Aaron Jay Kernis: Three Flavors (2015)

Aaron J. Kernis At First Hearing

As a young composer, Aaron J. Kernis (b. 1960) won the Pulitzer Prize and his music has received many other awards. His music has been frequently recorded, but this is my first experience with his work. Issued with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, this is the first recording in Naxos' "American Classics" series devoted to the music of Kernis. The CD consists of three world premiere recordings, the first for orchestra and piano, the second for violin and piano, and the third for solo piano.

I was immediately taken with this music, and I confirmed my response by reading some of the reviews of other reviewers of Kernis here on Amazon. Kernis' music is highly eclectic. Much of it has an immediate, heart-tugging late romantic appeal. The music also shows the heavy influence of American blues and jazz. Other parts of Kernis' music show the influence of Eastern music, minimalism, atonality, and more. Kernis' music has an individual touch in the way he juxtaposes traditional, easy to hear passages with sharper more challenging sections. He frequently manages this abruptly, without warning in the course of a single movement. The music seems to risk the extremes of commonplace on the one hand or academic music on the other hand. It seems to be a recipe for disjointedness but somehow the music appealingly hangs together.

The first and lengthiest work on this program is a concerto for orchestra and piano titled "Three Flavors". Pianist Andrew Russo joins the Albany Symphony Orchestra and conductor David Allan Miller. The pianist, orchestra, and conductor are known for their advocacy of new American music. Kernis first wrote this piece in 2002 but revised it substantially in 2013. The "three flavors" of this piece are the three movements, each of which is differs markedly from the other two. The opening movement features gongs and bells together with percussion. It is frequently angular and dissonant with a slow section towards the end. The bells made me think of a rapid-fire, astringent Alan Hovhaness without the mysticism. The second movement includes beautiful simple and lyrical writing for the piano sometimes adorned with frills. It is captioned "Lullaby-Barcarolle". The finale is a lengthy jazzy section, percussive, full of orchestral color and virtuosic piano writing. The three "flavors" follow the fast-slow-fast pattern of a traditional concerto, but it is hard to find cohesiveness in the movements. Nevertheless, this is a brash, delightful piece, and it works.

Kernis wrote "Two Movements (with Bells) in 2007 and dedicated the work to the memory of his father. James Ehnes performs on the violin with Andrew Russo on the piano. There are no "bells" in the score, but the piano part frequently has a bell-like texture, sometimes a deep and low sad bell and sometimes high tinkling bells. Although the opening movement is marked "Poco Adagio" it alternates between slow and fast sections with the latter predominating. The music changes tempo frequently and shifts in mood, although it has a predominantly mournful, reflective tone. Simple, lyrical passages alternate with dissonances and the texture changes from the simple to the dense without much prior announcement. The second movement, "Song for My Father", tends to be slower in tempo and embellishes upon Kernis' father's love for jazz and the blues. Kernis likes the work to a set of variations on a jazz standard. There is also some highly challenging writing in this movement and some big gargantuan chords for the piano near the end.

The final work on this CD is "Ballade out of the Blue(s) -- Superstar Etude No. 3" written in 2007 and performed by Andrew Russo. (Russo has had a highly varied career combining virtuosic skills at the piano with runs for public office, and work as the Director for Wealth Management for a financial services company.) This work opens with immediacy, with a distinctly blues passage, and it also shows the great influence of George Gershwin. Kernis embellishes some simple basic material with music of great complexity and virtuosity. The work captures the song and feeling of the blues with lengthy difficult passages that might be at home in their technical demands in a Chopin Etude. The piece is musically appealing and effective and made me want to hear the "Superstar Etudes" nos. 1 and 2.

I enjoyed getting to know the music of this contemporary American composer in this new "American Classics" CD. Naxos kindly send me a copy for review. Kernis and Russo collaborated on the liner notes to the CD, which are useful in approaching the music. At about 54 minutes, the CD is relatively short, which should enhance its appeal as an introduction to the music of Aaron Kernis.

Robin Friedman