SONY Classics announced the debut release of Philip Mann conducting Ensemble Bravura. Mann, who has previously recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Scottish National Orchestra, created ‘Finding Home’ with a vision of illustrating and celebrating the music of composers who unexpectedly found homes – musical and otherwise – in unexpected places. Central to this endeavor were the connections shared by American composers Aaron Copland, Michael Fine, and Aaron Jay Kernis in their Jewish and Russian heritage, while Sergei Prokofiev composed his beloved Overture on Hebrew Themes during his American residency at the behest of Russian Jewish immigrants to the United States. The result is an evocative album of music that spans more than a century but reveals timeless, shared inner bonds and immutable common inspirations.
Maestro Mann commissioned Fine’s “Concierto del Luna” for Flute and Guitar specifically for this recording. Flutist, Alexa Still and guitarist Jason Vieaux appear in the worldpremiere as soloists. Utilizing a common and favored pairing, flute and guitar, Michael Fine scored a first-of-its-kind concerto for chamber orchestra.
Michael Fine wrote A Time of Uncertainties in an airport lounge in the United States. He was flying back earlier than planned, home to The Netherlands, after learning that his wife had entered a hospital’s intensive care unit, dangerously ill. The doctor he spoke with was not optimistic. He finished the piece moments before the flight was called. Happily, his wife made a full recovery. Fine had been attending a premiere of a piece conducted by Philip Mann when his wife became ill. This world premiere recording of A Time of Uncertainties in conducted by Mann with musicians from his Ensemble Bravura. A Time of Uncertainties became the middle movement of Three Orchestral Essays.
Making its recording debut on SONY Classics, Ensemble Bravura, is an innovative group of soloists and versatile artists committed to exceptional performances of masterworks, championing the music of living composers, and collaborating with leading artists. Conducted by founding artistic director, Philip Mann, Ensemble Bravura is led by Naumberg laureate and concert artist, Grace Park. Members appear regularly on the world’s stages as soloists, are winners of numerous international competitions, and perform as principal musicians in great orchestras such as the London and Chicago Symphonies, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, and organizations like the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, NY.
The title “Finding Home” is a direct reference to the Fourth Movement of Michael Fine’s Suite for Strings. It is a work of sumptuous beauty that conjures a longing to arrive in a place of comfort and belonging. This sentiment was something experienced by all four composers on this album, and indeed what so many solo musicians yearn for in our transient, international lives. This unspoken common experience of Ensemble Bravura members was laid bare during an intensely moving recording session of Finding Home, and our album title was immediately evident.
Michael Fine may not be familiar to many as a composer but for three decades he worked very successfully as a record producer for some of the industry’s biggest names. Then in 2013, aged 63, Fine turned his hand to composition, since when he has amassed a significant body of works. To date, these have included several concertos, a suite for strings, three string quartets, a chamber concerto, and – as the title of this disc indicates – five compositions for solo wind instrument and string quartet written between 2015 and 2018.
Fine has cited Debussy, Ravel, Delius and Vaughan Williams as important influences. Add to the list Britten, Shostakovich and middle-period Stravinsky and a picture soon emerges of a composer, style and aesthetic rooted in the neoclassical past. One need look no further than the sprightly opening of his impressive Quintet for bassoon and strings for evidence – solo instrument vigorously darting about in its high tenor range, playfully coaxing the string accompaniment into a game of call-and-response. Graceful shapes and flowing lines feature in the Quintet for flute and string quartet, with both works benefiting from assured performances by Alice K Dade and Fei Xie on flute and bassoon respectively.
Composers in the crosshairs of our attention