existing literature before crafting it. In this performance with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Vieaux's front and center throughout, the virtuoso even admitting that the work's technical challenges forced him to practice the piece for performance more than any before and even made him a better guitarist. Still, as dazzling and exhilarating as the framing “Maestoso” and “Finale” movements are, it's the moving “Adagio” that speaks most powerfully on behalf of the composer. Performed at a stately tempo, its material exudes tenderness, the combination of strings and guitar here providing moments of exquisite pleasure.

While Starburst is, as mentioned, often used as a concert opener, the vibrant piece functions just as effectively as a set-closer. Conceived by the composer as a “sparkling display of the infinite energy of the cosmos” and premiered in 2010, Starburst is also noteworthy for how deftly Leshnoff packs so many details and sequences into its tight eight-minute frame. Though the release's multi-movement works are the key ones, all three are marked by lyricism, tonality, and structural cohesiveness, and though his powerful music communicates with immediacy, its integrity isn't diminished by accessibility. Each is a consummate work whose inclusion would help distinguish any conceivable concert programme.

June 2019