John McGuire: Lines at Dusk
Navona Records

There's much to recommend about this collection by John McGuire: his distinguished horn playing, of course, but also the variety in its compositional styles and arrangements. Much of it features him accompanied by pianist Kevin Chance, but there are also solo and trio pieces plus a performance by the Fortress Brass Quintet, of which the hornist is a founding member. Compositionally, Lines at Dusk ranges widely, from the austere poetry of Traci Mendel's three-part opener, Landscapes, Series II, to the boisterousness of Alexey Posin's closing Brass Quintet No. 1. McGuire's more than up to the challenges posed by the material. A veteran of numerous performances with orchestras throughout the U.S., he's been the recipient of many awards and is a dedicated spokesperson for the creation of new horn works. A graduate of the University of Alabama and Florida State University, McGuire's also served on multiple university faculties, including ones in Colorado, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, and Florida.

Three pieces by Mendel (b. 1964) introduce the recording, all of them pairing McGuire and Chance. Drawing for inspiration from Japanese landscape paintings and woodcuts and composed for the hornist, she infuses her Landscapes, Series II with mystery and exoticism. In a work whose melodies were influenced by Shakuhachi compositions, McGuire convincingly evokes the image of someone climbing a mountain to reach a shrine in the opening part, “Tall mountains, rising mist, and Shinto shrine”; contemplative by comparison, “Rain Falling on Rice Fields” proves an excellent showcase for the hornist's rich tone. Piano and horn engage in a to-and-fro that suggests the former embodying rain and the latter a farmer patiently waiting for the rain to stop, his mood tranquil and his thoughts adrift. In stark contrast to the serenity of the middle movement, “Tokyo in the Distance” conveys the tumult of the city and the anxiety of its denizens as they rush through their day. Mendel's programmatic bent continues with Lines at Dusk: Hymn to the Rising Moon, for which two poems by Percy Shelley and Bellini's aria “Casta Diva” are cited as inspirations. She's quick, however, to clarify that her piece stands apart from Bellini's, emphasizing that whereas his are florid, her melodies are direct and free of ornamentation. Even so, there's drama aplenty, with Chance's crashing chords finding their counterpoint in the hornist's declamations.

In contrast to the sober and even at times solemn character of the Mendel settings, the two-movement Batuque by James M. David (b. 1978) lightens the mood in a performance featuring McGuire and Chance joined by clarinetist Wesley Ferreira. The work's title refers to a style of music and dance from coastal West Africa and Brazil and emphasizes call-and-response techniques associated with the genre. Whereas the players in the first part, “Kantaderas” muse exploratively, they bring a buoyant, jazz-like swing to “Batukaderas” that's wholly appropriate to material relating to the polyrhythms of batukaderas (drummers). Solo performances of Intrada and Laudatio by Otto Ketting (1935-2012) and Bernhard Krol (1920-2013), respectively, afford horn aficionados ample opportunity to savour McGuire's technique; expertly paced, each captures his unerring pitch and control of dynamics, tempo, and articulation. Brass Quintet No. 1 by Posin (b. 1971) ends the release on a high, its three movements executed ravishingly by the Fortress Brass Quintet. McGuire sounds right at home alongside trumpeters Bradley Ulrich and Eric Yates, trombonist Bradley Kerns, and tubaist Michael Dunn, whether it be in the energized “Allegro Vivo,” ruminative “Intermezzo,” or spirited “Rondo-Tarantella.”

February 2020