Christopher Rouse: Flute Concerto; Symphony No. 2; Rapture (2009)

The music of American composer Christopher Rouse has expanded its reach beyond American audiences in search of neo-Romantic fare; here an American conductor, Alan Gilbert, takes it to a venerable European ensemble, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra with spectacular results. It is Rouse's handling of the orchestra that makes his music so stirring, and it's hard to imagine a program and performance that displays his strengths better than this one does. The release also fits into the series of what might be called New ... Read More

The music of American composer Christopher Rouse has expanded its reach beyond American audiences in search of neo-Romantic fare; here an American conductor, Alan Gilbert, takes it to a venerable European ensemble, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra with spectacular results. It is Rouse's handling of the orchestra that makes his music so stirring, and it's hard to imagine a program and performance that displays his strengths better than this one does. The release also fits into the series of what might be called New Virtuosity recordings by Swedish label BIS, with Israeli-Swedish flutist Sharon Bezaly delivering a splendid performance in Rouse's Flute Concerto (1993). In the outer movements the piece has a lot of very quick turns in an idiom slightly flavored by Irish folk music, a tinge that Bezaly, perhaps unexpectedly, absolutely nails. The central movement of the concerto is an extended lament, originally a response to a murder among teens in Britain, and the Symphony No. 2, written around... Read Less